Hubby is a Good Sport

As a housewife I have a limited number of outlets to express my creativity.

So lately I’ve been expressing myself at the expense of my husband.  Well, I think he may see it that way.

For the last two nights I’ve made TVP-based meals for dinner.  I got the recipes from the TVP Cookbook.

On Monday night I made Spinach and Mushroom Pie (only I didn’t have any spinach, so I used brocolli instead).  Last night I made Tacos (inspired by the Bean and TVP Burritos recipe).

Both were really good, and I was REALLY surprised how good the tacos were.  I couldn’t tell the difference between these and the full-meat version. There were a lot of left-overs, too, so tonight we’re having nachos (with tofu sour cream, heh heh heh).

It’s good to cut down on meat consumption, but is there any cost savings? Well, yes and no.

For these two dishes I used Bob’s Red Mill TVP, which I bought at one of the most expensive stores in town.  That was ok, because I just wanted to try it out to see if this was truly a viable meat alternative.  This 10 oz bag was $6.99.  That’s a lot, but now I know I like it.  Yay!

A 10 oz bag seems to work out to roughly 2 1/2 pounds of “meat” when reconstituted.  So that works out to $2.80 per pound, which is more than I’d usually pay for even the real stuff.

But when I was at Sprouts Farmer’s Market recently, I saw that they had “store-brand” TVP available for $1.49 per pound.  So I bought a .47 lb container (.70), took it  home, and measured it.  That turns out to be about 2 cups worth, which is equal to roughly 2 lbs of “meat”.  So that works out to .35 lb.  Yeah, now we’re talkin’!

Now it’s possible to find meat for .35/lb, (but not that easy).  The thing about TVP, too, is that there are no yukky bits that have to be thrown out.  It’s all edible.  Plus, it’s pretty good for you.  No cholesterol, which is FABULOUS for someone like me who already has more than enough of it.

So I think I’ll persist with my efforts to give  TVP a regular starring role in our menus.  I’m not going to give meat the complete heave-ho, but the advantages of TVP cannot be ignored.  Onward!