Tofu and TVP... yay or nay?

Taking a sneak peek on the scale today (curiosity got the best of me) its noticeable that I haven't been following the plan for a few days.   I'm still maintaining and the chances of me losing the two pounds I was hoping for by this Saturday is probably not going to happen.

I'm quite ok with that for the moment.  I considered going back to the FastForward aspect of the SASS Yourself Slim Plan but considering I'm not quite in need of a "reset" button I will opt out and simply stay on the right track.  The numbers on the scale will not dictate my attitude towards myself.   That is the price one must pay for indulging in lemon bars, cookies, gummi bears, chocolate covered amaretto almonds, and after a lovely Monday night out, we can also add alcohol to the list.  I realize this sounds like I was a complete glutton over the weekend but everything was moderated and portion controlled so I was sure not to see a gain come from it...

Its a rare thing for me to have a drink these days but Abel and I went out Monday night to see George Lopez perform at The Funny Bone in Newport.  Of all the places to see Mr Lopez perform I never would have thought he'd be across the bridge from us in Kentucky.   Once we heard the news and found out the tickets were reasonably priced, there was just no way we were going to miss it!

Considering this was one of the best weekends I've had in quite a while I have no room for complaints :0) I don't believe Abel has stepped on the scale at all since last Saturday so I can't quite report how he's doing but we all know how much more forgiving mens metabolisms are than womens.  Lets not get onto that subject please... ;0)

In other news, I finally got my kindle back and downloaded a few new goodies.  I've never been one to have magazine subscriptions but considering how cost effective they can be when downloading them onto a device as opposed to having hard copies, I went ahead and got a subscription to Vegetarian Times.

As I explained in an earlier post, I'm neither vegetarian nor vegan but the meals we've had sans meat leave me in such a different world of flavors that I'm intrigued and curious for more.  

I also bought The Happy Herbivore's book (kindle edition) because it had such great reviews and seeing it for less than $5, I wasn't about to pass it up.  For many of her recipes I'm thrilled to know 90% of the ingredients she tends to use are already in my pantry.   Had to say finding that out was a proud moment for me!

This book is going to be my reason to once again give Tofu a chance.   I've only tried preparing it once before and though I had no idea what I was doing (let alone what the differences in tofu textures were), I prepared a serving in "buffalo tofu" form....  and absolutely hated it.    I used a firm tofu and made no attempts at squeezing out excess moisture as I have now been told should have been done.  I also failed to season it with anything other than Franks Hot Sauce...  (a staple in our pantry).  I'm a huge sucker for textured foods but when I went to eat my little creation I couldn't get past the mush of it and though I've heard many people say tofu has no taste I beg to differ from my recollection of that day....

Considering there is a mini list of things I thought I hated which I now love (onions, kale, olives and cabbage I'm looking at you guys)  tofu will also get its day for redemption. Me being a not-too-picky eater I don't like the idea of shunning foods.  Believe me, I'm a creature of peace and harmony and I want nothing more than to love tofu... and eggplants...  but the latter we will save for a day when I'm truly brave.  Eggplants, oh eggplants why can we just not get along?

Also on my experimental list is the new-to-us ingredient of TVP.  (Textured Vegetable Protein)   I've seen this in stores several times and though I've read the description for it each and every time, I have yet to toss it into the cart to give it a shot or to find a good use for it.

Considering I see it used in a few of the Happy Herbivores recipes I decided now was as good a time as any to make the purchase.   In case you've never heard of it, its made from defatted soy flour cooked under pressure and then dried.

When rehydrated it is widely used as a meat substitute and is a good source of dietary fiber, iron, magnesium and phosphorus.  Each (dry) 1/4 cup serving contains 80 calories, 7 g carbohydrates (dietary fiber 4g), 12 g protein, 0g fat, 3g sugar, 594mg potassium and 2mg sodium.

I'm thinking sometime this weekend I will give it a whirl as we already have our meals booked for the week.  In the SASS Yourself Slim book, Cynthia highly encourages one to have a minimum of 5 vegetarian meals a day and though I'm not sure if she's including breakfasts or snacks in that category (or if she means 5 lunches/dinners) I would still like to follow through with that for the next 30 days when we go scale free.

Currently I would say we have at least 2-3 vegetarian lunches or dinners every week and now that I have my hands on a few more resources for recipes I'm looking forward to it.

If anyone out there has tried TVP or wants to weigh in on Tofu I would love to hear it... I'm a little intimdated by the tofu but I think next Monday will be the day I try to play nice with it...  if it isn't meant to be at least I will know I gave it all I had...

wish me luck :0)