Is It Vegan? Pepperidge Farm "Chef's Collection Deli Swirl Rye & Pump" Bread

“In the arts of life man invents nothing; but in the arts of death he outdoes Nature herself, and produces by chemistry and machinery all the slaughter of plague, pestilence, and famine.”

- George Bernard Shaw 

May your day be filled with bright blue skies, puffy white clouds, and content of the heart my friend!

MADE FROM: UNBROMATED UNBLEACHED

ENRICHED WHEAT FLOUR (FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED

IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE (VITAMIN B1),

RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), FOLIC ACID), WATER, RYE

FLOUR, WHEAT GLUTEN, RYE MEAL, YEAST.

CONTAINS 2 PERCENT OR LESS OF:  SOYBEAN OIL,

SALT, CARAMEL COLOR, CARAWAY SEEDS, COCOA

PROCESSED WITH ALKALI (DUTCHED), CALCIUM

PROPIONATE AND SORBIC ACID TO RETARD

SPOILAGE, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, WHEAT

FLOUR, MALTED BARLEY FLOUR, DEXTROSE, SUGAR,

LACTIC ACID, DEHYDRATED ONIONS, DEHYDRATED

GARLIC AND ENZYMES

Pepperidge Farm Swirl Rye & Pump Bread

My Analysis:

Flour – overly processed non-beneficial wheat flour?

Niacin – derived from animal or plant based sources (usually from meats and fish)

Reduced Iron – de-oxified ironoxide (rust)

Thiamine mononitrate – commercially prepared from yeast extract or sardines

Riboflavin - derived from animal or plant based sources. 

Folic acid – the product of bacteria, Lactobacillus Casei

Water – don’t fish tinkle in the stuff?  Just kidding (but they must).

Rye flour – plant based

Wheat gluten – plant based

Rye meal – plant based

Yeast - fungus

Soybean oil – plant based

Salt - mineral

Caramel color – sugars heated in presence of acids, alkalis, or salts

Caraway seeds – plant based

Cocoa – plant based

Alkali – mineral (basic, ionic salt of an alkali metal)

Calcium propionate – mineral (calcium salt of propionic acid)

Sorbic acid – a natural organic compound

Monoglycerides – commercial source may be animal, vegetable, or synthetic

Diglycerides – commercial source may be animal, vegetable, or synthetic

Wheat flour – plant based

Malted barley flour – plant based

Dextrose – plant based sugar (primarily derived from corn)

Sugar – plant based

Lactic acid – milk (animal) based

Dehydrated onions – plant based

Dehydrated garlic – plant based

Enzymes – sources may be animal, plant, other natural, or synthetic

Bread in its simplest form can be baked from nothing more than:  yeast, sugar (to activate the yeast culture), water, flour, salt and oil.  I suppose that you could even omit the oil if you don’t mind a crunchy rock-hard textured loaf?

Chucky is 60% befuddled and 40% bewildered (and 100% nuts).  What in the heck has he and Tiffany been spreading their Earth Balance margarine on???  My very own (first) analysis of ingredients has me re-thinking just how stupid I’ve been.  From day one, I’ve been instructed “If you don’t have the ingredients in your very own kitchen, do you really want to be buying and consuming it?”

I suppose that I am both disappointed and concerned.  After all, the corporate types who “design”, manufacture and market these funktified concoctions (I refuse to call it food) aren’t looking at my best interests, are they?

Hey!  Guess what?  I feel better already!  It’s a new lifestyle and a longer/new life ahead for Chucky and Tiffany.

Hi-dee hi-dee watch-the-metamorphosis-of-vegetarian-gone-vegan-my-friend ho!

Vegetarian to Vegan: What Will Chucky Miss The Most?

"It's not always where you've been.  It's sometime where you are going which leaves the best impression."

 - Chucky - The Fat Vegetarian 

Au revoir my fine non-vegan friends!  It’s with mixed emotions that I transgress into the wonderful lifelong journey of veganism.

For every item that I find myself missing, I just know that I shall discover a wonderful new delicious & healthy vegan dish which easily replaces it.  A placebo perhaps but well worth my healthy journey that awaits me.
 

