PEORIA, Ill. (AP) - Eleven-year-old Maggie Smith of Peoria is headed to the White House as the statewide winner of a healthy recipe contest associated with First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! Initiative.
She will join children from around the country for a "Kid's State Dinner" on July 14. Smith calls her winning dish "West Wing chicken with Secret Service noodles."
It pairs lightly breaded, pan-cooked chicken breast with strands of zucchini, yellow squash, carrots and asparagus topped by homemade marinara sauce.
The girl's aunt encouraged her to enter the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge.
Smith says she cooked it "three times in order to get it just right."