An Oxymoron and The "gardein Ultimate Plant Based Burger" review

A little over a year ago, I moved from the wide open spaces of Colorado and Wyoming to Florida. After 20 years, the long winters and the remoteness was getting to me, you see I'm originally from the upstate of South Carolina and moved out west in 2000.

In Florida, I live in a small +55 community surrounded by similar communities. It's been a big adjustment. I haven't even lived in a neighborhood since my childhood.

One of the great things about living here is that about once a month the community next door has a free food giveaway. Publix and Natures Grocers send trucks over with all kinds of foods that I guess are about to expire.It's great, I usually save easily a couple of hundred dollars. I fill my freezer with meats, breads, I'll get fresh fruit and freeze it for my smoothies. They will often times have the bags of organic greens that I use. I also freeze these.

Its also great in that there will usually be something that I normally wouldn't buy but would like to try. Everything from packaged food to cold brew coffee, really all kinds of stuff, a lot of it organic. Stuff that gets passed over by the general public. Ha,Ha!

This last giveaway, I picked up some of these plant based burgers. This is the "gardein" brand The ULTIMATE plant based burger. I cooked mine in my airfryer at 325 for varying times so it would be a fair review. I'm sure results will vary.

Right off, just by reading the label, I would not buy these. One 4 ounce patty does have 19 grams of protein with only 1 gram of sugar, but beyond that, one 4 ounce patty contains 50% of your saturated fat, 10 grams. It also contains 20% of your daily intake of salt. There is also a good bit of gluten , if your worried about that.

I guess the biggest thing with me is that "palm oil" is a main ingredient. From what I read, they are destroying the rain forests to grow these palm trees and the burning is a major contributor to greenhouse gases. Read about it.

So I'm eating this "burger" it's not bad. It's very edible although I found it a bit chewy. That's why I tried cooking it at different times. If it wasn't for the negatives I stated earlier I would buy these.

So, I decided to "Eddie" one up. I sauteed thin sliced onions and jalapeno in butter added some pimento cheese and lastly a couple of pieces of bacon. It was pretty good and as I was sitting there eating it, I wondered if eating a plant based burger with bacon could be considered an oxymoron? HaHa!