INVER GROVE HEIGHTS, Minn. — The Inver Grove Heights Police Department has recovered a large amount of stolen mail and wants residents in a specific area to check to see if they are missing any.

In the early morning hours of Thursday, Nov. 14, police officers observed a vehicle with a headlight out in the 7800 block of Concord Blvd.

Police pulled over a female driver, “who appeared nervous,” according to a post on the Inver Grove Heights Police Department’s Facebook page.

Officers discovered “mail strewn throughout the inside of the car.”

Police officials said the woman admitted to driving around and stealing from mailboxes.

“The rest of our night shift tackled the herculean task of sorting the mail by name, recording those names, packaging/photographing for evidence, and documenting addresses for each piece of mail,” the social post read.

Over 500 pieces of mail were estimated to be stolen from 161 victims.

Police want residents “within the area of Concord/78th” to check to see if they have not received any mail. Officials said the stolen mail was taken to the post office and will be “redistributed to all those impacted,” according to the post.

The woman was arrested and taken to the Dakota County Jail to be held on charges relating to mail theft.

Creating a traditional Thanksgiving feast is a labor of love, one that can sometimes be overwhelming for the host. 

Marques Miller, regional chef at Red River Kitchen at Braemar in Edina, visited KARE 11 News at Noon to share some easy tips to improve your meal and ease the hosting burden. 

Here are a few of his tips:

• Add a salad – The freshness and crunch will be a welcome addition. 
• Don’t be afraid of flavor – A garlic rosemary butter for the dinner rolls or chopped mushrooms in the gravy can boost the flavor of your holiday meal. 
• Make homemade cranberry sauce – Bring 2 cups of water & sugar to a boil. Add your fresh or frozen cranberries, a little nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon zest, lime zest and orange juice. Let the cranberries cook on low. You can either mash up the cranberries or blend and cool your sauce.

If you’d rather not cook, check out pre-made Thanksgiving dinner options from Red River Kitchen. They includes roasted turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, roasted butternut squash, green bean casserole, dinner rolls and pumpkin pie.

For $160, this meal kit will feed 6-8 people. Order online or by calling by Nov. 23 and you can pick up the meal on Nov. 27. 

MINNEAPOLIS — A popular snack for young kids is drawing some concerns from health experts.

Fruit and vegetable pouches are go-to picks for parents because they’re easy, quick and mess-free.

Dr. Gigi Chawla from Children’s Minnesota sees their efficiency and notes they have some nutritional value. 

The concern rises when they’re overused and replace whole foods. “It’s so efficient that it can become problematic as well,” Chawla said.

Chawla pinpoints cavities as a possible unwanted effect. Dental decay can occur from the added sugars that are generally in the pouches. Chawla says the puree form can coat kids’ teeth in a way that a piece of fruit does not.

Excessive calories or overeating is another top concern because pouches can be consumed so quickly. 

“Instead of just taking one pouch, which could be the equivalent in volume of one apple, to suddenly having two, three, five pouches a day, now you’re getting maybe a lot of extra food or calories,” she said.

Developmental concerns also arise. An article by the St. Louis Children’s Hospital warns that babies miss out on learning hand-eye coordination when they don’t touch or hold food in their whole form.

“When you don’t have plates of food where they’re having to pick things up and use their fork and spoon and know how to balance peas, for example, that is potentially problematic,” Chawla said. “It’s the socialization piece that you can be missing but also the physical act of chewing, of learning different textures.”

She wants parents to know pouches should not substitute an all-inclusive meal.