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Reachers call for provincial action on youth eating habits

Nutrition researchers are recommending Manitoba form a task force to encourage healthy eating habits, after a pre-COVID-19 pandemic study of Grade 9 students found most weren’t getting enough fruits or vegetables.

The majority of students didn’t eat enough healthy food and instead turned to processed foods high in salt and saturated fat, according to the survey of 1,587 students, results of which were recently published in a research report on Food and Nutrition Security for Manitoba Youth.

University of Manitoba researchers Joyce Slater and Alan Katz led the study.

It involved surveying students from across the province on what they ate in a day, finding most of them weren’t eating healthy even if they had access to and could afford nutritious food.

Brunch offers a reservation-free, low-cost way to check out the resto on the river

Long johns, wool socks, a thermal shirt and a fleece sweater. A knitted neckwarmer, toque, gloves, floor-length parka and lined boots. Sunglasses to save my eyeballs from the bright and deceptively warm sun streaming through the windows. Are snow pants overkill?

Flower power: city bakery’s goodies off to the Grammys

Grammy Award nominees Beyonce, Lizzo and Adele will likely receive goody bags containing items from Winnipeg-based online boutique bakery Flour &Flower when the 65th Grammys take place Feb. 5 in Los Angeles.

Fusion of flavours

Fusion salsa flavours: Think Tuscan-habanero, pineapple-jalapeño, and cilantro-lime-jalapeño. Also hand-pressed tortillas, and pork marinated in achiote, a red-orange, peppery Mayan spice. These are not items that come to mind when one thinks of a typical Manitoba menu.

Foodtastic to buy healthy fast food restaurant chain Freshii for $74.4 million

MONTREAL - Foodtastic Inc. has signed a deal to buy healthy fast food restaurant chain Freshii Inc. for $74.4 million.

Foodtastic CEO Peter Mammas says Freshii will help Foodtastic expand into a new category.

The Montreal-based restaurant franchisor behind brands like Second Cup, Pita Pit and Milestones also recently announced plans to acquire Quesada Burritos & Tacos.

Freshii says the deal will see Foodtastic pay $2.30 per share in cash, representing a total of $74.4 million on a fully diluted basis.

Pre-paying for meals and shorter work week among changes in restaurant rebirth scene

TORONTO - Since netting a Michelin star earlier this year, Vancouver's Québécois-themed bistro St. Lawrence has been especially busy, with its chef crediting robust bookings to the confluence of extra buzz and the annual crush of holiday revellers.

In order to manage the flood of reservations, restaurateur J-C Poirier says bookings are capped at one month in advance and diners are asked to pre-pay for their meals.

"That was an idea that came with the pandemic but it turns out that it is such a good model, and it works for our restaurant," says Poirier.

"We know what you order, we know how many staff we need. We also eliminated completely the problem of people not showing for the reservation or cancelling at the last minute for whatever reason."

Irmie’s Honey Spice Drops perfect for a cookie party

Are holiday cookie parties still a thing? Because, as Free Press food writer Evelyn Larson attests in 1975, they sound like a great way to reduce time spent baking while increasing the variety of said baking.

Grocery shoplifting on the rise in Canada amid inflation, industry insiders say

Shoplifting has surged to an alarming level across Canada, industry insiders say, with inflation and labour shortages cited as major factors behind the increase.

The uptick has triggered concern among Canadian grocers even as the rise in food prices helps pad their bottom lines. Grocery prices were up 11 per cent year-over-year in October and they're not expected to ease any time soon. The total cost of groceries for a family of four is expected to be $1,065 more than it was this year, according to the most recent edition of Canada's Food Price Report.

Inflation in food prices is one of the main drivers pushing more people to steal, says Sylvain Charlebois, senior director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

“There is a correlation between the two, absolutely. Theft is an ongoing issue. But the intensity actually does increase when food prices go up," he said, noting that meat and dairy products are the top two stolen items.

Mulled apple juice delivers holiday cheer

Cinnamon, cloves and warm apples — throw a pot of this mulled apple juice on the stove and your home will be smelling like holiday cheer in no time.

7-Eleven to serve alcohol with in-store dining in Ontario

TORONTO - Southwestern Ontario will soon see beer and wine in a corner store -- though not exactly the way Premier Doug Ford envisioned in his 2018 campaign promise.

Convenience store 7-Eleven says it has secured a liquor sales licence from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario to serve beer, wines and coolers at a restaurant in one of its stores in Leamington.

The company says the licensed restaurant also serves food such as chicken wings, potato wedges and pizza.

There are similar licensed restaurants at several 7-Eleven locations in Alberta, and the company says the Ontario store is the beginning of a wider provincial expansion.

Divinity fudge answers prayers for those with a sweet tooth

Divinity fudge? More like a sticky, marshmallowy nightmare. I’m not sure the task of cleaning rock hard egg whites and syrup from the beaters of my mixer was worth the pretty, but cloyingly sweet results of this recipe (which I had to make twice because the first batch was too runny to cut).

Hosting a holiday dinner? Here are some cost-saving tips

TORONTO - When Canadians soon gather with loved ones for holiday meals, there will be an unwelcome guest at the dinner table: decades-high inflation.

The measure of how much prices have increased shows grocery bills rose by 11 per cent over the last year alone.

"It's crazy, like you need a mortgage to go to the grocery store right now,” said Danielle Gasner, who runs a Toronto catering business and the Girl Gone Kosher food blog.

Similar observations are being made across the country as holiday fixings, including Christmas turkeys and hams, Kwanzaa celebrators’ jollof rice and collard greens and even oil the humble Hannukah latke gets fried in, have risen in price.

Carlsberg Group buying Waterloo Brewing for $144 million in cash

KITCHENER, Ont. - Waterloo Brewing Ltd. has signed a deal to be bought by the Carlsberg Group for $144 million.

Under the agreement, Carlsberg has agreed to pay $4.00 in cash for each Waterloo Brewing share.

Waterloo Brewing shares closed at $3.35 on the Toronto Stock Exchange before the deal was announced late Wednesday.

Waterloo Brewing chief executive George Croft says the board of directors is confident that joining Carlsberg is the best long-term solution for the company's employees, partners, customers, consumers and community.

Frosty, festive inspiration from 1930s ‘hand freezer’

I scream, you scream, we all scream for Christmas ice cream. No? Well, then I’d like to take this opportunity to push for the revival of the ice cream-as-holiday-dessert trend of the 1930s.

Day 4: Cranberry meringue pie

Cranberry propaganda was having a heyday 100 years ago. In 1922, the pages of the Free Press were littered with advertisements for the tart red berries, with promotions ramping up, understandably, around the holiday season.

Homemade holidays: 12 days of vintage sweets

To cap off the Free Press’s anniversary year, we’re plumbing the archives for holiday recipes of yore. Follow along until Dec. 23 for a sampling of the sweet, strange and trendy desserts to grace our pages and your tables over the last 150 years.

To see our archive of previous years of holiday baking click here.

Day 3: Cocoanut caramels deliver a sweet and simple tropical treat

With lightly browned sugar, lemon extract and coconut — or rather cocoanut, as per the original recipe — these sweet and simple treats are decidedly tropical.