Creative, healthy recipe sends Tucson girl to White House

From zoodles, that is.

Nia’s recipe featuring zoodles — or zucchini-based noodles — was selected as a winner of the nationwide Healthy Lunchtime Challenge. Fifty-five children ages 8 to 12 from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and four territories will join first lady Michelle Obama for a Kids’ “State Dinner” at the White House on July 10. The challenge coincides with the first lady’s “Let’s Move!” initiative.

“Basically what I did is I put zucchini into this spiralizer, and it makes noodles, and you can cook it or eat it raw,” Nia said. “Then, I made an avocado pistachio pesto to go on top.”

And voilà! Arizona’s winning recipe: Oodles of Zoodles with Avocado Pistachio Pesto.

This won’t be the Thomas family’s first brush with the first lady. Nia’s 14-year-old sister Haile Thomas has met Michelle Obama on five occasions — at a Partnership for a Healthier America event, during her own trip to the Kids’ “State Dinner” as a winner, at a State of the Union address and then on a return trip to the Kids’ “State Dinner” to introduce the first lady. Both Haile and Nia also met the first lady at the airport in Tucson during the president’s 2012 campaign.

But this is Nia’s first trip to the White House.

“We wanted this so badly for her,” said Charmaine Thomas, the girls’ mother. Since discovering she was a finalist, Nia pestered her mom until the results came.

When they found out, “I was just like screaming and almost crying,” said Nia, whose father, Hugh Thomas, will escort her to Washington, D.C.

With almost 1,000 entries, the contest emphasized affordable but healthy dishes that included fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein and low-fat dairy, said press materials.

This is nothing new to Nia, whose family has long emphasized healthy eating, initially as a way to combat her father’s diabetes. The family began following a vegan diet last summer. When Nia was 5 or 6, the sisters started a cooking show online.

And now she has her own foodie plans — someday Nia intends to become a chef or open a cafe.

“It’s just fun to see what you can create and if it’s really good or not and what you can do to improve it,” Nia said. “It’s just a fun thing to do in the kitchen.”