Tag Archives: food

Editorials/Student Voice, School Life

Highland’s new cafeteria

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By: Weston Halgunseth

A new era for dining

For years Highland’s cafeteria was known for its shift between the middle school’s dark, gloomy side and the overly bright high school side, however after the remodeling of the cafeteria last year, the space has been completely transformed. The revamp hasn’t changed the menu much but it did change the vibe of the lunch room for the better.

A modern aesthetic

The first thing students notice when walking in is that the room simply looks better. Gone are the crazy shifts in lighting between sides. The big wall blocking each side making parts get crowded is also gone. In is new modern furniture that reminds you of what colleges have. The new lunch lines and the overall vibe of it is better. This aesthetic shift makes the lunch room become a highlight of many student days.

Comfort & space

The renovation also has improved the comfort of the lunch room. By introducing more space, the new modern seats, and the link that connects the two floors. The school has created an environment where students can take a break and have it feel like a break. The new layout provides more space to move around, effectively eliminating the crowded feeling during lunch.

This extra room allows for people to become more social and overall become more of a relaxed area.

New options

Perhaps the most noticeable change was the new food lines that were made, one of them having salads and yogurt and the other having stuff you can buy like sandwiches, drinks, etc. For me, I see a lot of people going to these lines instead of the normal 2 options they usually have.

A schoolroom is the heart of student life, and this revamp of the lunchroom has given that heart a much needed boost. By creating a space that is spacious and comfortable, Highland has provided us with a good revamped lunchroom.

Travel/Food

Top five Thanksgiving foods

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By: Alayanna Bouwens

Thanksgiving has some very unique and delicious foods. Let’s rank them all from most well known to least and break down why they may be so popular.

  1. Roast Turkey

What would Thanksgiving be without its classic roast turkey? After all when you think of Thanksgiving you think of turkeys; whether it’s a cartoon turkey, a president pardoning a turkey, or a cooked and sliced turkey. They are an obvious choice as they are big enough to feed large amounts of people, turkeys are relatively common and easy to raise, and turkey also goes with countless other dishes making it a good universal Thanksgiving food.

2. Stuffing

Of course what would the turkey be without its stuffing. What’s in the stuffing varies house to house but it traditionally has breadcrumbs, herbs, and diced vegetables. It offers a variety of flavor and fiber as well as comfort. The stuffing goes great with the turkey making it an obvious choice.

3. Pumpkin pie

When we think fall we think Thanksgiving and when we think Thanksgiving we think pumpkin pie. What would a Thanksgiving dinner be without delicious pumpkin pie for dessert? The pie is usually topped with whipped cream and nuts. Pumpkin pie offers a unique sweet taste as well as texture.

4. Baked macaroni and cheese

What would Thanksgiving be without its comfort food baked mac and cheese? It’s a fan favorite with its bread crumbs and carbs. Thanksgiving mac and cheese is typically baked in an oven till the top layer is a little bit crispy. No matter how you make it, mac and cheese goes with any other food and serves as an excellent side dish.

5. Cranberry sauce

What would all of the other foods be without cranberry sauce, bitter or sweet cranberry sauce goes with any and all Thanksgiving foods, you can dip your turkey in it, side it with any other food, or just eat it plain; anyway you serve the cranberry sauce it remains delicious.

It is important to remember that although all of these foods are delicious the true beauty of Thanksgiving is in taking a moment to be thankful and show gratitude to the small and big things. A great thing to be grateful for is the delicious Thanksgiving food or just food in general. Take some time to reflect on all the beautiful things that you are grateful for and find a way to show your appreciation to those things.

Note: All images created with Adobe AI

Travel/Food

Jimmy John’s

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By: Maya Song

Jimmy John’s, the popular sandwich franchise, was founded in January 1983 in Charleston, Illinois, by Jimmy John Liautaud. Jimmy John’s is an American multinational sandwich franchise.

After college Jimmy took a twenty five thousand dollar loan from his father to start a business with the promise that if his business did fail he would enlist in the United States Army. Jimmy decided on starting a hot dog cart but he later came to the realization that a hot dog cart might be too expensive for his budget and decided against the hot dog stand.

