Hey, I just discovered that this thread is alive again! I am another "backslider" who hasn't updated the weight chart.

I bought some TVP, but haven't had much luck using it - I will go back now and read how you all use it.

When I started Volumetrics, my husband started eating a huge salad once or twice a day right along with me. He didn't change any of his other eating habits. Just by adding the salads he managed to loose quite a bit of weight. Of course, he is a guy and we all know it is easier for men to loose weight, but still, it certainly demonstrates how volumetrics can work.

I, too, have suffered from migraines over the years. I had no idea that exercise was a trigger. Not that I ever get too much exercise....

Hi Gail! Nice to talk to you again! Heavy exercise doesn't always trigger migraines- it's just one of my triggers. It's a Catch 22, because I know from experience that if I exercise consistently at a decent level, it helps my migraines. Just getting to that level and staying there is difficult.

Yes, I usually reconstitute my TVP in some sort of broth- beef, chicken or vegetable. By itself it really tastes like nothing. We tried the Shiratake noodles last night, and they also tasted like nothing and were a little slimy. I'm not giving up on them yet, because the calorie and ED count is so great, but now at least I know what I'm working with. If anyone else is interested in experimenting, too, they're found in the refrigerated section, which surprised me. I guess I expected them to be dried, so it took me a long time to find them.

We've used the fake Bocca Burgers, but I didn't care for them much- at one time I have a veggie burger substitute that was full of veggies and wasn't just trying to look/taste like hamburger, and I liked that better.

I think you can make something similar to Greek yogurt (I love it, too!) by taking normal yogurt and straining it in cheesecloth for a couple of hours. I think the Greek yogurt is basically yogurt with some of the whey (the liquid) drained out of it.

I think the recipe idea is great- you have to go through tons of old info to pick up a few recipes or hints because they've been scattered around though years of forums.

Les- I'm Dutch by heritage, and red cabbage is a great Volumetrics food- I'm just assuming you like it, too!

I am not crazy about most of the recipes in the book, but you can invent your own.

One of my favorite "inventions" is turkey spaghetti sauce. I brown the turkey in a pan. I don't like the taste of the turkey is why I cook it separately and then drain it. By the time I get done adding stuff, I can't taste the turkey. LOL. Then I cut up lots of bell pepper, onion, and garlic to taste and saute it in olive oil in another pan. Then I mix it all together with tomato sauce and tomatoes. I actually mix the sauce with some cooked pasta (very portion controlled) and freeze in individual containers. I finish it off with a fluff of parmesan cheese, some chopped parsley and a squeeze of fresh garlic. I actually like this concoction better than plain old spaghetti sauce. When I nuke this at lunch my co-workers think I am a gourmet cook. It's all the garlic, I think! Last night when I made this I added some fresh asparagus to the saute mixture. This was good, too. I am going to try adding some wilted spinach next. I am also going to try this with the soy granules.

I get Morning Star sausage patties. I love them. I do not like the little sausage shaped things - just the patties. I threw away the box, so I can't give the stats, but I think they are wonderful to have with a poached egg and half an oroweat sandwich thin. Not exactly volumetric, but satifying and relatively healthful.

We still have our chickens and I still cannot bring myself to throw away the delicious egg yolks!

Oh yes, I subscribe to Martha Stewart's Everyday Food, and I have a couple of Sara Foster's cookbooks which stress using fresh foods. I find that quite a few recipes from these sources can be modified along volumetrics lines.

Hi Gail,
nice to meet you!

ArtCat,
yes I do like red Cabbage! I actually have one in my fridge right now
Wow, there is this much info out there!? Well I guess it will take a while, but it's not like you all are going anywhere hahahah
I will start to dig in for the recipes right after my vacation.

My Dinner today was great.
I made the Filled Pita Bread with Tuna right out of the newer Volumetrics books.
I am all proud of myself, I even put in some shredded baby spinach.

Hubby was at home today and watched TV, he keeps telling me that the new Hamburger Helper with chicken and whole grain will fit right in to my diet.
When I told him I doubt it, he got mad at me.

When shopping I got two Arcon Squash, I have no idea how to prepare them, but they sure look interesting. Time to find recipe and explore.

