Review: Jack in the Box - Pumpkin Pie Shake

Jack in the Box's Pumpkin Pie Shake is a seasonal holiday menu item and features vanilla ice cream blended with pumpkin pie syrup finished with whipped topping and a maraschino cherry.

I picked up a regular 16-ounce shake for $2.69.

Review: Twin Dragon - Almond Cookies

These might seem like an international item but Twin Dragon Almond Cookies are made here in the States.

Normally they have half an almond affixed to the top of the cookie but I found these with diced almonds on the cheap for $1.09 for an 8-ounce box (compared to $2.99 for a 16-ounce box of the ones with almonds on top).

International Weekend: Bouvard - Vanilla Wafers

Bouvard Vanilla Wafers come from France. The box states that the French call them "Langue du chat" or "Cat's Tongue" due to the shape of the wafers.

I picked up a 100g (3.5-ounce) box for $1.99.

Frozen Friday: Stouffer's - Meatball Italiano Toasted Sub

Stouffer's Meatball Italiano Toasted Sub features your classic meatball sub but frozen and ready to be microwaved. Specifically, it features Italian seasoned meatballs with grilled red and green peppers, onions, mozzarella and marinara sauce on Italian bread.

You can pick up a box for around $3.99 or about $2.00 to $2.50 on sale.

Review: KFC - Cheesy Bacon Bowl

KFC's new Cheesy Bacon Bowl features their KFC Famous Bowl (Popcorn Chicken, cheese, gravy, corn atop a bed of mashed potatoes) topped with a generous sprinkle of bacon bits. You know, because bacon makes everything better.

It's available for a limited-time for the promotional price of $3.99 but I got mine free courtesy of KFC.

Review: Burger King - Mushroom & Swiss BK Topper

Burger King's new, limited time Mushroom & Swiss BK Topper features a thicker 3.2-ounce beef patty topped with mushrooms, Swiss cheese, and Griller sauce on a sesame seed bun.

If that seems interesting to you, it'll cost $1.99 to pick one up.

Review: Burger King - Western BBQ BK Topper Cheeseburger

Burger King's new, limited-time Western BBQ BK Topper Cheeseburger features a 3.2 ounce beef patty, onion rings, American cheese, and Sweet Baby Ray's Spicy BBQ sauce on a sesame seed bun.

You can pick one up for $1.99.

Review: Burger King - Deluxe BK Topper Burger

The Deluxe BK Topper is a Big Mac-like burger that's part of Burger King's new, limited-time BK Toppers line. It comes with a 3.2-ounce burger patty topped with American cheese, lettuce, onions, pickles, and Stacker sauce on a sesame seed bun.

It offers a decent value at $1.99 for a slightly thicker, larger patty (versus 2-ounce for the regular BK patty) without reaming the bottom line for BK franchisees.

Review: Quaker - True Delights Blackberry Pomegranate Multigrain Fiber Crisps

Quaker's True Delights Blackberry Pomegranate Multigrain Fiber Crisps offer a crunchy whole grain Blackberry Pomegranate flavored snack.

A 3.5-ounce bag costs about $1.99 at retail or a buck on sale.

Review: Sonic - Pumpkin Pie Shake

Sonic's Pumpkin Pie Shakes come around in the fall for a limited-time and feature ice cream, pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon, and pie crust pieces blended all together and finished with whipped topping and more pie crust pieces.

I picked up a regular 14-ounce shake for $2.69.

Frozen Friday: New York Brand - Five Cheese Texas Toast

New York brand Five Cheese Texas Toast is a frozen food garlic toast option topped with Asiago, Cheddar, Mozzarella, Parmesan, and Provolone cheeses.

You can pick up a 13.5-ounce box with 8 thick slices for about $3.00.

Review: Arby's - Ultimate Angus Philly Sandwich

Arby's new Ultimate Angus Philly Sandwich is Arby's take on the classic Philly cheese steak and comes with roasted, thin-sliced Angus beef complemented by fire roasted onions and green bell peppers, a garlic aioli spread, and Swiss cheese on a toasted roll.

The price is $4.99 per sandwich.

Review: Popeyes - New Dip'n Chicken

Popeyes' new, limited time Dip'n Chicken features breaded and fried chicken breast medallions served with a double portion of blackened ranch sauce. They're scoop shaped to better pick up sauce.

A portion along with Cajun Fries and a biscuits can be picked up for $3.99.

News: McDonald's - New Peppermint Mocha and Hot Chocolate

Peppermint is the flavor (syrup) of the season at McDonald's this fall/winter with two new drinks joining the McCafe line up. For a limited time, starting around the end of this month, McDonald's will be offering the Peppermint Mocha and Peppermint Hot Chocolate.