Later on Jimmy came across a sandwich shop and considered starting one himself. He knew that there’d be more ingredients so he’d have to be careful with his budget. He started to bake his own bread and purchased premium meats from a nearby neighborhood market to limit spending.

When their first restaurant opened in Charleston, the menu consisted of four different sandwiches. Over ten years later, Jimmy John’s first franchise opened in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. About three years after opening their first franchise Jimmy John’s had created their first drive through restaurant in Saint George, Utah. They then began being considered as a fast food restaurant with their drive through, quick service, and fast delivery.

The first four sandwiches The Pepe, Totally Tuna, Turkey Tom, and Vito’s are still on the menu today and are still very popular items. When Jimmy John’s first opened they had smoked ham and provolone, turkey, homemade tuna salad and capicola & salami. From there, the restaurant has been gaining more and more ingredients for customer satisfaction.

Today, the menu has 18 sandwiches and even consists of unwichs. An unwich is for those who crave less bread and carbs so the bread is replaced by lettuce leaving all unwichs with twelve grams of carbs or under.

Getting To Know/History

History of Minnesota State Fair

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By Grace Wright

In 1854 the Minnesota Agricultural Society was founded and their goal was to help promote Minnesota agriculture. The first state fair was held in Minneapolis, 1858. For a while they didn’t have a set place; they would rotate from Red Wing, St. Paul, Rochester and a few more towns.  Between 1870-1880 they worked to have a permanent spot for the fair. They finally found a spot when Ramsey County donated a 210 acre plot of land. It has now grown into 322 acres of land.

During the early days of the fair it was mainly agricultural attractions and competitions. This followed the theme of which the state fair was started for. Now, while agriculture is still a big part of the fair, it has now changed, with more food and rides for people to enjoy.

In 1966 the Fairchild gopher became the new official mascot of the Minnesota State Fair. His name is from Henry S. Fairchild, the man who said the fair should be put on the Ramsey county plot.  His nephew, named Fairborn, later joined him in 1983.

The fair has been held almost every year since it was started but there has been a few years it hasn’t been. 1861-1862 because of the Civil War and the Dakota War, 1893 because of a conflict with an exposition show, 1945-1946 because of the U.S. restrictions with travel during World War II and also due to the polio epidemic. The most recent one was in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some popular buildings are the 4-H buildings, which is where many youth come to show animals. The cattle barn is where you can see many different kinds of cows, there are versions of these for many more animals. The DNR is a log cabin-like building which has held the DNR during the state fair since 1934. The food building is many people’s favorite building because it has many different food stalls. The most well known one is the grandstand. The grandstand has many different levels with food and shopping on the second and third floors and showing rooms on the bottom floor. It is also where many concerts are seen in the two weeks.

The state fair sees 2 million people a year and employs over 2,000 staff members during the summer. The livestock is a big part of the Minnesota Fair. It brings more than 8,000 competitors, 20,000 animals and prizes can add up to 1.6 million in total.

I have been going to the state fair for many years now and I have also worked at a booth during the two weeks that the state fair has been open. Some of my favorite parts are the food. I always get Sweet Martha’s, which are very famous chocolate chip cookies, I also always get the turkey leg and lemonade. I would recommend going to the state fair if you ever get a chance there is something for everyone there. It is open for the 2025 season, August 21-September 1. 

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Travel/Food

Homemade Tru Fru recipe review

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By: Alice Rapacz and Evie Beaumaster

If you’re anything like us, you have tried Tru Fru and loved it. Like Tru Fru, other frozen chocolate dipped fruits are very good but they leave quite a dent in your pocket! We decided to try to make our own and to see if we could make something comparable, but for a smaller price.

Ingredients

  • 2 cups of raspberries (or other fruits we used strawberries)
  • 1 cup of white chocolate chips
  • 1 cup of dark chocolate chips
  • 2 teaspoons of coconut oil

To make the homemade Tru Fru, we chose to use strawberries as our fruit. We started by cutting the stems off our strawberries, coring them, and cutting them in half. You want to make sure that your strawberries are completely dry because when you freeze them, they will stick together if they are wet.

