Clever mum tricks her kids with home-made McDonalds during coronavirus lockdown

A mother-of-two has tricked her kids with a home-made McDonald’s Happy Meal during the coronavirus lockdown.

Danielle Culley, 33, prepared the surprise dinner for her son, Oscar, four, and daughter Lily, six, who have been missing the fast-food restaurant since it closed its doors just over two weeks ago due COVID-19 restrictions.

The single mother dished up the treat, consisting of a cheeseburger, fries, Pepsi Max and chicken nuggets wrapped in fake McDonald’s paper, to the kids last Wednesday – and only told them the trick once they’d been hoodwinked.

Her children then surprised her back by telling Culley – who is a full-time carer for Lily, who has autism – by saying that her creation was better than the real thing.

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Culley, from Tamworth, Staffordshire, said: “When they saw it, they stood there like ‘oh my God’ – my son shouted, ‘I can’t believe you found one’ because he knew McDonald’s was closed.

“I said ‘it’s mummy’s McDonald’s’ and they devoured it, which was really nice to see.

“My son said it was better than the real thing, apart from the cup not having a lid.”

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The meal cost her just £2.15 to make, because she relied on ingredients already in her house and supermarket discounts.

She picked up a pack of four reduced-price burgers for 65p at Asda and bought the bread buns from a corner shop, while the Pepsi Max, chicken nuggets and salad were things she already had in her cupboards.

Culley just over half an hour to prepare the food and another 45 minutes to complete the packaging, meaning the whole meal was ready to be served in an hour and 20 minutes.

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She created the chip packets by printing off McDonald’s symbols on A4 paper and sellotaping it together, while she wrapped cups in paper printed with the fast-food restaurant’s famous ‘golden arches’ logo.

Culley found the cheeseburger packaging the hardest to replicate, copying and pasting the burger logo into Microsoft Paint, before printing it off on greaseproof paper.

She added: “We’ve been in lockdown for four weeks because Oscar had symptoms, and it has been tough not being able to do the normal nice things.

“He’s fine now, but the McDonald’s was a way of having some fun during these times and reminding us of a sort of normality.

“They loved it and have asked me if they can have a homemade KFC next time, so we’re having that next week and they’re going to help me prepare it.”

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