A series of “Cooking Matters” classes for kids ages 10-14, sponsored by Healthy Schools Healthy Communities (HSHC) and the Texas County Health Department, concluded Monday, April 22 at the Lone Star Annex in downtown Houston.
The Monday night series began March 11.
“The kids had a great time and learned a lot,” said HSHC community wellness coordinator and class organizer Earlene Stoops.
In their final gathering, participants prepared tuna melt, chocolate cake and spicy bean dip with vegetables, Stoops said. In a drawing, Emily Young won the grand prize of a smoothie machine, while Brody Adkison and Ethan Morton won Frisbees, Aliyah Hager, Zoey Sutton, Sabrina Blair, Kendal Johnson and Hannah Ennis all won water bottles (all provided by HSHC).
Since each participant attended at least four of the classes, the University of Missouri Extension presented them with a certificate of completion, a Cooking Matters bag and a cutting board. Hayes, Ennis and Johnson attended every class, Stoops said.
MU Extension representatives taught the class, supplied the goods to make the meals and sent the ingredients home to make one thing off of each night’s menu.
Each participant wrote a paragraph describing what they enjoyed the most about the classes.
•Brody Adkison: “The thing I like most about Cooking Matters is trying the new food we make. Other things I like is making the food.”
•Sabrina Blair: “I like being hands-on and cooking with the others. I also liked how each week we got to cook in a different area.”
•Hannah Ennis: “The Cooking Matters class is a great program for kids to learn how to cook healthy recipes that are easy to follow. My favorite food that we made in class was whole wheat macaroni and cheese with broccoli. My favorite desert was the pumpkin muffins. I have really enjoyed my time working on the different recipes and I will miss not doing the classes every week. Thank you to the instructors that taught us how to correctly make the recipes.”
•Aliyah Hager: “What I liked about cooking class is working with kids my own age, having someone there to help and eating what we made. I had fun.”
•Kendal Johnson: “What I enjoyed the most about the cooking classes was that we all learned that just because something is healthy doesn’t mean that it doesn’t taste good. I really liked when we had the competition. I think it would be fun if we got to look through the cookbook and help decide what to make the next week. Overall, I had a great time at the cooking classes.”
•Ethan Morton: “I like chicken and it was fun to make. I like to get my hands messy. I liked making fruit water. I liked cutting potato sweet fries.”
•Zoey Sutton: “Cooking is important to me, because I like to help my family. I love being able to cook for myself when they are busy. I like to cook, because I like to make pretty things that taste good. I am so glad I got to learn about some new foods in class.”
•Emily Young: “We learned how to and what ingredients to use to eat healthy. We had a great time and fun with my friends. God loves you more than we know.”
Stoops said cooking classes for kids ages 8 to 10 will soon be announced on the County HSHC Facebook page for Texas and Howell counties. The classes are limited to eight participants.
For more information, call Stoops at 417-967-4131.