After the strawberries are all cut and washed, we put them on a baking sheet to freeze. We covered the baking sheet with parchment paper and made sure that the strawberries weren’t touching each other.

After about 3 hours, the strawberries were fully frozen. We kept them in the freezer while we prepared the chocolates. In two microwave safe bowls add the chocolates (separately) and a tablespoon of coconut oil. Microwave the white chocolate chips first, before doing the milk/dark chocolate, we chose dark. Microwave in 30 second intervals mixing in between each one.

Once fully melted we pulled out the frozen strawberries and added them into a bowl so we could put our dipped strawberries on the baking sheet. We used a fork to dip the strawberries in the chocolate and shook off the extra chocolate so that there would only be a thin layer of chocolate on each strawberry.

After half the strawberries were coated in white chocolate, we had to melt more chocolate to finish the rest of the strawberries and continue dipping the strawberries.

Once they all were coated in white chocolate, we moved onto the dark chocolate. We used the same process of melting, and because the strawberries were frozen to start, the chocolate hardened onto the strawberries so we did not have to put them back into the freezer. After they were all dipped, they were ready to eat!

In the end, the strawberries were really good. Since we used a fork to shake off extra chocolate, there was a nice and thin layer on the strawberries. If it was thicker, it would have been really hard to bite. If you leave the strawberries out for around 3 minutes before eating, it makes the strawberries thaw just enough so they are easier to eat.

The dark chocolate evens out the sweetness from the white chocolate, and the two pair well with the strawberry. Since they are frozen, they would be a perfect sweet treat for on a hot summer day. The strawberries are sweet and fresh, with the chocolate added, they are really good. We made the strawberries when some of our friends were with us. They all really liked them and thought they were a perfect treat to end the night.

Overall, the recipe was pretty easy to follow and the strawberries tasted really good. We think that this recipe is a great way to save some money if you also like Tru Fru. We made around 40 strawberries and the total cost was around $11.78. A typical Tru Fru bag comes with around 16 strawberries for $6.99. For the homemade strawberries it cost around 30 cents per strawberry, the Tru Fru cost around 43 cents. While this is not that big of a difference, we both thought it was worth it. Not only was it fun to make, but we also got to have a delicious treat too. If you ever want a fun and delicious treat to make, we definitely recommend this homemade Tru Fru recipe.

The original recipe!

https://www.liveeatlearn.com/frozen-chocolate-raspberries/

Travel/Food

The history of Bubbl’r

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By: Teagan Mack

Bubbl’r, a refreshing sparkling water, has become a favorite drink in high schools across the country. But how did this fizzy drink become so popular? Let’s take a look at the history of Bubbl’r and how it went from a simple idea to a beloved beverage among students.

Bubbl’r was created by a company called Bubbl’r Beverages and launched in 2019. The idea behind Bubbl’r was simple: make a sparkling drink that’s not only refreshing but also healthy. They wanted to create a drink that had all the fun of soda but without all the sugar and artificial ingredients. Unlike most sparkling waters, which often taste plain, Bubbl’r added fun, fruity flavors to stand out. With zero calories, no added sugars, and a variety of exciting flavors, it was the perfect alternative to sugary sodas.

From the beginning, Bubbl’r quickly gained popularity, especially among teens. The drink became a hit because it was both tasty and refreshing, offering a light, fizzy taste with flavors like Cherry Lime, Mango Passionfruit, and Tropical Blast. As Ellie Harris remarked, “I love how Bubbl’r have a such diverse range of flavors.”

Bubbl’r also caught the attention of students who were looking for a healthier option to quench their thirst. As more people started to realize the benefits of drinking sparkling water instead of soda, Bubbl’r became a popular choice for students trying to cut back on sugar while still enjoying a delicious drink.

The reason Bubbl’r became such a hit with high school students can also be traced back to its clever marketing. The bright colors and fun, youthful branding caught the eye of teens, and the drink became a social media sensation. Teens shared their love for Bubbl’r on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, helping the brand spread quickly. Its fun design and catchy slogans made it impossible to miss in stores, and soon it was everywhere. Even teachers like Ms. Rise couldn’t help but notice Bubbl’r, “I saw students in my IB Geo class drinking bubbl’r and I became interested about why it was so popular. So I got it and I tried it an I loved it. I love it because it tastes like a soda pop and it’s supposed to be really healthy.”

