Cooking Classes

Cooking at Saevon Brewer's house is always a family affair.

"Me and my mom always be in the kitchen cooking and then my dad will come in and be like 'hooray, hooray,'" said the 15-year-old.

When he's on his own, however, Saevon said he tends to make mistakes with his meals.

"When I cook I put too much salt in or something like that," said Saevon. That's why he's taking a cooking class at East High School. The after school program teaches kids basic healthy cooking skills. Today they're making Jamaican beef patties.

"You know what ingredients you're putting into it, and how it's being cooked and making sure that it is healthy for you," said Shirley Rivera, the class instructor.

One way to cook up a healthy meal is to add vegetables to recipes that typically don't call for them

"Macaroni and Cheese and Broccoli," said Shirley. "That way, they love the mac and cheese but they'll also eat the broccoli. "

Shirley Rivera says another tip is to have kids cut the veggies into smaller pieces. That masks the taste while maintaining nutrition. And, always mix them together with another food.

"They would normally not eat that. If I showed it too them, they would sit there and say 'I'm not eating that,' but because I'm going to put it in the meat, they're going to eat it and never know that I put it in there," said Rivera.

That's a recipe for success.