Taco Bell - Vegan?

I'm not going to tout Taco Bell as a health haven.  That's loco.

But, indeed, a vegan can eat at Taco Bell - and Lord knows, you'll likely end up there at some point with your friends or at that moment when you've got only 3 dollars and little time.

Other than Subway, Taco Bell is the one fast food place that I might visit just to make things easy and cheap.  Most every time, my order consists of only a couple of bean burritos -Fresco style.  But a vegan can order more.  A whole lot more if you like.  But it's no haven for vegan eating either.  It depends on how much labor and confusion you really want your soon-to-be, frustrated cashier to deal with.

Vegan Eating Out makes it a bit more simple with their list.  If your cashier doesn't mind taking the time, then you might venture beyond a couple of burritos.

I would say "good luck."
But I will admit, without shame, that Taco Bell has really increased their level of service over the last 3-4 years.  I'm not sure if this was due to the "beef authenticity" scare that was in the news, or if it was simply something they decided to do in order to change their customer service approach.  But I have yet to visit a Taco Bell in the last 3 years that wasn't willing to cater to my every detailed wish.  That is an odd thing for me to admit. It's fast food.  But they continue to make it exactly as I desire.  And if it isn't the way I ask, they happily remake it until it's correct.

Good work Taco Bell, you loco personas.

Oreos

Are Oreos vegan?

You bet they are - in America at least.  I've read that Oreos produced in Europe contain animal products.  But here in the states they do not.  Let's look at the ingredients:

Oreo Ingredients

Ingredients: SUGAR, ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE {VITAMIN B1}, RIBOFLAVIN {VITAMIN B2}, FOLIC ACID), HIGH OLEIC CANOLA OIL AND/OR PALM OIL AND/OR CANOLA OIL, AND/OR SOYBEAN OIL, COCOA (PROCESSED WITH ALKALI), HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CORNSTARCH, LEAVENING (BAKING SODA AND/OR CALCIUM PHOSPHATE), SALT, SOY LECITHIN (EMULSIFIER), VANILLIN - AN ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, CHOCOLATE. CONTAINS: WHEAT, SOY.

I don't see any animal ingredients in there!  I don't see anything good for me either, but then I'm not pounding these cookies.  In fact, I rarely eat sweets,  But I'm glad this one is available to me.
However, it has been reported that some of the suppliers from which Kraft/Nabisco obtain their sugar use some animal-derived products in the processing of that sugar.  So I guess it depends on how vegan you are.  Then again - Look at the main ingredient!  It's a tough decision.

I don't believe they taste the same, but Newman's Own makes an oreo-like cookie with organic and animal free ingredients:

Original:
Organic Unbleached Wheat Flour, Organic Powdered Sugar (Organic Sugar, Organic Corn Starch), Organic Sugar, Organic Palm Fruit Oil, Canola Oil (Expeller Pressed), Cocoa (Processed with Alkali), Unsweetened Chocolate, Salt, Natural Flavor, Sodium Bicarbonate (leavening), Soy Lecithin (an emulsifier).

First ingredient is wheat flour.  That's a cookie I can pound.

FireFox Error

Apologies.  This is a tech post.  I googled the hell out of this problem and never found a solid resolution.  After fiddling around, I was able to solve this problem repeatedly using this solution.

The error occurring looks like this from FireFox version 14:

A copy of Firefox is already open. Only one copy of Firefox can be open at a time.

This was happening to every account on a machine running Mac OS X Snow Leopard Version 10.6.8

To resolve the problem, navigate to each user's Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles folder.

There was only one directory within the profiles folder in the format of XXXXXXXX.default.

Copy that file to the desktop and then delete it from the Profiles directory.

Run Firefox.

You should get an error that reads: "Profile Missing.  Your Firefox profile cannot be loaded.  It may be missing or inaccessible."

Click "OK" and move the XXXXXXXX.default directory back to the Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles folder.

Run Firefox, and Voila! It should be running without a problem.

I have not clue why this works, but I hope it helps some of you get past the problem.