Free ice cream and french fries this weekend, plus new Ampersand flavors, ‘freak shakes’

Feel like indulging this weekend? It’s a good time to do it.

Between National Ice Cream Day and National Fry Day, there are some free food deals and a few creative foodie inventions happening in the Valley this weekend.

First, Friday is National Fry Day (get it?). It’s also Friday the 13th and the first-ever National Beef Tallow Day (which is sometimes used in frying french fries).

McDonald’s is giving away free medium fries on Friday – and every Friday through Dec. 30 – with a $1 purchase. You must download the McDonald’s app to get them.

Farmer Boys restaurants are giving away a free order of fries with the purchase of a burger (excluding kids burgers). Farmer Boys has a restaurant at 745 Herndon Ave. in Clovis, along with locations in Hanford and Tulare.

Wayback Burgers restaurants in Firebaugh and Chowchilla are giving away free bottomless fries when you buy any burger or sandwich Friday.

Sunday is National Ice Cream Day.

Yogurtland locations are celebrating National Ice Cream Day, which may seem odd as they sell frozen yogurt, but Yogurtland has recently added ice cream.

Between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. Sunday, Yogurtland is offering a buy one, get one free deal. In addition to its lineup of yogurt, Yogurtland will have ice cream in these flavors: chocolate, vanilla, chocolate malt ball with Whoppers, light butter pecan and Oreo cookies and cream.

Yogurtland has locations at River Park, The Square at Campus Pointe near Fresno State and at 2045 S. Mooney Blvd. in Visalia.

Baskin-Robbins has a slew of things going Sunday, including the launch of its new “freak shakes.”

They include a unicorn freak shake, a milkshake topped with cotton candy and cotton candy-flavored ice cream, sugar cone and a strip of Airheads rainbow sour candy strip.

Other milkshakes include a Jamoca almond fudge shake topped with doughnut holes, an Oreo shake topped with a slice of Oreo cookies and cream Polar Pizza (which is kind of like a cookie with lots of yummy stuff on it).

The freak shakes are not free, however. But you can get other things for free.

Customers who download the Baskin-Robbins app will receive offers Sunday like a buy one, get one free cone, a buy one, get one free 99 cent sundae and $2 off a milkshake.

Fosters Freeze is selling its old fashioned dipped cones for 72 cents Sunday. The restaurant has five locations in Fresno and many others across the Valley.

Ampersand Ice Cream will celebrate National Ice Cream Day Sunday, not with freebies but with new flavors. The owners had their staffers give them a wish list of flavors and they will have eight of them for sale Sunday.

They haven’t revealed the flavors yet, but have been hinting on Facebook that they involve ingredients like rose water, avocados, marzipan and apricot (three different flavors).

This story was originally published July 12, 2018 at 10:56 AM.