So how are your New Year's Resolutions going? Still making it to the gym, cutting down on the carbs, repurposing your Starbucks addiciton to a fix of regular joe from the deli? Good luck with all that. You can never let it be said that one of the world's leading suppliers of premium carbohydrates isn't in your corner.

Saturday was the fifth running of what has become a tradition in Raleigh, North Carolina: the Krispy Kreme Doughnut Challenge, in which the power of a mountain of doughnuts is harvested as motivation and fuel for a four mile race whose midpoint is not a shot of some namby-pamby sports drink but the scarfing of a dozen glazed. Finally, a sport everyone can support, and athletes everyone can identify with: carbo track and field.

Here's how the doughnut triathalon works: registrants gather at the belltower on the North Carolina State campus as early as 6:30 a.m., pre-doughnut-run doughnuts optional but not exactly wise. These finely-tuned thoroughbreds warm up in anticipation of the 9:30 a.m. start time for a run to the Krispy Kreme doughnut shop on Peace Street, where will be awaiting one dozen warm glazed doughnuts. These have to be scarfed (coffee optional but allowed), and then the journey repeated to the belltower (barfing optional but presumably allowed). The runner does not have to eat all of their doughnuts but has to weather the resulting humiliation if they don't. They have to complete the entire triathalon in one hour or less.

In honor of Inauguration Day, participating Krispy Kreme stores will be giving out one free doughnut (of your choice) to every customer in order to celebrate the "sweetness" of the new presidential administration. According to Ron Rupocinski, executive chef for Krispy Kreme, they're "taking the inaugural festivities nationwide. We're inviting our fans in cities across the country, including Washington, D.C., to commemorate this historic day with a favorite American treat."

Make sure to call your local Krispy Kreme to make sure they're participating in the special before heading over to claim your treat, as not every location will have free doughnuts.

My mother has a term for any food product that she deems unhealthy. She calls it an "instant coronary." It can refer to anything from a mound of onion rings to a big, juicy steak. When I first saw this picture, I immediately heard her voice in my head, labeling these Krispy Kreme cheddar bacon cheeseburgers as such.

I've seen other instances in which a Krispy Kreme is used as a bun for a burger. However, never before have I seen one that is also piled high with bacon and cheese. It seems so wrong that in its deviance, it becomes right once again.

These particular Krispy Kreme burgers were made at the Google NYC cafeteria, so they weren't wildly available. However, did any Slashfood readers get to try one? How were they?



[via Hopeless Geek]

Some people spell it donut and some people spell it doughnut. However you spell it, today is the day to eat them.

Krispy Kreme is going to celebrate the day by giving away one free donut (it's only in participating stores so you'll have to ask if the store in your area is, you know, participating). Are you flying on Southwest Airlines today, out of Dallas' Love Field or airports in Tulsa, San Antonio, or Kansas City? They're giving away free donuts at those locations too. You are now free to move around the country if you can with donuts in your stomach.

I don't think Dunkin' Donuts is doing anything for the day, which is too bad. Unless Krispy Kremes are hot and fresh, they're not as good as Dunkin's.

(I've always wanted to try Stan's Doughnuts in L.A. Luckily they have a web site.)

Krispy Kreme is in another battle, and this time it isn't with Dunkin' Donuts.

The beloved donut chain is being sued by a company called Caribbean Creme. Seems that the company has a fruit drink also called Caribbean Creme and they aren't happy that Krispy Kreme has come out with a drink and doughnut called Caribbean Kreme. It's part of their "Chillers" line.

I have as much legal expertise as Barney Fife, so I have no idea if this has merit or not. But maybe Krispy Kreme should have spelled it "Karibbean Kreme."

A couple weekends ago, while on a road trip, a friend mentioned she'd heard you could tell a person's personality by their donut choice. We all immediately began discussing our favorite donuts - classic glazed, chocolate frosted, buttermilk. I favor Dunkin' Donuts - chocolate glazed or coconut - despite having grown up half an hour away from a drive-through Krispy Kreme store where you could get hot , melt-in-your-mouth glazed donuts right off the conveyor belt. Not that those aren't good - I just like the greater heft of a Dunkin Donuts cake donut. You can eat two and actually feel full. Or eat, say, five and feel really, really full.

So I Googled "donuts" and "personality" and came up with several quizzes and guides to donuts and human nature. The What Donuts Are You? quiz tells me I'm a Boston creme, tough on the outside but a gushy traditionalist within. Fry My Bacon's guide to donut personality tells me that my choice, coconut, makes me a mostly serene creature with a yearning for tropical places, yet prone to sudden fits of rage. Interesting. And woe on the double chocolate lovers - greedy, decadent, but never truly satisfied!

Or as some people spell them, donuts.

Today is National Doughnut Day, so head on over to Dunkin' Donuts for your morning coffee and pastry item (it is Monday morning after all, so you need the caffeine and sugar rush). Or perhaps Krispy Kreme (*cough* overrated *cough*).

Then again you could try one of the many, many recipes for doughnuts over at CD Kitchen, including Applesauce Drop Doughnuts, Coconut Cake Doughnuts, and Glazed Chocolate.

(Note: I've found several sources that say National Doughnut Day is in June, but I've found just as many that say it's today, so maybe we'll luck out and have two doughnut days a year.)

Well, maybe once in a great while, but don't make it a daily thing, OK?

HungryGirl.com has the list of the five summer drinks that will destroy your diet. Sometimes we don't think of the massive amount of calories and/or sugar and/or fat that are in those seductive cold drinks. For example, Krispy Kreme's Mocha Dream Chiller has 670 calories, 28 grams of fat, and 58 grams of sugar (that's for the 12 oz). Dunkin Donuts' Vanilla Bean Coolatta has 440 calories, 17 grams of fat, and 69 grams of sugar.