Another factor that made Bubbl’r so popular is its convenience. The drink comes in easy-to-carry cans, making it perfect for students who are always on the go. Whether they were grabbing a can from the vending machine between classes or taking it to lunch, Bubbl’r became the drink of choice for busy high schoolers. Its simple, fizzy taste made it the perfect companion for after-school activities or study sessions. Just take it from Evie Beaumaster, “It keeps me alive and energized throughout the long days of school.”

In addition to its great taste, Bubbl’r is also environmentally friendly. The company uses recyclable cans, which is something that many students appreciate as they become more aware of environmental issues. Bubbl’r’s commitment to sustainability has only helped it grow in popularity, as more teens are looking for brands that care about the planet.

So, the next time you grab a Bubbl’r from the vending machine or share your favorite flavor with a friend, you’ll know a little more about the history behind the drink that’s become a hit in high schools everywhere. From its simple beginning to its rise in popularity, Bubbl’r has made its mark—and it’s here to stay.

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Travel/Food

Cinnamon Streusel Muffin Review

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 By: Alice Rapacz

Ingredients:

Muffin

  • 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup/8 tablespoons unsalted butter (at room temperature)
  • ¾ cup light brown sugar
  • 2 eggs (at room temperature)
  • ½ cup sour cream (at room temperature)
  • ¼ cup whole milk
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Cinnamon Streusel Topping

  • ½ cup all-purpose flour
  • ¼ cup light brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter (melted)

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a 12 count muffin tin with cupcake liners or spray with non-stick cooking spray.
  2. In a medium bowl add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt, combine together.
  3. In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl with an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar, about 2-3 minutes.
  4. Add in the 2 eggs, sour cream, milk, and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until just combined.
  5. Add in the dry ingredients and use a spatula or spoon to combine just until there are no more dry flour patches remaining.
  6. Make the streusel topping by melting the butter in a microwave safe bowl. Next add the sugar to the melted butter and mix until combined. Then add the flour and cinnamon and mix together until you have clumps of the mixture.
  7. Put the batter into the muffin tin, making sure to fill the liners all the way to the top.
  8. Sprinkle each muffin with the streusel topping.
  9. Bake the muffins for 5 minutes at 425 degrees and immediately reduce the heat to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 12-15 minutes.
  10. Once a toothpick can be inserted into the muffin and comes out clean, the muffins are done.
  11. Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes in the muffin tin, then take them out and let them cool on a wire rack.
  12. Lastly, Enjoy!

Review:

I thought that this recipe from Chisel & Fork was really good. Typically for baking recipes, I like to use Sally’s Baking addiction, but this time I wanted to try something new. I found this recipe for Cinnamon Streusel Muffins and wanted to give it a try. I thought that the recipe was easy to follow and understand. I followed the directions step by step, first measuring out my dry ingredients, and in a separate bowl my wet. I used a stand mixer to combine the wet ingredients, and I found that the end result is not as smooth as I thought it would be. There were small chunks of sour cream in the mixture even though I had mixed it for more than enough time. I was a little surprised at first, but once I added the dry ingredients into the wet, it all came together really nicely.

Once I divided the muffin batter into the tin, I topped each muffin with the streusel. I added too much on the first muffins, so I had to divide and sprinkle them onto other muffins to make sure there was enough for each one. Once they were baked, they filled my house with a warm cinnamon smell.

When I tried the muffin warm for the first time, it had a perfect texture, light, and fluffy. The streusel on top added a perfect crunch, that wasn’t too crunchy, it just added the perfect texture. The muffin itself had a nice cinnamon flavor, but I thought that the addition of the streusel was needed for extra cinnamon flavor. Everyone in my family tried them and two days later all the muffins were gone. They are the perfect sweet treat or easy on the go breakfast. Overall, I would definitely recommend this recipe if you’re looking for a quick, easy and delicious muffin recipe.