North Texas Girl Scouts test healthy recipes for kids' recipe book

Dallas, Texas – No fooling – this April 1, Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas is teaming up with Medical City Healthcare’s nationally recognized kids teaching kids® Healthy Lifestyles program to prepare, taste and select the kid-friendly and nutritious recipes that will be included in the 2025 recipe book.

The United Way of Metropolitan Dallas is also partnering to host this year’s annual recipe contest event, where Junior Girl Scouts, ages 9-11, will prepare, sample and rank snack recipes, like “Pizza Pow*” and “Web Slinger Slush.” Those delicious recipes, created by culinary high school students from across Texas, will be included in the annually updated digital cookbook to be used in the next school year’s 21-Day Snacking Challenge. Last year’s top winning recipe, “Spicy Mango Colada,” came from Richardson ISD.

The kids teaching kids® 21-Day Snacking Challenge was developed to help kids form life-long healthy eating habits through hands-on learning. In addition to learning healthy snacking habits, students also have access to wellness and activity videos in the recipe book for well-rounded suggestions of healthy habits. About 30,000 elementary students from 27 Texas school districts are participating in the 2024-2025 school year program.

As part of the April 1 recipe selection event, a Medical City Healthcare therapist will help lead a positive Mental Wellness Patch session for the participating Girl Scout judges. Championing mental wellness is an ongoing community engagement priority of Medical City Healthcare and its parent company, HCA Healthcare. The patch program for mental health education was developed through a grant of $1.38 million from the HCA Healthcare Foundation to Girl Scouts of the USA.