PLAYING WITH
YOUR FOOD
Kids learn about good
nutrition and have fun doing it
By Dave Woods
Stacey Clair likes to have fun with her food.
"We do fun stuff on a regular basis," the operations director
for Northwest Arkansas Village Inn said. "When we serve kids
pancakes sometimes they are in the shape of our mascot Bucky
the Bear."
On a recent evening, Official Kids Mag brought a handful of
hungry kids together at Village Inn in Fayetteville to sample a
variety of hearty pancakes and try their hands at getting artistic
with their dinner. The crew at Village Inn put together a couple
of tables of sliced and diced fruits, grains and edible decorating
supplies and challenged the kids to have fun, eat healthy and
decorate their pancakes.
"Today I wanted to use the kids creativity to see what they
would come up with using everything we have in our kitchen,"
she explained. "We have fruits and grains and different kinds of
healthy alternatives with the pancakes. We use our multigrain
pancakes instead of regular pancakes and use sugar free syrup."
Cooking, Stacey explained, is her passion.
"I love to cook," she said. "When kids don't like things I cook
it forces you to go back to the kitchen and be more creative and
find something else. I've got kids who are picky eaters in my
family. It's kind of like my own cooking challenge to go into the
kitchen and find something that they will eat."
Stacey said kids always surprise her with their take on new
foods and with their willingness to try new things.
"I was surprised," she said of our pancake eating cadre's
chagrin at sugar free syrup. "They weren't into it in the
beginning. When they tried it a lot of them liked the multigrain
pancakes and sugar free syrup better."
While cooking and decorating your food is a good time, eating
healthy and following a good diet is important, too.
"Cooking is fun and there is no limit to the creativity you can
express," Stacey said. "It can truly be an art form. Food can
fuel your brain and give you more energy and make is easier to
study."
Well said, Stacey. Well said.
TIPS
"One of the things to try to express to kids is to eat the colors
of the rainbow. If you eat the colors of the rainbow that usually is
good for getting all different types of nutrients and vitamins."
– Stacey Clair, Village Inn
OFFICIALKIDSMAG.COM
KIDS
IN
THE
KITCHEN
36 • Off icialKidsMag.com • FEBRUARY 2019
