McDonald's family-time happy-time trip: musings, pictures, and giveaway

This is a sponsored post from BlogHer and McDonald's.

Is it ironic that I'm writing this McDonald's Family-Time Happy-Time trip review in a McDonald's restaurant? Heh. Seems a tad ironic to me. It's just that our family has been traveling the entire summer, and this week is no exception. We're up in Tahoe (again) and there is no internet access to be found in these mountains except at the local McD's. Funny. Anyhow…

A few weeks ago, McDonald's invited 10 blogging mamas and their families to corporate headquarters in Chicago and told us to bring every question we had because we would have access to everyone and everything. And boy did we! We got to meet with Jan Fields (President of McDonald’s USA), as well as the heads of Strategy, Menu, Human Resources, Marketing, Nutrition, and employees at every level from every group, it was a fantastic opportunity! You should have seen the mamas and their questions. I loved the fact that we met with Jan in a McDonald's restaurant instead of a fancy boardroom, by the way. I don't know, something about that just tickled me.

One of the most popular presentations was with "The Chicken Doctor," whose real title was VP of Live Operations and Processing of Keystone Foods. There were SO many excellent questions for him, and I have to say that he faced the room full of mama bears with great humor and answered all of the questions very well. I'll let the other bloggers address these questions, since mine were mostly around menu options (below).

The questions I kept asking:

My wishlist was all about healthy options for kids. The Chicken McNuggets/Apple Dippers/Milk Jugs are a great start for Happy Meals  (they said one-third of the Happy Meals sold are this configuration – and that’s the only way the meals are advertised, which I appreciate), but wouldn't it just be awesome if McDonald's offered a wider variety of healthy options? Specifically, more fruit, vegetables, and non-fried items. I'd love to be able to order any of these for the twinados: applesauce cups, tiny bags of baby carrots or grapes, mandarin orange cups, mac and cheese, mini bags of snap peas and ranch dip, toasted cheese sandwiches, corn niblets, cups of rice, etc. I know that comes as no surprise to anyone since these are featured in so many bento meals that I pack for the kids. The McDonald's execs said they had actually test marketed almost all of those choices and ran into two problems: 1) there are strict choking hazard laws in the US and 2) even though people say they want healthy options, they don't buy them, and if a product doesn't sell, it is dropped from the menu. I can totally understand the choking hazard problem, but doesn't that just mean that some products need to be sliced or cut before packaging? A cut grape must be similar to a sliced apple, right? And we know the sliced apples are currently offered. In addition, and this is one I believe passionately in: there must be a huge monetary worth that would be attached to even the perception that McDonald's offers the widest variety of healthy options of any fast-food chain. Say if they offered five healthy alternatives in the Happy Meal menu -- no one could touch that, right? Some percentage of mamas (like me!) would be ecstatic and would snap these options up. For the rest, just call it an advertising fee, something like the "Get Healthy Eat Healthy Campaign."

Here's what I like:

1. McDonald's restaurants, anywhere that we travel, and we travel a lot (so far this summer we've been to Hawaii, Tahoe, Chicago, Utah, and back to Tahoe twice), are 100% consistent. We know what we're getting, we know what the kids can and will eat, and TubaDad and I know exactly what we can eat there that's on our diets (grilled chicken, salads, fruit and yogurt, eggs, etc.). It's iffy if we go somewhere else, especially in airports or on the road. We're not eating McDonald's every day (is anyone?), but I'd guess that we take the kids there two times a month and easily make healthy choices while we're there.

2. I also reallyreallyreally enjoyed visiting one of the Ronald McDonald Houses during this getaway weekend and seeing the daily operations. Wonderful place, wonderful concept, and it is helping so many families with sick kids. McDonald's pays for all of the administrative costs of RMHC, in case you're curious about the connection, like me. Here’s a video of our group in one of the houses: you can see that Ro and Ree fell asleep on the comfy bus and we carried them in:

3. Pssst: I was grinning big during the sneak preview we all got of the new Fruit & Maple Oatmeal that's being test marketed right now. Yum, that stuff was awesome (which is saying a lot coming from someone who eats oatmeal for breakfast almost every day -- you'd be hard pressed to find a pickier oatmeal consumer) and I cannot wait until it’s available near us.

