FORT WORTH – What’s for dinner tonight?
Attend the Dinner Tonight! Healthy Cooking School in Fort Worth on Sept. 25, and you’ll have a choice of answering that question with a delicious fish or chicken dinner, said Tiffany Traylor, family consumer sciences agent with the Cooperative Extension Program for Tarrant County.
And whichever meal you choose, it will cost you pennies on the dollar for what a restaurant meal would cost and be more healthful to boot, Traylor said.
“Dinner Tonight is basically a way to reach out to the community to give them ideas for healthy, quick and inexpensive recipes,” she said.
The school will be conducted from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. at Tarrant County College, Trinity River Campus in the fourth floor of the Trinity Building, 300 Trinity Campus Circle, Traylor said. Cost of the school is $20, which will include refreshments, a Dinner Tonight! cookbook, gift bag and a chance to win one of several door prizes.
“Door prizes will include a Kitchen Aide mixer, a gift card to Williams Sonoma, and a gift card to Central Market for cooking classes,” Traylor said. “There will be two menus presented. Menu one will be colorful chicken quesadillas, nopalitos with tomatoes and onions, no-guilt guacamole, and caramel flan. Menu two will be smoky mustard salmon, oven-roasted vegetables, lemon couscous and angel food cake with honey blackberries.”
Preregistration is required – no funds will be accepted at the door, Traylor said. To register call 877-847-9355, or visit TexasHealth.org/Dinner-Tonight .
The school is one of many being conducted across the state by Texas A&M University-Prairie View Cooperative Extension and the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program, she said.
The Dinner Tonight! recipes were developed by AgriLife Extension and Cooperative Extension family consumer science agents across the state, according to Traylor.
Family consumer sciences agents are generally trained in nutrition as well as family economics, and the recipes are designed to be nutritious and economical, as well as adult and child pleasing, she said.
Cooking at home, rather than depending upon takeout or prepared, microwavable meals, is a way to bring families together, she noted.
The statewide Dinner Tonight! also produces weekly how-to cooking videos. Hundreds of videos are available http://healthyliving.tamu.edu.
“Our event is an extension of that, using face-to-face instruction instead of online as many people prefer to learn that way,” Traylor said.
The face-to-face format allows participants to ask questions and get immediate answers, she said.
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