ANNOUNCEMENT: Support The Impulsive Buy This Gift Giving Season

/ / Announcement

This holiday season, if you’re planning to purchase something from Amazon for your family, friends, co-workers, or lover(s), might I suggest when you do so, you use The Impulsive Buy’s Amazon link below or in the right sidebar.

The Impulsive Buy’s Amazon link

By using The Impulsive Buy’s Amazon link, you’ll get closer to getting your holiday shopping done without having to find parking at the mall, wait in long checkout lines, or listen to children cry while sitting on a mall Santa’s lap, and The Impulsive Buy will get a small kickback to help pay our writers and cover web hosting and help me buy Harlequin romance novels on the Amazon Kindle.

Thank you, Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays!

Marvo
Editor-in-chief
The Impulsive Buy

REVIEW: Subway Western Egg & Cheese

/ / Reviews / 16 Comments

Subway Western Egg & Cheese Closeup

Right now, I’m chillin’ like a villain who gave every superhero an ass whippin’ because I just ate what I consider to be one of the best Subway sandwiches I’ve ever had — their Western Egg & Cheese.

I don’t understand how a sandwich so simple could stimulate my taste buds in a way I haven’t experienced in a long time with a Subway sandwich. The Western Egg & Cheese consists of only ham, cheese, eggs, red onions, and green bell peppers in between a flatbread.

I’m surprised it didn’t come with some kind of barbecue sauce, because if eating fast food has taught me anything besides eating fast food is bad for me, it’s that any fast food item with “western” in its name must have barbecue sauce, like the Burger King Western BBQ Cheeseburger and Hardee’s Western Bacon Thickburger. But, again, it doesn’t have any, nor does Subway offer barbecue sauce, so it appears they’re breaking one of the cardinal rules of fast food.

Since there’s no barbecue sauce, I wondered why Subway called it the Western Egg & Cheese. To find out, I put on my cowboy hat and leather chaps, which were probably unnecessary because finding out didn’t involve riding a horse, or even going outside. It just involved me, a computer, and Google.

Subway Western Egg & Cheese Closerup

It turns out there’s a dish called the Western omelet, which is filled with ham, onions, and green bell peppers. I didn’t know about it because I know it as the Denver omelet. If I was a foodie, I probably would’ve known that Western and Denver omelets are the same. Also, if I was a foodie, I probably wouldn’t eat a Subway Western Egg & Cheese, instead I would turn up my nose at Subway and head to a weird part of town where there’s a quaint, hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop that has many five star reviews on Yelp, crappy parking, and for some reason is closed on Tuesdays.

I’ve eaten enough Subway sandwiches to span across the length of several football fields, and with most of them they need mayo, mustard, or some kind of sauce to make them palatable. But with the Western Egg & Cheese no liquid condiment is necessary. The red onions and bell peppers do a wonderful job of giving the sandwich flavor, but not overpowering the cheese, ham, and egg. The flatbread is tasty, warm, and soft, but doesn’t fall apart easily like other flatbreads.

Sure, the eggs patties they use look unnatural and look like they came from a giant egg from the Flintstones, and a Western Egg & Cheese footlong has over 2,400 milligrams of sodium, but even with those faults, I still think it’s a really good Subway sandwich.

Item: Subway Western Egg & Cheese
Price: $6.00
Size: Footlong
Purchased at: Subway
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 6″ with egg whites – 350 calories, 80 calories from fat, 9 grams of fat, 3.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 25 milligrams of cholesterol, 1,200 milligrams of sodium, 46 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of fiber, 6 grams of sugar, and 24 grams of protein

REVIEW: Jack in the Box Mini Cookies

/ / Reviews / 2 Comments

Jack in the Box Mini Cookies

It may seem weird for a burger joint, like Jack in the Box, to have mini cookies on their menu board. But, to me, it really isn’t. It’s not weird for two reasons.

1. Jack in the Box is known for having items on their menu that don’t seem like they should be on there, like egg rolls, mini churros, and their Chicken Teriyaki Bowl.

2. McDonald’s has been selling cookies for decades. Anyone remember McDonaldland Cookies?

What is weird to me is that the Jack in the Box Mini Cookies weren’t deep fried. I was totally expecting Jack in the Box to prepare these mini chocolate chip cookies with candy coated chocolate the same way they produce their tacos. I also assumed they were deep fried because I’m pretty sure every Jack in the Box kitchen lacks a conventional oven.

To be honest, I’m really disappointed these cookies weren’t dunked in hot oil, because, man, they would’ve been soooo crispy. Instead, the Jack in the Box Mini Cookies were warm, soft, and served to me within four minutes, so I think they were microwaved.

If they were microwaved, I’m fine with that because I’ve nuked my fair share of Chips Ahoy cookies over the years to make them feel like they were fresh out of the oven instead of fresh out of a resealable package. I’ve also nuked my fair share of frozen meals, marshmallow Peeps, and bars of soap.

