GrubGrade

Ty Beanie Babies

Did you know McDonald’s introduced the Happy Meal in June of 1979? I did not. That means this year marks the 30th anniversary….dang that makes me feel old. Another thing I didn’t know is that they’re doing an entire promotion and bringing back the Ty Teenie Beanie Babies (their most successful Happy Meal toy)! They’re rolling out a whopping 30 of them, one for each year.

I’m just excited that they’ve got 4 bears   Streamers, Thirty, Frostiness & Celebration. I’ve got to head out to the good ol’ Golden Arches and see if I can gather some of my kin. Did anyone else collect these?

They’ll be running this promotion until August 13th so be sure to go get yours. Here’s the whole list of all 30:

Ty Teenie Beanie Baby Happy Meal Toy Collection:

• Clipper the Dolphin
• Ronald McDonald
• Quackly the Duck
• Fez the Monkey
• Chill the Penguin
• Topper the Giraffe
• Fable the Unicorn
• Skunkers the Skunk
• Cargo the Pug
• Oasis the Tiger
• Maiden the Ladybug
• Jumps the Frog
• Aussie the Koala
• Pico the Dog
• Radish the Dog
• Rascal the Dog
• Ming the Panda
• Hydrant the Dog
• Pops the Gorilla
• Splits the Flamingo
• Boomer the Dog
• Woolsy the Lamb
• Streamers the Bear
• Thirty the Bear
• Fluffball the Guinea Pig
• Yammy the Cat
• Grimace
• Spurs the Horse
• Frostiness the Polar Bear
• Celebration the Bear

“With a name like Smucker’s, it has to be good!” ….so true. More true would be “With peanut butter involved, it has to be good!” Seriously…name one bad thing that contains peanut butter? You can’t, they’re all delicious, Reese’s, Cap’n Crunch, Abba-Zaba and of course the Elvis!

PB and Strawberry Jam Uncrustables

What evil genius came up with these? It’s like the best things from your cupboards thrown together. Not only that but they’ve taken away the bad parts for you. It’s like school with only PE and recess, or Sugar Ray without Mark McGrath.

Let me say that I LOVE PB&J sangwiches. I used to not care for them too much but that was mostly due to having them in my lunchbox all day which would result in a warm goo of a lunch. Now….goodness me, there’s almost nothing better. Thawed or toasted….PB & grape jelly, PB & strawberry jam, PB & honey on wheat, plain peanut butter or even the grilled cheese….each one is fantastic. I’m surprised they haven’t expanded this line. Think of the possibilities, smore’s, Rocky Road, PB, honey & bananas. Well I guess any Pop-tart flavor would make an incredible Uncrustable.

The Frozen Food Master from FreezerBurns.com Reviewing the Grilled Cheese version. One word review: "Cheesetastic"

These are good any time of day, or night for that matter. Whether it be in the morning with the Pirates of Dark Water, in the afternoon with Bonkers & Darkwing Duck or in the evening with the Urkel or Alex Mack (I had, okay have, the hugest crush on her. If any of ya’lls got a number tell her I’m single ). With a nice tall glass of milk….that’s it, no more blogging for me, I’m off to Safeway to pick some of these up.

What is your favorite peanut butter snack?

The long awaited addition to the Volcano Menu has reached the States nationwide.  I recall making my bold predictions at the Taco Bell Test Kitchen back in May, that the next item to bring the heat would be the Volcano Crunchwrap.  The Taco Bell folks were tight-lipped and as it turns out, I was dead wrong.  My second guess was the Volcano Nachos and it turns out I should’ve never trusted my instinct.  So here we are in the middle of the Summer heat and Taco Bell raises the temps even higher with the fiery New! Volcano Nachos.

As I mentioned in my Food News post, Taco Bell entices us with that great promo picture and this description:

Crunchy, freshly prepared tortilla chips covered with hearty beans, seasoned ground beef, warm nacho cheese, red tortilla strips, our new cheesy, molten hot lava sauce, jalapenos and topped off with reduced-fat sour cream

(more…)

The newest member of the Taco Bell Volcano Menu is here….Volcano Nachos.  Review coming later today…I just bought them for $3.79.

Crunchy, freshly prepared tortilla chips covered with hearty beans, seasoned ground beef, warm nacho cheese, red tortilla strips, our new cheesy, molten hot lava sauce, jalapenos and topped off with reduced-fat sour cream

Check out the nutrition stats of this monster…

• 910 Calories…56g of Fat…9g of Saturated Fat, 45mg Cholesterol, 1860mg Sodium, 80g of Carbs, 13g of Dietary Fiber, 6g of Sugar, 20g of Protein

As you have probably noticed, we are big fans of Chick-fil-A here at GrubGrade.   When it comes to the classic chicken sandwich or nuggets they are tough to beat.  In my opinion, there is one chicken sandwich that Chick-fil-A cannot top.  A true marvel in the quick-serve universe…the Gold Rush Chicken Sandwich from Roy Rogers.  I was introduced to this sandwich not that long ago by Ryan, but the sandwich has been on the menu since the early 1990s. In my opinion, this is the standard bearer for all fast food chicken sandwiches.

