Melanie Porter is hardly ever sick. Her secret, she says, is a hearty, but meatless, diet. "As long as you eat the right foods, you'll live a healthy life," she said.

Melanie, 10, submitted the winning menu in the "Meatless Meal Menu Contest," sponsored by the Dade School System's Department of Food and Nutrition and the Arise Foundation in honor of Earth Day.

"Everything on my menu comes from the Earth and is naturally healthy," she said. "The meal doesn't damage the environment and it's a lot cheaper since I didn't use any meat."

Melanie, a fifth-grader at R.R. Moton Elementary School, was among 195 Dade County public school students who participated in the contest. She, along with second-place winner Lisa-Marie Brignoni of Hammocks Middle School and third-place winner Eugenia Salvo of Ben Sheppard Elementary School in Hialeah, were recognized recently by the School Board and given certificates.

The main course of Melanie's menu featured a vegetarian pizza, where sausages and pepperoni were replaced with corn, eggplant, mushrooms, olives, tomatoes, broccoli and cauliflower.

"I decided to make the pizza look like the Earth by outlining the continents with spaghetti and filling them in with the different vegetables," she said. "It tasted great."

"I was really excited and happy to have won first place," said Melanie, who also received a $75 savings bond for her creativity.

Contestants were required to submit a 100-word essay on why their menus were environmentally safe, along with a drawing or description of the meals.

"We wanted to teach the kid that being environmentally conscious is about more than just recycling," said Penny Parham, coordinator for special projects for the Department of Food and Nutrition. "It's about nutrition and what you eat."

For dessert Melanie chose "Earth's Sweet Treasures," a combination of fruits. To drink, she created an "Earth Punch."

"She is a little perfectionist," said her mother, Donna Porter of Perrine. "She would stay up until one o'clock in the morning drawing the pictures."

And all the work paid off, because Melanie learned a tasty lesson about nutrition and the environment.

"We need to take care of our resources so that other kids will also have a good Earth," said Melanie. "And all it takes is a little healthy eating."

'Carromushtato Soup'

Mix carrots, mushrooms and potatoes into a soup broth.

'Salad in Bloom'

Use a large bunch of broccoli, salad tomatoes, green olives and bean sprouts. Cut broccoli stem so it will stand. Arrange olives and tomatoes over the flowery part so it looks like an apple tree. Throw on bean sprouts so they hang like vines. Put some olives and tomatoes on lettuce leaves under the tree.

'Vegetarian Pizza'

Use corn, eggplant, mushrooms, black and green olives, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower and cheese. Put cheese over a pizza bread shell, and then put eggplant over it. Use spaghetti to make outline of your favorite country, then fill it in with vegetables.

'Earth's Sweet Treasures'

Half a cantaloupe, grapes, strawberries, bananas, apples and raisins. Fill cantaloupe with fruits, and then lay on a bed of cottage cheese.

'Earth Punch'

Seltzer water mixed with natural strawberry, lemon and orange juice. Garnish with fruit slices.

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