Here's what the girls like:

1. Chicken McNuggets (about the only fast food they'll eat, before this trip or after – no exaggeration).

2. All of the fun family-time events that McDonald’s packed into this trip. They loved the family bbq, scavenger hunt, paddleboat rental, sensory taste testing, and especially the chance to cook with Chef Dan in a McDonald’s kitchen. Here’s a short video McDonald's made where you can see Ro and Ree and all the kids making fruit kabobs and smoothies (that's me talking in the beginning of the video):

2. "That silly guy" (AKA: Ronald McDonald). Heh. They were so happy to hang out with TubaDad and I (and the other kids and the super-fun McDonald’s kid staffers) all weekend and get to meet the silly dude at each event. Yeah, they're pretty easy to please.

The bottom line:

We're pretty healthy eaters in our family. No surprise there – you can see the kinds of meals I serve my kiddos on my blog. And we take our kids to McDonald's and choose healthy options for them and ourselves every time. I'm guessing you can make healthy or unhealthy choices anywhere that you go, from a fast-food chain to a five-star restaurant. I give McDonald's huge props for hosting a big bunch of mamas and giving us total access to their execs, test kitchens, and restaurants. I learned a lot, they did a great job of listening to our concerns and answering our questions, and now I'm going to click "send" on this review and go order a diet coke and a grilled chicken snack wrap. Heh.

The giveaway:

One winner will be chosen to win a McDonald’s Family Fun Prize Pack, which includes a McDonald’s smile tote bag, $25 AMC gift card, $20 McDonald’s Arch card (can be used for any purchase at a McD’s), fleece blanket, frisbee, french-fry playing cards, Monopoly Junior Board Game, Organic Lip Balm, McDonald’s Vintage Character T-Shirt, a McDonald’s Stainless Tumbler, and a surprise set of Happy Meal toys.

To enter the giveaway, please help TubaDad and I in our travels and leave a comment letting me know about any healthy options you've found in any fast-food restaurant.

1. Giveaway opens at 9am (PST) July 27 2010 and ends 5pm (PST) August 10, 2010.
2. To get one extra entry, either blog or tweet about this promotion and leave an additional comment with the url of your tweet or blog post (two entries allowed per person).
3. You can visit the other bloggers for 9 more chances to win or to read their awesome reviews. I just loved meeting all these folks.
4. Check out the full text of the official rules.
5. Entries/comments must be on topic and not offensive or derogatory.

Good luck everyone! Feel free to leave any questions you might have about the trip or McDonald’s here as well and I’ll try to get the answers.  Thanks!!

Standing under the golden arches

Yeah, this is cool. McDonald’s flew a posse of bloggers and their families (all members of the BlogHer publishing network) to corporate headquarters just outside of Chicago and we get to spend the rest of the week getting behind-the-counter peeks, talking with McDonald’s execs, giving lots of feedback, having fun, and visiting the Ronald McDonald House charity.

The girls are just tickled pink, and so are TubaDad and I actually. These folks sure know how to make families feel welcome. Whooooeeeee! More details to come later – all the bloggers will be writing full reviews about our experiences, questions, and feedback (the good and the bad) in July. In the meantime, here are a few sneak preview pictures.

(Ro brown shirt, Ree pink and white striped shirt)

Another winner in the Pop-Tarts giveaway

Well I didn't hear back from the first winner in 48 hours, so I had to draw a new winner for the BlogHer $100 visa gift card. We had 332 entries spread over both Pop-Tarts posts, and Random.org drew #91, which was this comment on the first post:

Lori A. said...
We love to have eggs, bacon, biscuits & gravy! Yum! ljatwood at gmail dot com

Congratulations Lori!!

I'll be emailing a winner's announcement right now, and Lori you've got 48 hours to respond or I'll have to draw a new winner.

Winner Pop-Tarts giveaway

I've drawn a winner in the Pop-Tarts $100 Visa giftcard giveaway. We had 206 entries on the first post and 126 on the second post, for a total of 332 entries. I used random.org to draw a winner, and the site chose #169, which was this comment:

McCurdysZoo said...
We love waffles!! Especially oatmeal waffles!
April 5, 2010 3:56 PM

Congratulations!

The winner has an email address listed in her profile, so I'll be emailing her shortly.

