Burger King New Menu Review and BK® Crown Card Giveaway

As a member of MyBlogSpark, I was given the opportunity to participate in the Burger King New Menu Spark.  Burger King has recently added several new menu items including made-to-order Garden Fresh Salads, Snack Wraps, Real Fruit Smoothies, Frappés and Crispy Chicken Strips, and MyBlogSpark sent me a $20 BK^® Crown Card to try out the new items.  Plus they want to reward one of my readers with a $20 BK^® Crown Card too!

Chicken, Apple and Cranberry Garden Fresh Salad

I don’t generally eat a ton of fast food.  It’s especially hard to find something that I want/can eat on the menus now that I know I’m gluten-free.  This definitely put a limit on what I was able to try from the new menu, but I was excited about trying the Chicken, Apple and Cranberry Garden Fresh Salad and the Mocha Frappé.  Salads are usually a fairly safe option at fast food places since croutons usually come in separate bags, but I do have to watch out for the dressings.  Burger King has a pretty decent allergy/nutrition chart, so I knew my choices would be safe.  The other reason I hesitate on ordering salads at fast food places is that the lettuce is often iceberg, which is pretty worthless taste-wise and nutritionally, or it just doesn’t seem very fresh. 

We went to Burger King for dinner the week after we closed on our house and were very busy getting everything ready to move in the following weekend, so we go it to go and took it to the apartment to eat.  Lo ordered the Crispy Chicken Strips with honey mustard and sweet and sour sauce, and I got the Apple and Cranberry Garden Fresh Salad and the Mocha Frappé.  

I sipped on the mocha on the way home.  It was pretty good, though VERY sweet.   And while I love whipped cream, I hate how it comes standard on mochas and milkshakes everywhere these days – it’s good, but fairly unnecessary and unhealthy…but I still ate it.  It had a good mocha flavor – I’m just used to drinking black coffee, so the sweetness was a bit much for me.    

Chicken, Apple and Cranberry Garden Fresh Salad

I ate the salad when we got home and it was delicious.  And huge!  There were two TENDERGRILL^® chicken pieces sliced on top (TENDERCRISP^®  is an option too).  It was SO filling.  I actually couldn’t eat all of it – which is shocking because I can finish almost any salad except one from Chipotle.  I was very impressed with the lettuce – it was very green and crisp.  The tartness of the apples and cranberries paired perfectly with the saltiness of the bleu cheese.  Instead of the Apple Cider Vinaigrette, I chose the Ken's® Lite Honey Balsamic for the dressing because I wanted a lighter option. 

Lo enjoyed his Crispy Chicken Strips, though it’s not something he’d normally order.  He said that it was the perfect portion of breading to chicken and the chicken was moist, but the breading wasn’t soggy, which is surprising considering he didn’t eat them until we got home.  I thought they have a pretty impressive selection of sauces for the strips and made fun of him for initially choosing honey mustard, which is one of the more boring/standard sauces.  I thought the Kung Pau and BBQ Roasted Jalepeno Dipping sauces sounded better. I meant to take a picture of his, but I forgot!

I probably hadn’t eaten at Burger King for well over a year.  I used to love the breakfast, but now that I’m gluten-free, everything is pretty much off limits for breakfast.  I still love their iced tea the best (I think it tastes like roses, which doesn’t make sense OR sound good, but I love it), and I’m happy to know that they have great salads now. 

MyBlogSpark is offering one of my readers a $20 gift card pack to try out the new Burger King Menu.

To enter:

Leave a comment telling me what you’d order from the menu, or what you’ve already tried.

Additional optional entries: you MUST leave me a comment for EACH extra entry that you complete.

• Sign up for RSS feed or email updates and leave me a comment letting me know
• Follow me on Pinterest and leave me a comment to let me know
• Follow me on Twitter and leave me a comment to let me know
• Follow BURGER KING^® on Facebook and leave me a comment to let me know

Contest ends June 17, 2012 and the winner will be selected by random.org and notified by email.  Good luck!

*MyBlogSpark provided me the a $20 BK^® Crown Card to try the new menu items, but I was under no obligation to provide a positive review, or any review at all.  If I wasn’t happy with the new menu, I wouldn’t have posted anything.  While I don’t think fast food should be a regular part of anyone’s diet, I feel like there is a time and a place for it, and I’m happy to have a new option when we are eating on the go. 

OXO Good Grips Hand-Held Mandoline Slicer Winner

The winner of the OXO Good Grips Hand-Held Mandoline Slicer is M!  Congrats, I'll email you for details.  Everyone else, thanks for entering and stick around for another giveaway this week!  Hint: it'll give you a break from making dinner one night!

OXO Good Grips Hand-Held Mandoline Slicer Review and Giveaway

Sorry for the delay in announcing the winner - I had a hair appt. after work today.  The winner is M!  Congratulations - I'll contact you by email.  There is another great giveaway coming up this week, so stick around!

I'm a member of the OXO Blogger Outreach Program and was super-excited when I was chosen to review the OXO Good Grips Hand-Held Mandoline Slicer.  I've wanted a mandoline for so long, but could never decide which one to buy.  I was even more excited when I opened the package and saw that in addition to the mandoline that they sent to me - they included another to give to one of my readers!

Sadly, I've been in the process of moving for the last few weeks so I haven't had a chance to use it as much as I've wanted, but one of the recipes that I was excited to try first was baked potato chips!  I can't really call it a recipe, because I just sliced up some potatoes on the thinnest setting, sprayed them with the oil mister and sprinkled them with a variety of seasonings.  When it comes to spices, I just grab and shake, so I don't really know exactly what I used. I spread them out in a single layer on a baking sheet and baked at 400 degrees until they started to brown.  I flipped them over using a fork and cooked until the other side was browned.  They were excellent!  I've also used the mandoline slicer a few times to slice up peppers and I'm so excited to slice up turnips for turnip chips and au gratin once they are in season.





















The mandoline slicer has 3 levels of thickness, though the thickest isn't as thick as I'd prefer.  That's not a big deal because I can just use a knife it I want it that thick.  Thinner is so much hard with a knife.  Once I got the hang of using the food holder to protect myself from the blades, it was simple.  I'm prone to cutting myself with a knife as it is, so I'll definitely be using this with the food holder - those blades are SHARP!  The food holder also slides over the blades for storage, which is key for protection.  You can use the slicer angled on a plate or cutting board like I did below, or you can hook the foot over a bowl and slice into the bowl. 

Like I mentioned, I haven't had an opportunity to use this with very many vegetables yet, but it worked great for potatoes and peppers!

If you'd like to enter to win an OXO Good Grips Hand Held Mandoline:

• Leave me a comment telling me what you'd slice with it if you had one!

Additional entries:

• Sign up for RSS feed or email updates and leave me a comment letting me know
• Follow me on Pinterest and leave me a comment to let me know
• Follow me on Twitter and leave me a comment to let me know

Contest ends June 3, 2012 and the winner will be selected by random.org and notified by email.  Good luck!