The Gold Rush sandwich is a fried chicken patty topped with Monterey Jack Cheese, bacon and a golden ”BBQ” sauce. (more…)

Burger King came out with the Angry Whopper late last year.  They have now come out with 2 new Angry sandwiches in the poultry family.    The Angry Tendercrisp and The Angry Original Chicken Sandwich. Let us know if you have taken on any of the Angry chickens…

The Angry Tendercrisp is described by Burger King as:

Tender, premium breaded white meat chicken filet topped with sizzling bacon, Pepper Jack cheese,deliciously spicy jalapenos, angry onions and our signature angry sauce. It’s a TENDERCRISP® with a kick.

Nutrition Facts:  Angry Tendercrisp Chicken Sandwich

Calories – 1030

Total Fat – 61 grams

Saturated Fat – 14 grams

Trans Fat – 1.5 grams

Cholesterol – 105 milligrams

Sodium – 2670 milligrams

Carbs – 82 grams

Protein – 40 grams

The Angry Original Chicken Sandwich is described by Burger King as:

Crispy premium white meat chicken topped with angry onions, spicy jalapenos and our signature angry sauce. It’s a sandwich so tasty we haven’t changed it since 1979. We just made it angrier.

Nutrition Facts:  Angry Original Chicken Sandwich

Calories – 870

Total Fat – 55 grams

Saturated Fat – 13 grams

Trans Fat – 1 gram

Cholesterol – 95 milligrams

Sodium – 2430 milligrams

Carbs – 61 grams

Protein – 34 grams

Dine in at The Cheesecake Factory on Thursday, July 30th as they celebrate National Cheesecake Day with “any slice for half price”.  Need help finding one of their 146 restaurant locations?  Click here.

The Cheesecake Factory will also debut their newest flavor – Stefanie’s Ultimate Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake™

Featuring layers of our famous Original Cheesecake, and traditional red velvet cake topped with cream cheese frosting and finished with white chocolate.

Also notable…For every slice sold over the next year, The Cheesecake Factory will donate 25¢ to Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger relief charity..  Check out The Cheesecake Factory on Facebook to be a fan and get updates on what’s new.

The Cheesecake Factory is also currently running a sweepstakes to win a trip to Vegas for you and 9 of your friends…to enter for a chance to win, become a fan of The Cheesecake Factory on Facebook, hit the Vegas tab and click on Enter Now to fill out your info.

*Ok, now for a little giveaway fun for the GrubGrade readers out there.  To enter for a chance to win the $25 gift card to The Cheesecake Factory, tell me which of your friends you’d take on the Reunion of a Lifetime trip and why!  Leave us a comment and I’ll pick a winner after the 50th comment or by 10pm est tonight.  Good luck!

UPDATE: Contest ends at 10pm est tonight.  Winner of the $25 gift card to be announced tomorrow.

—

Winner Update: 

…And the winner is…

Lucky #13, Clarissa

We’ll get that $25.00 Gift Card out to you…email me, or I’ll email you later for your contact info.

Thanks everyone…and go out and get your half price cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory today!

As summer winds down, Arby’s Wednesday FREEbies will also wind down.  Take advantage while you can and get your free Iced FruiTea with any sandwich purchase today, Wednesday, July 29th.  Choose from Passion Fruit, Mandarin Peach, Diet Peach or Diet Blackberry.

Check out our reviews for a sandwich recommendation:

Arby’s Roastburgers

Arby’s Fish Sandwich

Arby’s Roast Chicken Club

Nutrition Information:

Mandarin Peach FruiTea

Calories  – 90

Diet Blackberry FruiTEa

Calories – 0

Diet Peach FruiTea

Calories – 0

Passion Fruit FruiTea

Calories – 100

Long time no talk GrubGraders! As some of you know, I’ve been ditching my usual snack reviews as of late, mostly on account of a hectic travel schedule and other work related endeavors. Case in point, I was barely able to get over my recent trip to Buffalo, New York, before setting my sights halfway across the country to one of my favorite states in our country…Wyoming!

Smells like...victory...

Yes, Wyoming. Make all the jokes you want about my apparent backwardness when it comes to travel and leisure, but frankly there is no place else I’d rather be in the good ol’ US of A than in some open field under a big Wyoming sky. (more…)