Review: Wienerschnitzel - Pretzel Bun Chili Dog

I've tried Wienerschnitzel's Chili Dog before, but not on a pretzel bun so on a recent stop at a Wienerschnitzel, I tried the Pretzel Bun Chili Dog.

The Pretzel Bun Chili Dog is simple enough: a pretzel hot dog bun, a turkey hot dog, and Wienerschnitzel's trademark chili. There's an upcharge of 40 cents for the pretzel bun so that my Pretzel Bun Chili Dog cost $1.89.

News: Papa Murphy's - Jack-O-Lantern Pizza Returns

The pizza with olives for eyes is back at Papa Murphy's. The novelty Jack-O-Lantern Pizza is once again available for the Halloween season.

The pumpkin shaped pizza is decorated with fresh-grated cheese and pepperoni slices to form the jack-o-lantern's face and, like most Papa Murphy's pizzas, generally takes 12 to 18 minutes to cook in your home oven.

Review: Boston Market - Meatloaf Market Bowl

Boston Market's Meatloaf Market Bowl is a limited-time item that seems a bit gimmicky. It's just a bowl filled with your choice of two sides and either meatloaf, turkey, or chicken plus a sauce. It's basically what they normally give you on a plate, but in a more portable bowl.

Regardless of what you choose, each bowl is $6.99. I went with meatloaf, the vegetable medley, and vegetable stuffing. For sauce, I went with tomato sauce.

News: Starbucks - New My Starbucks Rewards Changes

Starting today, Starbucks introduces some changes to their customer loyalty program, My Starbucks Rewards. Some of the perks are gone, but there are some new improvements as well.

 Here's a quick list of the changes:

News: Burger King - California Whopper Returns to the West Coast

Burger King's California Whopper is back for a limited-time, but only at participating BK locations in California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, and, oddly enough, Colorado.

The Whopper variant features a ground beef patty, guacamole, thick-cut, hardwood-smoked bacon, Swiss cheese, sliced tomatoes, lettuce, sliced onions and mayo on a toasted sesame seed bun for a suggested retail price of $4.49.

Review: Wendy's - Bacon Portabella Mushroom Melt

Wendy's Bacon Portabella Mushroom Melt is a kinda new, limited-time burger ("kinda" because it just adds an extra slice of cheese to a previous limited-time offer). It features a quarter pound beef patty, two slices of American cheese, three slices of thick-cut applewood-smoked bacon, and portabella mushrooms in a cheddar cheese sauce.

My local Wendy's offers them for $4.39, but I received mine for free courtesy of Wendy's.

News: KFC - New Dip'ems

KFC offers up new Dip'ems. Except, similar to Popeyes, the only new thing is three new sauces: Creamy Buffalo, Orange Ginger, and Bacon Ranch.

The actual chicken strips are the same standard Extra Crispy chicken strips (they're calling them "tenders" now) that KFC has been serving for a while now.

In sum, Dip'ems is the combination of Extra Crispy chicken strips tenders plus six dipping sauces: the existing Honey BBQ, Honey Mustard, and Creamy Ranch plus the three new ones.

News: Jamba Juice - BOGO Free Smoothie in NY and CA

Jamba Juice is doing another buy one, get one free coupon deal on their smoothies. It's valid at participating locations in California and New York (but also a few select locations in Washington D.C., Maryland, and New Jersey).

The deal is good through Sunday10/21/2012 and offers a free smoothie or equal or less value when you buy any smoothie.

Review: Fresh & Easy - Iced Pumpkin Scones

Iced Pumpkin Scones are new to Fresh & Easy this fall. They usually only have blueberry and orange cranberry scones.

The scones typically go for $3.99 for a pack of 4. They go on sale for $2.99 every once in a while, but I usually get them off the bargain (i.e."sell by today") rack for $2.69.

News: Chipotle - $2 Burrito for Dressing Up on Halloween

Chipotle is once again bring back their Boorito promotion this year. Remember when they used to give away free burritos? Nowadays, it's a $2 burrito, bowl, salad, tacos, etc., but the money goes to a non-profit: the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation (up to 1 million dollars anyway), which promotes "sustainable agriculture, family farming, and culinary education."

Sunday Funny: Snoop Dogg Parodies Himself for Hot Pockets

In a marketing coup that's sure to generate buzz, Snoop Dogg shills for Hot Pockets with a parody of his hit song, "Drop It Like It's Hot," entitled "Pocket Like It's Hot." Instead of Pharell Williams, the parody, which comes complete with a music video, features comedian/rapper Andy Milonakis and Youtube personality/rapper DeStorm (pronounced "day-storm") Power as well as the Funkasaurus, WWE wrestler Brodius Clay (who used to work as one of Snoop Dogg's bodyguards).

The video plays up on some of the sparse aesthetics and motifs of the original version. Check it out below:

Review: Entenmann's - Pumpkin Donuts

Entenmann's Pumpkin Donuts are new and made with real pumpkin. I'd never seen pumpkin donuts at any of my local supermarkets, so I picked a box of these up.

It's not cheap at $4.99 for a box of 8 donuts, but a sale knocked the price down to $2.50.