Although there is a growing demand for fast food restaurants to include healthy options on their menu, it seems that over the top meals are coming back, just like LeBron James has spurned the Heat to go back to his hometown. According to Technomic, the first quarter of 2014 saw words like “loaded,” “stacked,” “smothered” or “stuffed” mentioned 14,801 times on the menus of US chains. Consumers can ask for low calorie meals, but in the end, their cravings seem to outlast their will.
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Huddle House
For now, the full-service family restaurant chain is focusing on marketing its Stuffed and Smothered Omelets over health-conscious offerings. For the price of $5.99 – $6.99, you can enjoy a fluffy omelet stuffed with crunchy Hash Browns, smothered with sausage gravy. What’s more, you can choose among the three varieties of the meal:
1. Chicken Tenders Stuffed and Smothered Omelet
2. Bacon 3 Cheese Stuffed and Smothered Omelet
3. 3 Cheese Stuffed and Smothered Omelet
You can savor the mouth-watering goodness of these hearty breakfast meals any time because Huddle House is typically serving 24 hours a day.
Taco Bell
When it is already late and you can’t sleep because you want to munch on something, Taco Bell is high on the list of fast food joints that would satisfy your craving. Salad with bits of chicken and crouton just won’t do the trick. Sometimes, what you need is The Quesarito.
Touted as having the best of burrito and quesadilla rolled into one, the 7 inches long burrito behemoth is stuffed with seasoned beef, rice, Chipotle sauce, low calorie sour cream, all wrapped up in a grilled quesadilla laden with melted cheese. For $2.29 – 3.29, you can select among these three yummy choices:
1. Steak
2. Shredded Chicken
3. Beef
In Taco Bell, living is not the only thing that gets “mas.”
Jack in the Box
The inclusion of Munchie Meals has made Jack in the Box the king of late night meals. Its latest addition, the Hella-pena burger munchie meal, is about to add spice to your evenings.
The burger is loaded with gooey cheese, sliced jalapenos, and taco sauce. If that doesn’t satisfy your gustatory glutton, you still have fries and a pair of tacos on the side. The Hella-pena burger also brought other friends to the munchie meal nocturnal party:
1. Stacked grilled burger
2. Exploding cheese chicken
3. Loaded nuggets
4. Brunch burger
With these after dark over the top offerings, thinking of low fat and fiber-rich healthy choices is absurd.
McDonald’s
There is no way McDonald’s will be left behind the supersized competition. After all, they are one of the pioneers in making everything larger than life.
For $14.99, you get to take home the Blitz Box that includes two medium fries, two Quarter Pounder with cheese, and a 20-piece serving of Chicken McNuggets. The meal carries a whopping total of 2940 calories.
The product was sold in the Greater Kansas City area as a promotion for the football season of the Kansas City Chiefs. Should the bearer of the golden arches deem the program successful, there’s no reason stopping the largest fast-food chain in the world from offering the item all over US.
Burger King
The King will not be denied entry in this joust of glorious fast-food banquets. For a dollar, you can grab Burger King’s French Fry Burger. As the name implies, the sandwich is made up of a juicy burger patty, with vegetables and crispy golden fries on top.
In a glance, the burger may not look intimidating but it packs a gastronomic punch of 360 calories and 19 grams of fat. Burning this meal means you have to work on the treadmill for one hour.
Fat Sal’s Deli
Saving the best for last, the small sandwich chain in California is getting the word out for its monstrous creation known as the Big Fat Fatty. From the looks of it, even the name is an understatement.
For $49.95, this is what you get:
• 5 cheeseburgers
• 1 ½ lbs of cheese steak
• 1 ½ lbs of pastrami
• Mozzarella and cheddar cheeses
• 10 bacon pieces
• 5 eggs
• 10 chicken fingers
• 10 mozzarella sticks
• 10 onion rings
• 10 jalapeno poppers
• Chili
• Marinara sauces
• French fries
• Fat sauce
Do not forget, everything is stuffed inside one outrageous sandwich. So bring your friends and take a shot at this madness of a meal.
However, if you are feeling extra hungry today, head out to the restaurant and request for the Big Fat Fatty challenge. If you can finish the meal in 40 minutes or less, you walk out without paying a dime.
Summary
Nowadays, consumers are demanding for fast-food joints to include healthy choices in the menu; what customers are saying and doing are not in synch. With only a tiny fraction of the market opting for low-calorie items, over the top meals are making a huge come back. Of course, healthy food options will continue to gain traction but items that are loaded, stuffed, and smothered are going nowhere.