I’ve also ruined my fair share of microwave ovens.

The Jack in the Box Mini Cookies were as good as microwaved Chips Ahoy cookies. Depending on your feelings towards Chips Ahoy cookies, it makes them either them awesome, awful, or average. I like microwaved Chips Ahoy cookies, but I don’t think they’re awesome, they’re just average, and I feel the same about Jack in the Box’s mini cookies.

There’s a good amount of chocolate in each mini cookie, so if you eat them warm, they’re pleasantly gooey. They’re definitely chocolatier than regular Chips Ahoy cookies, but they taste just as cheap.

However, they should taste cheap, because Jack in the Box’s Mini Cookies are loose change cheap. For a buck and a half, I got five mini cookies that are each about 80 percent the size of a regular Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookie. Seriously, if I stole a begging cup from a panhandler who uses the money only for alcohol, I not only would I give that beggar’s liver a short break, there would be enough coins in it for me to buy some mini cookies.

(Nutrition Facts – 311 calories, 124 calories from fat, 14 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 5 milligrams of cholesterol, 180 milligrams of sodium, 83 milligrams of potassium, 45 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 26 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein.)

Item: Jack in the Box Mini Cookies
Price: $1.49 (most other locations offer it for $1)
Size: 5 mini cookies
Purchased at: Jack in the Box
Rating: 6 out of 10
Pros: Good. One of the cheapest items on the Jack in the Box menu. Chocolatey. Served warm and gooey. Watching bars of soap being microwaved. McDonaldland Cookies.
Cons: I’m disappointed they were not deep fried. Not awesome, but just average. Probably not baked in a conventional oven. I’m seriously disappointed they were not deep fried. Finding the room in my belly for cookies after eating a burger, fries, and 20-ounce soda.

NEWS: Celebrate Oreo’s 100th Birthday By Buying Limited Edition Birthday Cake Oreo Cookies

/ / Spotted on Shelves / 4 Comments

Birthday Cake

Update: Click here to read our Nabisco Limited Edition Birthday Cake Oreo review

Did you know I ate over 100 Oreo cookies in 2011?

Did you know the Oreo cookie turns 100 years old in 2012?

According to Wikipedia, the Oreo cookie was created by Nabisco in 1912 at one of its factories in New York City. Oreo cookies originally came in two flavors: lemon meringue and cream. However, the cream ended up being, by far, the most popular flavor, and Nabisco stopped producing the lemon meringue flavor in the 1920s. But enough with the free history lesson that will not provide you with any answers for any history exam you take.

So how is Nabisco going to celebrate Oreo’s 100th birthday? They’re probably first going to have Willard Scott announce the birthday on The Today Show, and then they’re going to do it with Limited Edition Birthday Cake Oreo cookies.

The naturally and artificially flavored chocolate sandwich cookies will have a creme filling with what appears to be sprinkles in it. That filling will be sandwiched in-between chocolate cookies that have a special design commemorating Oreo’s 100th birthday. I haven’t been able to dig up anything about its flavor, so I don’t know what kind of birthday cake the limited edition cookie is supposed to taste like.

Two cookies will have 140 calories, 60 calories from fat, 6 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat (uses partially hydrogenated oil), 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 110 milligrams of sodium, 40 milligrams of potassium, 21 grams of carbohydrates, 13 grams of sugar, less than 1 gram of fiber, and less than 1 gram of protein.

The Limited Edition Birthday Cake Oreo cookies will be available in early 2012 in 10.5 ounce packages.

Image via flickr user Will Clayton / CC BY 2.0

NEWS: Burger King Revamps Their Fries…Again; I Hope Their Onion Rings Are Next

/ / Fast Food News / 11 Comments

Burger King

Update: Click here to read our new Burger King fries review

I’ll be honest. I don’t love Burger King fries. I don’t really care for the coating around them and I don’t think they’re salty enough. I pretty much consider them the starch that allows me to take breaks in between bites of a Whopper. However, maybe I won’t feel that way when I taste Burger King’s new and improved French fries.

Burger King last changed their fries in 1997, which is a long time when one compares it to Jack in the Box who have updated their fries twice since 2004. Of course, BK rival, McDonald’s has never revamped their fries. Unless you count those times when they started using a trans fat-free oil and stopped using beef fat to fry them.

BK says the new fries are larger, fluffier, and have better potato flavor than their old fries. Our pals over at Grub Grade gave the new fries a try.

While a few locations already have the new fries, they’ll be available in about 7,000 North American restaurants by December 5. The suggested price for Burger King’s new fries will remain the same as the previous version. The fries will have about 20 percent less sodium and will be cooked in trans fat-free vegetable oil.

If you’ve already tried the new fries, let us know what you think about them in the comments below.

Image via flickr user Håkan Dahlström / CC BY 2.0