Oh?  Vegetarian (lacto ovo vegetarian) items that I shall miss?  There are fewer that I expected but some of them nonetheless.  And… they are:

·  Quorn products – Great news on the horizon.  According to their web site they now offer a vegan “The Vegan Burger” in the US and are developing further vegan products in the future!  Oh happy day! 

·  Local free-range organic chicken eggs, over easy will be a toughie – Sadly there shall never be a replacement?  One can only wish, dream and hope though. 

· Artisan, blue, feta, and aged cheese – Luckily, some of the vegan “standard” cheeses are decent substitutes but I’ll be limited to Swiss, cheddar, mozzarella, and the like.

·  Johnny’s Potato Soup mix – certainly there exists a vegan alternative of similar stature. 

· Publix Greenwise brand breakfast sausage and links – I’ve already prodded Publix Corporation and their Greenwise supplier of the need for vegan choices.  The response I got was promising if other vegans would likewise make such requests.  It’s all about supply and demand people!
 

I promise to add to this list as I encounter other “bumps” on the vegan highway.

Hi-dee hi-dee I-can't-hardly-wait-until-I-find-myself-walking-this-new-path-ho my friend!

Newsflash from Chucky and Tiffany

"Show me a vegetarian and I'll show you someone who's saved a few lives."
 - Chucky - The Fat Vegetarian

Hello!  Salutation!  And general expressions of well wishes and fond greetings my friend.

Just where the heck have Chucky and Tiffany been?  As I last left you in October 2012, I landed a dream job.  Guess what?  It's even better than I fathomed and I consider myself the luckiest man alive when I arrive at the office each day.  Yeah ~ it's that good.

The newsflash?  Over the past week both Tiffany and I have decided to take a leap of faith and become vegan!  It's going to take a while however.  We're wrapping up the vegetarian (non-vegan) food stuffs which we currently have.  However, we now purchase vegan foods and attempt to go non-GMO wherever we are afforded the choice.

I'd speculate that by three to six months, I may be able to "officially" call myself a vegan.  I suspect that educating myself when dining out will prove to be the most difficult hurdle to jump.  But, time shall tell.

No more cheeses.  No more eggs over easy.  No more vegetarian Quorn products.  No more Publix brand Greenwise vegetarian products.  So many changes ahead.

However, on a great note.  There are satisfactory egg replacements.  There are some relatively decent vegan cheeses which melt and taste alright.  There are product lines which are mostly (if not entirely) vegan ~ Field Roast and Gardein brands, for example.

I'd ask that you wish my luck but you won't have to.  My mind is made up.  'Tis the vegan lifestyle where we shall go.

Psst... I'll do a better job at dropping a blog line, okay?    

Hi-dee hi-dee can-it-continue-to-keep-getting-better-ho my friend?

Post Master Cleanse - The Lunch Choice Winner Is...

"A smile... The World's most affordable greeting card."
 - Chucky - The Fat Vegetarian

Hello!  I hope that you're able to make the most of your day and leave a positive and eco-friendly foot print behind.

Life is back to the new normal for Chucky and Tiffany.  The Master Cleanse and the migration to the new eating regiment began.  Where did we go for lunch yesterday?

Vegetable Soup

Ocean Treasure (tofu, seaweed, broccoli, and carrot in plum sauce)

Combo 7 (rice, Summer rolls, tofu vegetables, & ginger soy protein)

I normally don't add a caveat but I feel obliged to do so.  The three pictures above are not from The Loving Hut website.  These are the actual pictures of the actual meals that Tiffany and I were served yesterday!  And, yes ~ they did look this good and, yes, they tasted even better than they look! 

The lunch at The Loving Hut?  Absolutely incredible with one mind-changing event.  Before this meal I've always explained to my carnivore friends, "Vegetarian food mocks a vague facsimile of the animal-based original."  Not so any longer.  I can now add to my shelves of knowledge that The Loving Hut's vegan scallops meet and/or exceed both taste and quality of the real thing!  How do they do it???