Cheers, and thanks for all the fun entries. You guys sure made me hungry!

Review and giveaway: A Salsa in China Pop-Tarts recipe (yipes!)

This is a compensated review by BlogHer and Kellogg’s® Pop-Tarts® Toaster Pastries.

For the second part of our Pop-Tarts review (see the first part here), we were asked to make up our own recipe using any flavor of Kellogg’s® Pop-Tarts® Toaster Pastries and serve it to our families for breakfast. Yipes. I am SO not a fantastic cook... But that's ok, I am creative, and my helpers were very enthusiastic (they always are). It doesn't hurt that they've been big Pop-Tarts fans from a very early age. Does anyone remember this picture? Awwwww.


Anyhow, our creation was Brown-Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts Coffee Cake, and it actually turned out really well. Phew!! I thought that a nice coffee cake with frosted brown-sugar cinnamon Pop-Tarts sprinkled throughout and on the top might be just the ticket, so I looked at a whole bunch of coffee-cake recipes, and kind of adapted one that would fit what I pictured in my head. Here's what we did:


Preheated the oven to 350 degrees, then gathered these ingredients:

3/4 cup butter (softened), 1 1/2 cup sugar, 3 eggs, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla, 3 cups flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 1/2 cups sour cream (a 16 oz container), 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans, 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 6 frosted brown sugar cinnamon Pop-Tarts.

Combined the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla together in a large bowl and beat it on medium speed for a couple of minutes. There was a little tussle over rights to the uber-cool mixer (there always is), so each girl got to take a turn (and our poor little batter got way overmixed, but who cares, everyone was happy):



Next, we added in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sour cream. Then beat it again until it made kind of a stiff dough. We set this bowl aside (and out of reach of sneaky little twin tongues and fingers) for a few minutes.

In another bowl, we made the filling (the good stuff!). Combined the brown sugar, pecans, cinnamon, and crumbled Pop-Tarts (Ro and Ree started cutting the crusts off on their own and tossing those parts out, and I kind of thought it was a good idea, so I let them have at it).



Now we spooned about a third of the batter (around 2 cups) into a greased bundt pan and sprinkled with about a third of the filling. Then repeated the batter-and-sprinkle layering two more times. (Fun fact: This bundt pan is an antique. It used to belong to my grandmother.) We ended up with a yummy-looking top that was completely covered with sprinkles.



Um, there was a quick pause for some "cleanup":


Then we baked it at 350-degrees for 50 to 60 minutes (it's done when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean).


Hey that looks pretty good! Ree thought so too, because she couldn't wait until I was done to sneak a bite:


Everyone actually liked it, so yay me! TubaDad said "Hey that's good!":


Ro said "Dat's gwate!" (that's great):


And Ree said "Dat's awesome!":


Fun stuff. I liked it too. Next time I might even get a little wild and use cherry or blueberry Pop-Tarts for a little extra surprise in the middle!


The Giveaway: BlogHer has something special for you too! One lucky Salsa reader will win a $100 Visa giftcard. To enter, leave me a comment below and tell me your favorite family breakfast. The contest runs from 4/2-4/16/2010 and entries will be generated by this post and our previous Pop-Tarts review on 4/2. Make sure that your email addy is in your profile or that the e-mail address you leave is correct (feel free to use weird spaces and spell out "dot" or "at" or that sort of thing) so I have some way to contact you.

The Rules: Duplicate comments/entries will be deleted. You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments. This giveaway is open to US-residents only. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail. You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. Please see the official rules here. Check out the BlogHer.com special offers page to read other bloggers’ reviews—you've got seven other chances to win! For other recipes, and a full list of the flavors, take a peek at the Pop-Tarts website.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

COMMENTS FOR THIS GIVEAWAY ARE NOW CLOSED. I'LL DRAW THE WINNER AT RANDOM THIS EVENING AND WILL BE BACK TO POST THE WINNER.

Review and giveaway: Pop-Tarts Sprinkly Ice Cream Bites

This is a compensated review by BlogHer and Kellogg’s® Pop-Tarts® Toaster Pastries.

When our family was asked if we'd like to do a Pop-Tarts review, the kids practically pushed me away from the computer and typed "YES!!!" themselves. Heh. We kind of like Pop-Tarts around here. When we found out we'd get to sample a new flavor and try out an Easter recipe with it, well shoot you should have seen the grins.

