The Halloween fast food thread

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Welcome to the Halloween fast food and junk food thread, every year around this time various fast food places offer their customers a treat by adding some Halloween themed items to their menus.

Here you can post about some of the yummy and unhealthy treats that you come across during the season, and share your opinions on them, whether it's something currently available, or something from the past that you want them to bring back.

I already posted about the Addams Family menu at BK right now, but when I was looking up the info for that I found out that Krispy Kreme has Ghostbusters donuts available for the holiday. There are 4 different Ghostbusters donuts to choose from, Slimer, Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, the Ghostbusters logo Cookies N’ Creme, and the Ecto-Sprinkled donut with orange icing and sprinkles to give it a Halloween look.

I brought my kids with me to try them today, while most of them taste fine like you would expect from regular donuts, the Slimer donut was a very nice treat, it is filled with green lime flavored jelly to look like slime, and it has green and purple icing. I should also mention that the donuts come with a character shaped candy on top.

If you're a Ghostbusters fan, or you just like donuts, then I recommend that you try them if you can find them in your area. I had to make my kids promise that they wouldn't tell their mother that I brought them there, because if my wife knew that I was eating someone else's deliciously evil pastries she would kill me... normally I would put a smiley face behind that, but I'm absolutely serious.

I've posted pics below, as usual, what you get doesn't look as good as their promotional pictures, but at least they taste good.

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[Murfreesboro]

Those are cute!

I haven't been to a fast food place recently, but I did buy some pumpkin spice Moon Pies at Kroger tonight. Does that count?

If I were to go out for donuts, I'd go to Donut Country, a local place within walking distance of our house. There's a Krispy Kreme a couple of miles from here. I know they're good, too, but I prefer our local business.

[MauEvig]

I've seen those Ghostbuster's donuts advertised! Krispy Kreme is a bit of a drive for us though.
But then again, so is Dunkin' Donuts. Apparently, Dunkin Donuts is having their own Halloween and fall offerings as well. They are offering a bucket of donut holes also called "munkin's." And of course, most places are offering pumpkin spice coffee, lattes and the like.
Oddly enough I've always seen donuts as a big part of the Halloween season. We used to have donuts and cider. Of course, the "apple cider donut" seems to be a new thing that people like to talk about. But typically, I'm talking about the cider drink served with a donut.
I've also seen the Addam's Family burgers advertised as well.
McDonald's is supposed to bring the Boo Buckets back. They have these new monster designs. They didn't get the best reviews, but I think they have charm.
When they brought them back in 2022 I did get a few. XD
I think Wendy's sells "Boo bucks" too.
I'll have to see what other fast food offerings are out there.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

I think that most of the food that is available out there today can be considered to be fast/junk food, if you walk into a supermarket today 90% of what they sell is premade stuff that is ready to eat and doesn't require any preparation and it is usually filled with chemicals and is extremely unhealthy for you. With that said, life is short and as long as you enjoy these treats in moderation then you should be fine.

So I do count any store bought cakes, pies, cookies, chips, cereals, and any other snacks as fast/junk food for this thread, as long as they have a Halloween theme.

For example, there is a cookie snack we usually buy for the kids called Bear Paws, they are meant to be like bear claws, but they recently changed the packaging for Halloween and called them Scare Paws. It is a nice little way to make your product appeal to more people during certain holidays.

I know that Pillsbury has had the Great Pumpkin cookies since the 90s and they offer a variety of products for different holidays now. My mother usually makes her cookies from scratch, but occasionally she will still get some of their cookies for the holidays.

When I was a kid McDonald's didn't really offer any special food items for Halloween, but they always had some awesome promotional things for kids like the Boo Buckets, and the McNugget Buddies with costumes in the Happy Meals. They actually brought back the McNugget Buddies last year, and they were specifically made for adults that grew upwith them, the only bad thing was that they were charging $16 for each Happy Meal, so I didn't get any because that's just nuts.

I also remember Pizza Hut had some Halloween items on their menu about 20 years ago, I don't think it was popular because they haven't done it since, well, I haven't heard that they have.

[Andybev01]

Papa Murphy's take-n-bake makes a 'Jack O Pizza'.

So simple really, they pinch part of the crust to form a stem and create the face with pepperoni.

They save money on toppings because there isn't meat covering the entire pie, but can still charge full price.

The pepperoni they use is my favorite of all the pizza joints, so it's a win/win in my book.