Basically the drinks feature McDonald's normal Mocha and Hot Chocolate but flavored with Peppermint syrup.

Prices range from $2.29 to $3.29 (undercutting Starbucks of course) for differing sizes. Prices may vary with location.

Last year, around this same time, McDonald's introduced their Caramel Mocha. Does this mean they'll have pumpkin spice next year?!

Review: Jack in the Box - Mini Cookies

Jack in the Box's Mini Cookies are a recent addition to their dessert menu.

They come in a set of five for $1 and feature bite-sized chocolate chip cookies with mini M&M-type candies baked in.

News: Baskin-Robbins - New Cake Bites

For those of you who have the desire but no occasion to splurge on an ice cream cake, Baskin-Robbins is now offering new Cake Bites, mini ice cream cakes covered in ganache (icing made from chocolate and cream) and a decorative drizzle of chocolate or caramel.

They're available in four flavors: Double Chocolate, Praline Caramel, Chocolate Mint, and Vanilla Blondie, and can be bought individually for $2.99 or in a mix-n-match pack of four for $9.99.

Double Chocolate features Chocolate ice cream over chocolate cake with chocolate ganache, finished with a chocolate accent.

Review: Sonic - Bacon & Blue Dog

Sonic's Bacon & Blue Dog features a all-beef hot dog covered in crisp bacon, shredded lettuce, tomato slices, and blue cheese dressing on a poppy seed bun.

It's $1.99 a pop and a fairly recent addition to Sonic's hot dog line up.

News: KFC - New Cheesy Bacon Bowl

Already the most sodium laden single item on KFC's menu, KFC ups the salt ante on their KFC Famous Bowl (my review here) by adding bacon and calling it the "Cheesy Bacon Bowl" with the tagline "Everything tastes better with bacon."

The Cheesy Bacon Bowl takes the five ingredients of the KFC Famous Bowl: mashed potatoes, corn, popcorn chicken, gravy, and three-cheese blend and sprinkles on bits of bacon to finish it off.

The KFC Cheesy Bacon Bowl is only available for a limited time at participating KFC restaurants for $3.99.

You can check out the commercial touting the new bowl after the jump.

Review: Dairy Queen - Pumpkin Pie Blizzard

Dairy Queen's Pumpkin Pie Blizzard features pumpkin pie filling and crust blended with vanilla soft serve finished with whipped topping and nutmeg and is only available for the month of October.

I picked up the mini size while at the mall at the inflated mall price of $3.29.

News: Krispy Kreme - Krispy Skremes! Doughnuts for Halloween

This Halloween season, Krispy Kreme returns three Halloween–themed doughnuts and their fall Pumpkin Spice Doughnut dubbing them altogether as their Krispy Skremes! line.

The line is available for a limited time only in Krispy Kreme U.S. and Canadian Shops. It includes:

Jack-o-Lantern Doughnut: A pumpkin-shaped doughnut wearing a mask of orange icing and a jack-o-lantern face.
Chocolate Iced with Halloween Sprinkles Doughnut: An orange and black sprinkled doughnut.
Spider Web Doughnut: A chocolate-iced doughnut with creme filling and a web of white icing.
Pumpkin Spice Doughnut: An old-fashioned cake doughnut made with pumpkin flavors and spices and finished with Krispy Kreme's Original Glaze.

Review: Nabisco - Chips Ahoy! Chewy Gooey Chocofudge Cookies

The yin to Chips Ahoy! Megafudge yang, Nabisco's Chips Ahoy! Chewy Gooey Chocofudge features the standard soft, chewy Chips Ahoy! chocolate chip cookies but with a chocolate fudge center.

A 10-ounce package goes for around $3.29 or about $2.00 on sale.

News: Jack in the Box - New Outlaw Burger and Outlaw Spicy Chicken

Similar to other Western-themed burgers at competing chains, Jack in the Box serves up the new, limited-time Outlaw Burger and Outlaw Spicy Chicken Sandwich.

Beyond the choice of a hamburger patty or spicy crispy chicken fillet, each sandwich features lettuce, tomato, hickory-smoked bacon, American cheese, onion rings, and a bourbon barbecue sauce on a sesame seed bun.

The sandwiches are not available in Austin, Kansas City, Santa Barbara, San Diego or Yakima which are cities Jack in the Box tends to use as test markets. Apparently, they're testing a chipotle chicken club sandwich in San Diego. The sandwich consists of their spicy crispy chicken fillet with bacon, American cheese, lettuce, and chipotle sauce.