A few days later, we heard a knock at the door and found an entire case of Strawberry Milkshake Pop-Tarts. The girls screamed and started jumping up and down singing "We have PopTarts... we have PopTarts!" over and over. It was kind of funny. Loud, but funny.

Anyhow, I think we were supposed to wait for recipe day to try the Pop-Tarts, but, um, it didn't happen. That box barely hit our foyer before it was ripped open and the girls were chewing. And man was that new flavor a hit.



On official recipe day, we printed out the directions for Sprinkly Ice Cream Bites from the Kellogg's web site and got right to work. (Ro is in the white sundress, and Ree is wearing the backwards yellow cardigan, in case you wondered.) This recipe has only three ingredients, and the girls could do everything themselves (always a bonus in our house).


Alrighty, here's what we did:

Grabbed a box of Strawberry Milkshake Pop-Tarts (hm, this case used to be full...):


Cut each of the Pop-Tarts into four pieces. The girls did this easily using butter knives. (Notice I said "easily" not prettily. Heh heh.):


Put a scoop of ice cream between two Pop-Tart pieces and squished it together:


Rolled the edges of each ice-cream sandwich in sprinkles:


Hey, not bad!:


Yeah, this looks pretty tasty:


Let's see:


Yummmmmm!:


How many do we get to eat? Hmmmm?:


The girls definitely liked the new Pop-Tarts, and the Sprinkly Ice Cream Bites recipe (in pretty pastels, just in time for Easter!). And I might have eaten one too. Ok it was two. Alright fine, it was three little ice cream sandwiches. Ahem.

This would be a really fun do-it-yourself dessert bar to have at a kid's party. You could put out a whole bunch of pre-cut Pop-Tarts in a wide variety of flavors, have little ice-cream balls that you had scooped out and frozen ahead of time (again in a variety of flavors), and a whole bunch of bowls of sprinkles. The kids would go crazy for these.

As Ro said on the video, "four thumbs up," one from each person in our family. :-)

The Giveaway: BlogHer has something special for you too! One lucky Salsa reader will win a $100 Visa giftcard. To enter, leave me a comment below and tell me your favorite family breakfast. The contest runs from 4/2-4/16/2010 and entries will be generated by this post and a subsequent one on 4/9 (the girls and I get to make up our own Pop-Tarts recipe next week—should be interesting!). Make sure that your email addy is in your profile, or the e-mail address you leave is correct (feel free to use weird spaces and spell out "dot" or "at" or that sort of thing) so I have some way to contact you.

The Rules: Duplicate comments/entries will be deleted. You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments. This giveaway is open to US-residents only. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail. You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. Please see the official rules here. Check out the BlogHer.com special offers page to read other bloggers’ reviews—you've got seven other chances to win! For other recipes, and a full list of the flavors, take a peek at the Pop-Tarts website.

Comments are now closed for this post and the rest of the comments for this two-part giveaway will be received at the Salsa in China Pop-Tarts recipe post directly above this one.

Winner announcement: Hershey's $100 giveaway

Happy New Year! The Hershey's $100 Visa gift card giveaway winner has been chosen. We had 268 entries that came in before end of day on 12/31, and I used random.org to select the winning #140.

Congratulations LStewart, your comment was the winning comment #140. Please email me and I'll have Blogher (the company that is running the giveway) send your prize out.

LStewarts comment was this one, and I think we're going to make that Monkey Bread in celebration:

LStewart said...
Easy Monkey Bread3 containers (8oz Tube) Refrigerated Biscuit Dough1 1/2 cup White Sugar, separated3 Tablespoons Cinnamon1/2 cup Butter or Margarine MeltedPreheat oven to 350 degreesMix together 3/4 cup sugar and cinnamonQuarter each biscuit using a pair of kitchen shears. Dip shears in water between each cut to keep the biscuit from getting too sticky.Dip biscuits into sugar/cinnamon mixture and place in a greased tub pan. Do this until all biscuits are used.Melt butter or margarine and mix in the remaining 3/4 cup sugar. I add any of the sugar/cinnamon mixture that may be left over too! Pour mixture over biscuits.Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes.Serve warm
December 10, 2009 1:43 PM