Some Pancakes and Stuff

Apparently there's a pancake revolution going on, and I missed the news. Thankfully, IHOP is on the inside, and they'll allow me to join! If you join the IHOP Pancake Revolution club, you get a free meal. Yes, it's their (in)famous Rooty Tooty Fresh 'n Fruity meal. Free. Happiness. The free meals are the best. Sadly, you can only have one "per table" with this deal, so you can't sign up a horde of friends at once and head out for some free goodness. I bet you could all sit at different tables, though. As an aside, I was pulled over by a cop on the way to IHOP because my state inspection had expired. Remember kids, if you want pancakes without delays, don't forget your annual state inspection!

Villa Fresh Spaghetti

If you like Villa Fresh Kitchen on facebook, you get access to random coupons. Like a free side of spaghetti. In this case, largely overcooked spaghetti with a somewhat watery sauce. But the pizza was pretty good! The coupons change pretty regularly, so you can just keep going back and getting new ones. Some of them require you to buy stuff as well, but this one was a free side with no strings attached.

Opportunity: Quaker Life Soft Baked Bars

Walmart occasionally offers to mail free samples to you, and right now the offer up is for a Quaker Life Soft Baked bar. You can get cinnamon roll or baked walnut while supplies last.

Also be sure to check out the Walmart free samples page, as they update pretty frequently.

Opportunity: Free Panini

Corner Bakery is giving away a free panini to the first 1000 people who like them on facebook. You have to sign up and give them your mailing address, as they will physically mail you a coupon (hopefully they don't mail you the panini itself XD).

Costco Run

There is no more joyous place to the hobbyist sampler than Costco, that magical land of samples all day long (that also costs $50 for a season pass, but we'll ignore that). On a whim, I decided go head over there today to see what I could see (and eat what I could eat).

Odwalla Superfood - That green/brown color is probably the least appealing shade for food ever, and health food already has a bad rap as tasting less than good. Odwalla does blend some good drinks, though. I've always been very fond of their Vanilla Al'Mondo Protein drink. I'm neutral about the flavor and texture in this case, though. It tastes like it can't decide if it wants to be a fruit drink or a vegetable blend. Curious.

Pizza Hot Pocket - Um, it's pizza hot pocket. It tastes pretty much like every other pizza hot pocket. It was also pretty hot.

White Cranberry Peach Juice - Oops. I forgot the brand for this one. Shame, too, since it was really good. I prefer tart drinks, and there was just enough white cranberry to keep me happy. My friend prefers sweet drinks, and there was just enough peach to keep him happy.

Taquito with Jalapeño sauce - Again, I don't remember the brand name(s) for this/these at all. I'm a terrible sampler. D: It was good. A little on the spicy side for me, but I've never been good with spicy things. Probably perfect for most people.

Apple Pear - It's a fruit that tastes vaguely of apple and vaguely of pear. The texture is also a cross between the two fruit. Very mild, sweet, and juicy. Not really my think (I prefer sour fruits), but my friend sure liked it.

Mac and Cheese - This table was really crowded (go figure), so I didn't actually get to talk to the person and figure out what this even was. It was good, though.

Potato Soup - My favorite from the whole run today. Potato soup made by a local place, and probably made out of delicious. Or something equally good.

Mini Sandwich XD

Samples at Super Target today! Weekends are nice. Here we have mozarella, smoked turkey, and sourdough bread. All good stuff from the deli. It's like a miniature sandwich! : D

And as a special treat, they also had samples of apple cider! Mmm...I do love apple cider, and it's rather a rarity for grocery stores to offer drink samples. I'm happy for autumn, because it's apple cider season.

Organic Chocolate

Sadly, I didn't get to participate in free cookie day today. However, my sadness was made less sad thanks to some free samples at Tom Thumb. These are Dagoba Organic Chocolates, and my, they are delicious. At the table, they were actually handing out full squares of the stuff. Brilliant. I happened to be with a friend at the time, so we both got a piece. We tried dark chocolate and dark chocolate with lavender and blueberry. I must say, I'm very impressed. Even the packaging for these little guys is lovely, and the texture is very smooth. The lavender blueberry one was intriguing to say the least. I did like the lavender flavor, although the blueberry threw me off a little. Either way, this was an unexpected and happy score for me.