Nutritional Info - Jack in the Box Outlaw Burger
Calories - 725 (from Fat - 356)
Fat - 39g (Saturated Fat - 16g)
Sodium - 1558mg
Carbs - 61g (Sugar - 13g)
Protein - 28g

Nutritional Info - Jack in the Box Outlaw Spicy Chicken Sandwich
Calories - 771 (from Fat - 294)
Fat - 32g (Saturated Fat - 9g)
Sodium - 1859mg
Carbs - 80g (Sugar - 13g)
Protein - 37g

Frozen Friday: Stouffer's - Chicken a la King

I've always been curious about what Chicken a la King was (although not curious enough to actually look it up) and so it was only natural that I picked up a box when I saw it in the frozen food aisle.

Stouffer's Chicken a la King features white meat chicken in a creamy sauce with mushrooms, onions, celery, and peas with white rice (it seems more common to serve it over pasta or some sort of bread though).

An 11.5-ounce box sells for $3.69 at regular price or around $2.50 on sale.

News: Jack in the Box - New Mini Cookies

Jack in the Box adds cookies to their dessert repertoire with new value-priced Mini Cookies.

The soft-baked cookies come flecked with chocolate chips and candy-coated M&M-style (well more like M&M minis) chocolates.

Mini Cookies come five for $1 which is somewhat comparable to McDonald's larger cookies which come three for $1.

Burger King Introduces New BK Toppers Burger Line

For a limited time, Burger King introduces new BK Toppers cheeseburgers. They're so-named because the burgers come in three varieties; each featuring "tasty toppings."

The available varieties are: the Deluxe, Mushroom & Swiss, and Western BBQ and each BK Topper comes at a suggested retail of $1.99.

News: McDonald's - The McRib Returns October 17th!

Missing your McRib fix? Hate the McRib? Either way, McDonald's is bringing back the McRib for a limited time starting on October 17th, 2011 at participating restaurants.

The last time it came around, it was available for a little more than a month and you can probably expect the same this time as well.

It costs about $2.69 in my area but your mileage may vary.

The McRib features ground pork meat shaped in a very rough approximation of a mini rack of ribs (like if it came from a pygmy pig) and then slathered in barbecue sauce with pickles and onions and served on a roll.

News: Jack in the Box - Holiday Shakes are Back!

Once again, Pumpkin Pie and Egg Nog Shakes are back at Jack in the Box for a limited time through the holidays.

As with all of Jack's shakes, they are available in large (24-ounce) and small (16-ounce sizes).

Retail pricing is $2.49 for a regular and $2.99 for a large.

Both shakes features a base of vanilla ice cream, their respective flavors, and are topped with whipped topping and a maraschino (preserved and sweetened) cherry.

News: Dunkin' Donuts - Fall Offerings 2011

Fall means pumpkin in your food and drinks and Dunkin' Donuts is no exception with their line up of limited-time offerings for the Fall of 2011:

Pumpkin Coffee and Latte: Pumpkin spice in coffee and lattes is once again on tap at Dunkin' You can get it hot or iced.

New Pumpkin Packaged Coffee: For the take-home-and-brew-yourself crowd, new Pumpkin packaged coffee is available in a special 8 oz. size (the standard for coffee is 12 oz) for a suggested price of $5.99.

Pumpkin Donut and Munchkins: Pumpkin cake donuts and donut holes.

News: Arby's - New Ultimate Angus Philly Sandwich

The latest in Arby's Ultimate Angus line of sandwiches, the new Ultimate Angus Philly features roasted, thin-sliced Angus beef along with fire roasted onions and green bell peppers, a garlic aioli spread, and Swiss cheese on a toasted roll.

I believe the standard cheese is usually provolone or Cheese Whiz on a prototypical Philly Cheesesteak but Arby's goes with a fairly standard variant.

It's $4.99 a sandwich although Arby's tends to send out pretty good coupons in their mailers.

The Ultimate Angus Philly joins Arby's current Angus line up of the Cool Deli Ultimate Angus and Three Cheese & Bacon Ultimate Angus.

Review: Quaker - True Delights Wild Blueberry Multigrain Fiber Crisps

Billed as a wholesome snack, Quaker's True Delights Wild Blueberry Multigrain Fiber Crisps feature blueberry flavor in a thin, round multigrain crisp. They don't actually contain blueberries though.

A 3.5-ounce bag should run you about $1.99 at retail or a buck on sale.

Review: Nabisco - Triple Double Oreo Cookies

In a less-than-inspired bout of innovation, the wonks at Nabisco came up with new Triple Double Oreos, a club-sandwich-like Oreo with three chocolate cookies sandwiching two layers of creamy filling (one layer of chocolate creamy filling and one layer of vanilla).

It's about $2.99 for a 13.1-ounce package.

News: Arby's Goes with Healthier Kids Meals

Similar to McDonald's recent change, Arby's is making their Kids Meals healthier by default.