The other drinks on the list are from Starbucks, Fatburger, and Dairy Queen.

Want to open a fast food restaurant franchise? It seems your best bet may be overseas rather than in your own town or city. Residents of Japan are lining up at newly built American franchises to get their fill of McDonald's, Krispy Kreme, and ice cream treats.

According to one report, Japan's first Krispy Kreme, which was built in December, is still drawing hour-long line ups. In the first three days of business alone the doughnut shop drew in 10,000 customers.

McDonald's, of course, is enjoying similar success - apparently selling 1.7 million Mega Macs in just four days. The four-patty burger will return to the Japanese market in April and May, and you can be sure they will be selling in record numbers again. Burger King is planning to reopen in Japan this year, and I'm sure a number of other large chain restaurants will make their way over soon.

Ironic though, that while we as North Americans are trying to slim down and are eating more and more sushi, tofu, and traditional Japanese-style meals, they are wolfing down our McBurgers and ice cream, claiming not to be satiated with their current offerings.

Other than the fact that the company was started here in 1950, of course.

When I was a kid growing up in New England, I thought that America had always run on Dunkin'. In my small world, I thought that there were Dunkin' Donuts shops all around the world, from Chelsea (in Massachusetts) to...well, Chelsea (in England). But it was more of a regional thing. The rapid expansion across the country didn't really start until the past five or 10 years. In fact, there still aren't that many Dunkin' Donut shops on the west coast.

This Boston Phoenix article tells how the company started and how it became such a big part of New England's blue collar community. Now they're putting their coffee in stores and going after the Starbucks and Krispy Kreme crowd too. Krispy Kreme isn't doing too well around here (let's face it, the donuts are overrated), while Starbucks is still opening around 300,000 new places a day and changing the look of their cafes. Let the coffee wars begin continue!

The term "It's what's inside that counts" definitely applies to Krispy Kreme's latest offering, but I'm not referring to a fruit filling or a 'kreme' center. Instead, this particular doughnut is made with 100% whole wheat flour. Weighing in at only 180 calories each, the Whole Wheat Doughnut has a distinct caramel flavor and is similar in style to their "original glazed".

With an enormous number of consumers turning to low-carb dieting over the past few years, it isn't surprising that sales in the doughnut industry have taken a hit. Hoping to recapture some of the lost market by offering an alternative to the original, the Senior VP of Marketing for Krispy Kreme promises that this doughnut delivers the taste we expect, while offering the benefits of whole wheat to the health conscious consumer.

If this is a success, I imagine they may offer the choice of whole wheat in some of their other flavors as well, but no official word has been given on that yet. The doughnut is now available in participating Krispy Kreme stores throughout North America.

I love Krispy Kremes, bacon and burgers, too, but I've never tasted the abomination, er, delicacy, pictured here. But only because until today, I didn't know any place nearby to sample this artery-clogging, waist-broadening wonder. After all, I ate a hot, unglazed Krispy Kreme for an article I wrote about the company years ago. I wouldn't recommend it. Talk about heart-stopping.

If I lived anywhere near a certain minor league baseball park or was friends with a certain R&B vocalist, I'd surely have tried one of these things by now. This miracle of modern griddle work is now being served at Google's New York City cafeteria. Now all I need to do is find a good cardiologist and get a job with Google.

Krispy Kreme is getting into the pink for Valentine's Day. The ever-popular doughnut shop is planning on having a few special offers to celebrate the season of romance. For customers who purchase a dozen doughnuts of any kind between now and Valentine's day, every store will give out a dozen Valentine's Day cards, each of which will contain a coupon for one free doughnut. It will be tough to part with the prospect of free doughnuts if you're a fan of the classic hot glazed, but just think of how appreciative your Valentine's will be!

Stores will also be frying up their light, yeast-raised doughnuts in heart shapes, coating them with white icing and red, white, and pink sprinkles. They're not quite up to the same level of cuteness as the Halloween doughnuts that Krispy Kreme featured back in October, but it's hard to say no to a doughnut with sprinkles

And on February 14th, stores will be making their regular glazed doughnuts in heart shapes, as well.

With only a week left until Halloween, there is still time to stop off at your local Krispy Kreme and pick up one of their pumpkin-shaped Halloween doughnuts. The seasonal treats are made from the same light yeast-raised dough as their classic glazed doughnuts, but unlike the classic, the doughnuts are stamped into shape and have no center holes. The finished doughnuts are coated in a thick orange icing and decorated with a jack o' lantern face. If you pre-order, you can get them filled with any of the shop's delicious filling flavors. A jam filling would look suitable creepy, oozing out of the smiling pumpkin face.

If the pumpkin-shaped doughnut isn't appealing, or if the icing seems to make it too sweet, Krispy Kreme is also offering a pumpkin-spice doughnut through the end of the month. And, as a final option, you could always try your hand at making your own.

Just how many fattening things can be done with Krispy Kreme donuts? Many, as it turns out. There are chicken sandwiches that use them, burgers and bread pudding. All are fattening and probably delicious, since people keep coming up with new ways to use them. A simple and even more fattening way to eat the donuts is to fry them in butter. This method produces something that has been described as "the most delicious food ever," as well as "heart-stopping." The directions are simple:

• Place butter in hot skillet and melt
• Put donut in butter, turning once when golden.
• Eat.

Then consider going for a nice, long run.

[via Growabrain]