There were not bad choices.  Just between us, I'd eaten a cardboard box after 10 days of nothing except lemonade.  The Loving Hut was our choice and a very good one at that.  I forgot how delicious and affordable their vegan food is.  The pictures above truly don't do the food and the flavor justice!

Hi-dee hi-dee life-the-pearl-of-my-oyster-ho my friend!

Master Cleanse - 12 Days Down, (Almost) No More To Go

"If you don't wake up every morning believing that you're the luckiest person alive then you had better re-focus on what's truly important in life."
 - Chucky - The Fat Vegetarian

Hello!  Let's did every available smile and warm memory from this day, shall we?

Day #13. Tiffany and I trek towards a new normal healthy eating regiment this day.  Smaller portions, better choices, more organic, less GMO, more raw, processed-free, and generally placing into our bodies what truly should belong.

We both feel GREAT!  Happy, healthy and ready to take on the world of health.  If the cleanses accomplished but a single thing it would be a mental reset towards a true goal of health.  I've always believed that the mind is your biggest prescription pill. 

The five lunch choices (alphabetically) that I gave to Tiffany today are:  (1) Ethos Vegan Kitchen, (2) Green Day Cafe, (3) The Loving Hut, (4) Thuyen Vien, or (5) Wheat Berry Café.  Subject to change, The Loving Hut will probably win today.  On a good note?  None of these are a wrong choice!  :)

Dinner tonight?  Hmm...

Hi-dee hi-dee I-love-my-life-how-'bout-you-ho my friend?

Master Cleanse - 11 Days Down, (Almost) No More To Go

"Every human being is the author of his own health or disease."
 - Buddha

Greetings and salutations my friend!  May you have nothing except peace & happiness around you the entire day through. 

Day #12. Tiffany and I finally had something other than citrus last night for dinner.  I made a nice shiitake-wakame Miso Soup broth to accompany the orange juice.  And... guess what?  At lunch today we get to have our first sampling of some solid food.

I've prepared a vegetable soup.  Diced tomato, water, amino acids, nutritional yeast flake, dehydrated eggplant, dehydrated potato slices, dehydrated portabello mushroom, wakame seaweed, spices, and mixed frozen veggies. We CANNOT wait!   :)

How do we both feel?  Outstanding!  Neither of having an iota of regret.  I won't get graphic but things passed through me that can be described nothing other than odd and weird.

I feel healthy just thinking about my internal organs that I've de-toxified.  My kidneys, my gallbladder, my digestive tract, and everything to the left and to the right.  If I'm correct, I'll now be able to absorb and utilize much more of the nutrition that I plan to digest going forward!

0.2 lb loss for me on day #12.  24.4 lbs in just eleven days.

Hi-dee hi-dee limited-solid-food-today-ho my friend!

Master Cleanse - 10 Days Down, (Almost) No More To Go

"I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant."
 - Robert McCloskey

Hi!  May you have a grandiose morning and an even better day!

Day #11.  I'm done with lemonade but not quite done yet.  Today is the beginning of a three day run back to solid foods again. 

Yesterday I mentioned it was OJ and miso soup on the agenda today.  I tossed all of my dashi from the cupboards when I converted to vegetarianism (it contains bonita fish flakes).  Hmm... what to do?  I researched and found that there are many forms of dashi (seaweed/bonita, seaweed, shiitake, etc.) 

While at the office today, Mother Nature is going to help me with an experiment.  I've added some dried shiitake mushroom and wakame (seaweed) into a sun tea jar.  Instead of arriving home and steeping the flavors from these culinary gems, why not use solar power instead? 

I'll let you know how it goes.  The shiitake-wakame dashi is but the basis for the miso soup.  Oh yeah... no tofu or solids in tonight's soup.  It'll be just fresh homemade miso broth.  Cannot wait!!!  What a nice way to begin the trip back to real eating. 

0.6 lb loss for me on day #11.  That's the same as yesterday's loss. And it's 24.2 lbs in just ten days.

Hi-dee hi-dee yes-it-was-quite-doable-ho my friend!