The new default for Arby's Kids Meals is an entree, apple slices with dipping, and the choice of either low-fat milk, Capri-Sun fruit juice, or bottle water.

Arby's also has two new entree choices for their Kids Meals: Kraft Macaroni & Cheese and the Jr. Turkey & Cheese Sandwich. These choices are in addition to the Jr. Roast Beef Sandwich and Prime-Cut Chicken Tenders.

Parents still have the option to request curly fries and a fountain drink as substitutes for the healthier choices.

News: Baskin-Robbins - Trick Oreo Treat - October 2011 Flavor of the Month

Baskin-Robbins goes with a Halloween theme for their featured flavor for the month of October 2011: Trick Oreo Treat

Trick Oreo Treat features vanilla ice cream mixed with orange (the color not the flavor) creme Oreo cookies (the Halloween ones) and Baby Ruth and Butterfinger pieces.

Trick Oreo Treat is available nationwide during the month of October by the scoop (in a cup or cone), in a sundae or in hand-packed pints, quarts and half-gallons.

Samples are available gratis in those mini pink sample spoons.

Frozen Friday: Stouffer's Spaghetti with Meatballs

Stouffer's Spaghetti with Meatballs is one of their Signature Classics frozen entrees and features spaghetti with meatballs in a tomato sauce accented with spices.

A roughly 12-ounce box will run you about $3.59 at regular price or $2.00 to $2.50 on sale.

News: Dairy Queen - October Blizzard of the Month - Pumpkin Pie

It's pumpkin season! Every year around this time, companies like Starbucks and Sonic trot out their seasonal pumpkin offerings. Dairy Queen is no different and is here this October with the Pumpkin Pie Blizzard.

The Pumpkin Pie Blizzard features pumpkin pie blended with vanilla soft serve finished with whipped topping and nutmeg and is only available for the month of October.

In their other monthly promotion, Dairy Queen also has their Chicken Strip Basket for $3.99. It comes with four batter and fried strips of chicken, fries, and Texas toast.

Review: Burger King - Peach and Granola Sundae

Burger King's new Peach and Granola Sundae is one of the new premium sundae in their new soft serve line up and features a simple cup of vanilla soft serve with peach topping and crunchy granola.

Unlike the slightly larger Oreo Sundae, it's the same size as the $1 "traditional" (read: chocolate, caramel, or strawberry) sundaes but costs a little more at $1.79.

News: Taco Bell - The XXL Chalupa Returns

For a limited-time the XXL ("Double XL") Chalupa returns to Taco Bell.

First (and last) seen around this time last year, the XXL Chalupa rides on an XXL Chalupa flatbread filled with Fiesta salsa (tomatoes, onions, and cilantro), reduced fat sour cream, Taco Bell's three cheese blend (mozzarella, monterey jack, and American), lettuce, nacho cheese sauce, red tortilla strips, and seasoned ground beef.

At $2.79 at my local Taco Bell, the XXL Chalupa presents a little more bang for the buck than its smaller brethren.

Review: Burger King - Oreo Sundae

Burger King's new Oreo Sundae is part of their new soft serve line-up and features vanilla soft serve layered with chocolate fudge and topped with Oreo cookie pieces.

The Oreo Sundae is priced at $2.49 and comes in a larger cup than Burger King's "traditional sundaes."

Review: Domino's - Italian Sausage & Pepper Trio Artisan Pizza

One of a trio of Domino's new Artisan Pizzas, the Italian Sausage & Pepper Trio Artisan Pizza features an artisan-inspired rectangular pizza with tomato sauce, banana peppers, roasted red peppers, green peppers, shredded Parmesan Asiago cheese, and sliced Italian Sausage for $7.99.

Review: Domino's - Tuscan Salami & Roasted Veggie Artisan Pizza

Domino's Tuscan Salami & Roasted Veggie Artisan Pizza is one of their new Artisan Pizzas. The 13" x 9" rectangle pizza is priced at $7.99.

It's described as "ideal proportions of salami, spinach and onions, roasted red and banana peppers, and a dash of oregano, all over a garlic Parmesan sauce on an artisan-style crust." The boxes are signed by the store manager. Mine's was signed by a non-Saved by the Bell "Mario Lopez."

Review: Hostess - Orange CupCakes

Hostess Orange CupCakes are orange flavored cake with a creamy filling finished with an orange frosting and trademark squiggles.

A 2-pack goes for around $1.59 at my local supermarket.

International Weekend: Bouvard - Butter Biscuits

Bouvard's Butter Biscuits or "Petit Beurre" come from France but I was able to pick up a 175g package at a local supermarket for $2.59.