Recipe for success

By KRISTI ALBERTSON

The Daily Inter Lake

One hundred apron-clad children learning to cook may sound like a recipe for disaster, but Katie Janetski insists "Kids in the Kitchen" was fun and educational, if not quite easy as pie.

The Seventh-day Adventist Churches of Columbia Falls and Kalispell recently hosted a week-long program at Whitefish Central School, incorporating cooking lessons for kids age 5 to 13 into learning about a healthy lifestyle. The program focused on the child as a whole, Janetski said, explaining that total health (physical, mental and spiritual) is a tenet of Seventh-day Adventism.

"We just wanted to encourage better health, better eating habits in Whitefish," she said. "So we came up with this program and thought we'd go ahead and do it."

Volunteers expected about 60 kids to show up. Instead, more than 100 came every day. Each child was supposed to receive a handmade cloth apron, which meant Janetski had some last-minute sewing to do.

"Next year, we're going to require pre-registration," she said. "I made 40-some aprons in three days."

Each day began at 10 a.m. with a general assembly. Kids sang songs, heard stories and watched a demonstration of what they'd be doing in the kitchen later, "so they'd kind of know what to expect," Janetski said.

Next, the kids split into seven groups. Five- and 6-year-olds had their own kitchens; older kids were spread over five more kitchens.

"Everyone had their own kitchen space to work in," she said. "And every child really got to participate in every stage."

On Monday, kids learned how to prepare healthy breakfast foods, including granola, fruit smoothies and granola parfaits. They made garden burgers, tofu mayonnaise and fries Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the young chefs made a full meal: a lentil nut loaf, macaroni and cheese and whole-wheat bread.

"At all of our meals, we try to encourage whole grains," Janetski said, "so they made whole-wheat bread."

They learned to make desserts Thursday, including almond sheet cookies and an "out of this world" tofu cheesecake with berry sauce.

For the most part, the kids were willing to sample their healthy meals, Janetski said.

"There were actually a lot of the kids eating everything we made," she said, adding that the youngest kids were most willing to try the dishes. "The older ones were a little more challenging.

"Some of them didn't like the things that we made - and that's OK - and some of them learned to appreciate the different cuisine than they're used to."

Kids in the Kitchen culminated Friday, when the children hosted a banquet for their parents in the Whitefish Central School gymnasium. They learned how to set tables and decorated each one with fruit-and-vegetable art, including turtles made from apples, strawberries and raisins, and octopi with potato bodies and banana arms.

When their parents arrived, the kids served each course and kept water glasses full. It wasn't an easy task; the gym was packed.

"I'm sure we had 300 parents in that gymnasium," Janetski said. "They thought it was great."

The kids did, too, she said, and most left much more comfortable in the kitchen than they'd been a few days earlier.

"Some of them kind of were familiar with their surroundings," she said. "There were others who didn't know their way around the kitchen but knew their way around a lot more when they were done."

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com