Kids in Wexford County are being challenged to get creative with their cooking.
A camp through the MSU Extension surprises the young cooks with ingredients to whip up a meal.
9&10’s Lauren Scafidi explains how the program is changing lives, one recipe at a time.
Kids show up to a whole table to surprise, healthy ingredients — then they get down to business.
They crowd around the table to see what kinds of recipes they can create with what’s in front of them.
The ingredients are all relatively healthy to help promote a better, healthier lifestyle for kids.
“If you eat healthy it does good things for you and your body so it’s important to eat healthy,” said Idaline.
Recipes they’ve made in the past are vegan tacos and chicken salad. They’ve already made some recipes today and now we moved onto tuna salad.
Their instructor, Joanne, moves around the room to offer advice.
They’re busy making as many ingredients, as many recipes as they can,” Joanne said. “Some of them will be able to finish one recipe but most of them will be able to finish two or three.”
Busy opening cans, cutting onions, and putting the finishing touches on their apple peanut butter bites.
Idaline’s favorite part?
“Learning new things about food and then also like teamwork, working with new people and also learning how to make new things,” she said.
Before they put their creative minds and crafty hands to work, they learn a few lessons.
For example, how to properly cut with a knife, tasting the difference between regular and non-fat mozzarella cheese, even looking at a nutrition label using cotton balls to put into perspective how many grams of fat are in a given food.
They’ve even taken some of their lessons and creations home with them.
“We started making some of the recipes and we tell our mom well we really liked this one we tried making this one,” Isabel said.
Summer classes to make dishes like these are all over but registration for fall will begin soon.
To register in Cadillac, call Joanne Benthum at 231-779-9480, or in Lake City, call Denise Glide at 231-839-5847.
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