The taste buds have spoken. Tasting events by employees, patients and visitors across HealthPartners hospitals, clinics and the corporate head office have named Paul J’s Unrolled Egg Roll as the best-tasting entry in the 2018 PowerUp Recipe Contest.

Children across the Twin Cities and western Wisconsin submitted entries of their homemade, tasty fruit- or veggie-focused recipe.

A panel of dietitians whittled the entries down to a top 10 and social media voting narrowed the field further to a final five.

Then it was over to the tastings. Employees at the HealthPartners head office (Bloomington, Minnesota), as well as patients, visitors and colleagues at Amery Hospital & Clinic (Wisconsin), Lakeview Hospital (Stillwater, Minnesota) and Westfields Hospital & Clinic (New Richmond, Wisconsin) sampled all five finalists in an anonymous taste test in August. Then they cast their vote.

Paul J, from Amery, Wisconsin, wins $125 of PowerUp cooking gear for his winning recipe Unrolled Egg Roll. He said: “I started to try a lot of great foods and so then I decided to get better at cooking.”

The full list of finalists is:

• Second place: Lila S, Amery, Wisconsin, with Rainbow Roll-Ups. She said: “I wanted something rainbow-y and something with a bunch of fruit in it. And then me and my dad just came up with Rainbow Roll-Ups.”
• Third place: Freya K, St. Paul, Minnesota, with Tempeh of Love. Freya said: “I like cooking together with my mom, and we came up with the recipe together.”
• Honorable mention: Paul and Rita K, Vadnais Heights, Minnesota, with Overachievers’ Rainbow Salad. Rita said: “After trying the different veggies when PowerUp was at our school I came home and got inspired. So I asked my mom if we could create a recipe, then we basically took every veggie we had in the fridge and added it to our salad.” Paul added: “We like to chop the pieces small so that when you take a bite you get some of all the fruits and veggies.”
• Honorable mention: Jada M, Bloomington, Minnesota, with Easy Peasy Blueberry Squeezy. She said: “I just looked in the fridge and thought, how can I use the ingredients that I already have?”

To see the full recipes for the final five, visit healthpartners.com/powerupfamily.​​

*Photo: Chomp, the PowerUp superhero carrot, with first place winner Paul J and second place winner Lila S, both of Amery, Wisconsin, after an all-school assembly at Lien Elementary School at which both children were surprised with their prizes.

Freya K. from St. Paul, Minnesota with her Third place prize.

Jada M. from Bloomington, Minnesota with her honorable mention prize.

Paul and Rita K. from Vadnais Heights, Minnesota with their honorable mention prize.