Giveaway: Wendy's Gift Card

I have seen ads recently for Wendy's new Pick 2 menu. It allows you to choose a half size of one of their four signature salads, along with another side of your choice from a Frosty to water to a junior bacon cheeseburger to a sour cream and chives baked potato. Total cost? $4.99.

So me, I look at this and think a half salad and a side might be a little more than I'd eat in a single meal, but five bucks isn't too bad for lunch, especially a relatively healthy one - and many of the options are under 600 calories in addition to including a salad.

On Tuesday this week, I had the opportunity to try the new Pick 2 menu out for myself when eight other bloggers (and two friends apiece) met at the Wendy's in Naperville for lunch. We each had a $7 to purchase our meals, and it was really hard for me to choose.

Had I been thinking, I would have looked online and firmed up my choice prior to the event, as I was too busy talking to people and catching up with them to try to actually make a decision about what to eat. I finally narrowed down my salad to the Baja or the Spicy Chicken.

After looking at the salads that other people ordered, I was finally ready. ?Or so I thought.

Even standing in line, I still couldn't fully make up my mind because there were so many I wanted to try. The good news is that at $4.99, I can have other options soon. I finally settled on the Baja salad and a junior bacon cheeseburger - hush!

The Baja salad was great. It had chili and lettuce, and cheese and guacamole and more. While I didn't like the tortilla strips we were given to spread on the salad - they tasted like Dorito's to me, and I don't like Dorito's - the rest of the salad was great. I put just a little of the dressing on the salad, but as I started to eat it, I realized that this salad didn't need dressing at all. The chili and other flavors were plenty strong enough for me.

Most interesting to me is that this is a half salad. When I finished eating it, I was stuffed. I wasn't just a little full. I had no interest in that bacon cheeseburger, which meant that I got to save it for dinner and have two meals (or at least a meal and a big snack) for $4.99. Let's just say that I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the salad.

I also sampled a piece of the chicken from the Spicy Chicken salad from a generous friend. When they say spicy, the mean spicy! It was much more so than I had expected, although I really liked it. I would definitely not feed it to the wee ones, and I have several friends who aren't into that much spice. Next time, I might have to try that salad for myself.

Everyone I talked to who tried the Pick 2 menu enjoyed their options whether it was the Frosty (and how did I not know that they now have vanilla Frosty's and strawberry Frosty shakes?) or the bottle or water or the bacon cheeseburger. Fortunately, I wasn't the only one to make that choice. The only small area of complaint on the food was someone who felt like the baked potato tasted like it was microwaved (which I assume it was) rather than being truly baked. Needless to say, the group left pretty happy.

Are you interested in trying out the new Pick 2 menu? I have another $7 gift card to send to one lucky reader. So what do you have to do?

First of all, let me stress that you must follow all the rules. If you do not follow the rules, your entry will not count!

This contest is open until Friday November 5 at 7pm CST. I must have a valid way to reach you, so leave me your email address in your comment or be sure your profile has your email address visible. No duplicate comments will count. This giveaway is open to US residents age 18 and older. Winners will be selected via random.org and must respond within 48 hours of being notified by me or I will select a new winner.

Mandatory Entry: What pick 2 combo would you choose?

Bonus Entries (leave a comment for each entry - if you put it all in one comment, I'll count it as one entry):

1) Earn one additional entry for following me on Twitter and tweeting this contest (leave a link to your tweet as your comment).
2) Earn one additional entry by following this review blog publicly via Google Friend Connect.
3) Earn one additional entry by following my “regular” blog Honest & Truly! publicly via Google Friend Connect.

Good luck!

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a $7 gift card for review purposes. I was also compensated $150 for participating in this program. All opinions expressed are my own, as always.