[Murfreesboro]

It's true what you say, HH, about the pre-packaged stuff at the supermarkets. My daughter and I have discussed how feminism has affected the American diet. When most of the women felt compelled to enter the work force, home cooking took a major hit. Of course, the over-scheduling of extracurriculars also takes a toll. When I was a kid, there were far fewer organized activities for children. Parents felt way more comfortable just opening the front door and letting kids play in the neighborhood. And in our case, church involvement eats into family time. At one point my husband was an elder, a Sunday school teacher, and a choir member. He's dropped the eldering but still does the other two. Tonight he and I will both be at choir, and tomorrow he'll have a children's team meeting, because the Sunday school teachers are the ones who plan the monthly or seasonal activities for the kids. All this stuff wreaks havoc on a dinner schedule.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

You might be right about that Murf, it most likely is one of the factors that led to the decline of home cooked meals, along with the increasing demand on people's schedules. I think that when microwaves became popular in the 80s people started to use that as a faster way to make dinner, and the companies that produce the dinners saw record sales that haven't slowed since, and the frozen meals industry is bigger today than it's ever been.

Another reason is that we live in a society where instant satisfaction, regardless of what industry, is not only expected by people, but demanded by them. We make everything fresh at our restaurant, so when a customer walks in and orders something they can expect to have some wait time before they get their order, most customers are fine with that because they know we aren't McDonald's, but there are some customers that complain when they don't get their order instantly, some even get aggressive with my staff because they want to eat right away, then we make them leave. Of course, they are the same idiots that leave a bad review for us on Google, but that's just the way it is.

As for the jack o' lantern pizzas, I've seen some places make them before, and I think Little Caesars still makes them. We offered them at the restaurant one year, we sliced the sides of the pepperoni and ham to make them a triangle so the face was scarier, but they didn't sell well, we only sold 10 of them that year, so we didn't offer it again, but we still make them at home for the kids.

I didn't notice anyone post here about it, so I don't know if you guys were aware or not, but Oct. 1 was National Pumpkin Spice Day, and to say that we had a great day for business would be a understatement. The customers were nonstop the whole day, and my wife sold over 800 of her pumpkin spice muffins that day, not to mention how much coffee and other Halloween baked goods we went through. If only every day was a specific national food day.

[Andybev01]

I can tell you from experience that most days are, in fact national 'Something' day.

When I began my job at CBS I was given a calendar with almost every day, week and, month labeled with a product or event, to help boost sales at corresponding businesses.

God bless America.

[Murfreesboro]

I didn't know about National Pumpkin Spice Day! But the season is hardly long enough to get around to all the pumpkin spice goodies. My daughter and I strive heroically to do so, however.

[MauEvig]

My holiday discord server has a bot on it that tells me what holidays are listed for that day, so I can absolutely confirm that every day is a holiday.

For reference, here's a list of today's holidays:

Thu, 17 Oct 2024

• Black Poetry Day

• Conflict Resolution Day

• Edge Day

• Forgive an Ex Day

• Four Prunes Day

• Get to Know Your Customers Day

• International Credit Union Day

• International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

• International ShakeOut Day

• Mulligan Day

• National Get Smart About Credit Day

• National Pasta Day

• National Playing Card Collection Day

• Pay Back a Friend Day

• Spirit Day

• Spreadsheet Day

• The Start of Sukkot

• Wear Something Gaudy Day

• World Trauma Day

Well I'm definitely down with Pasta and Playing Card Collection day.

As far as home cooked meals go, I do like to try to make something homemade on weekends. But a lot of times it's quick and easy for the week. Although I did make tacos yesterday. Tacos are quick and easy, but I'd still consider that homemade!

[Murfreesboro]

I don't even know what some of those things mean. Edge Day? Shakeout Day?

[MauEvig]

It's hard to say, Murf. Some of the holidays I don't really get. I've often had to google those.

By the way, my boyfriend has made a jack o lantern pizza before, and it turned out really great! He's a great cook.

[Murfreesboro]

You could also make a jack o lantern face on an open sandwich with a slice of cheese, or you could carve a bell pepper, or even an orange.

I have seen suggestions for using a cookie cutter with a slice of cheese to top soups, chilis, etc. You could make pumpkins, cats, ghosts, whatever you like.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

As usual, Popeyes has brought back their Ghost Pepper Sandwich and ghostly menu for Oct. I tried the sandwich a few years ago and it was really good, I would say that it is better than KFCs sandwiches both in taste and quality.

Also, I didn't know where to put this and I didn't want to start a new topic for it, but if anyone is interested youtube is streaming Scooby episodes 24/7 for free, you check the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhOelNSvWN4

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[Murfreesboro]

Omg, my daughter is the queen of Scooby-Doo. I think she literally has every episode on dvd, and she'll pull them out at the drop of a hat.

Is that ghost pepper sandwich actually made with ghost peppers? I've heard they are extremely hot. I would never try one for that reason. No Nashville hot chicken for me, either, thank you very much.