Good night everyone!

For me, getting the squash open provides aerobic exercise. I think you can cut it in half crosswise, remove the seeds and bake it in the oven. Then you can scoop the insides out. There are all kinds of things you can do to the squash to make it unhealthy - add marshmallows, brown sugar, maple syrup etc. I like it plain with salt and pepper. If it needs more, I add a little orange juice.

Les- I find it's easier to cut the squash open if you microwave it for a little bit- maybe a minute or so. If you do it for longer, it'll explode, so if you're worried about that, just pierce it first in a couple of places so it can release steam. I also just cut it in half, remove the seeds and bake it, and I usually find that it's sweet enough that you don't have to add anything to it.
Have you tried spaghetti squash yet? It's really good, and is a nice substitute for pasta. Really!

We're embarking on a 2 week camping trip starting next week, and I'm worried about how I'm going to cook healthily while being limited to a camp stove and basically canned or stock basics. Any suggestions?

I'm not a camper so no suggestions. It sounds like a fun trip. You will probably get extra exercise, offsetting the less than perfect eating. Just don't eat too much.

ArtCat, thanks for the tip with the Arcon. I will try it first the natural way and see if we like it.
If you camp near a lake/river, maybe you can bring some veggies and keep them cool in the water!? Other than that I am also no help.

Gail, thanks to you also for the help with the Arcon

I will also be going on vacation for two week, but I will be flying to Germany and over the weekend from there to Italy and back to Germany, after that back to the USA.
I should get paid for that, it's more stress than vacation.

Will be cooking the fried rice with shrimp today, hope it is good.

One of my children lived in Italy for 18 months, so I did that trip a couple of times. Once via Munich and once via Frankfurt. I agree the trip is pretty stressful. I had fun figuring out what food to take on the plane with us.

My experience was that MUC is better organized than FRA. I am your typical American whining that they took away my water - twice, in fact! And, of course, no cold drinks. I bought bottled water and asked for ice. They said no ice, but enthusiastically promised that the water was cold. Not. Warm room temp is not cold. Both trips were wonderful. We just had to "suck it up" that there were no cold drinks.

LOL, Gail, with me it is the other way around, since I am German, here I have to always ask for NO ice please hahahhah

We don't do ice drinks much, for us cold is out of the refrigerator and it is not recommended by doctors Can't remember why do....
The same in Italy come to think of it, expect in tourist places of course.

I could use a body guard to keep me away from the German and Italian food. I will probably slip up a lot, there is so many things you just can't get here.

Well was not so happy with the fried rice with shrimp. Got to try something else tonight.

Hubby just tried the Bean Burrito out of the first book and liked it ,
I ate leftover from the shrimp *shudder*

Yes, I can't throw leftovers away, either. Must be the frugal background.

My mom always asks for no ice in her water, too, so that must be why. She immigrated when she was 21, so the European way of life was well entrenched in her, too. I always thought it was because her teeth were sensitive, but maybe not. I do know that the body uses water quicker when it's at room temp.- when it's cold it needs to warm it up first in order to process it. Maybe it uses up some energy when warming it up- anything to burn more calories!

Les- how do you work at the shelter and not take animals home? I've often thought of volunteering there, but know that I couldn't resist the animals. I already have 3 cats, and we had a dog that we lost 3 years ago after 15 wonderful years. We decided not to replace him, because with an empty nest it was just easier to not be tied down like that.

I tried making burgers from the TVP and they were OK- I was hoping that would be an easy way to carry low fat protein while we are camping. I think I still need to tweak the recipe some.

So, does anyone have any big plans for the 4th that might be food related? At get-togethers I always make sure I bring something that is legal for me to eat, plus I eat something healthy before I go so I don't overeat there. I usually bring a salad made from shredded carrots, crushed drained pineapple and yogurt with a little mayo. If I have time I soak raisins in the pineapple juice to plump them and add that to it.

Les, that's interesting that you are attracted to the German and Italian food just like I am. I got addicted to Curry Wurst in Germany. I know this is not a "gourmet" food, but I sure do like it. I thought maybe if you lived there the food wouldn't seem so special. The other thing I liked in Germany was the breakfasts the hotels provided. The food seemed of much better quality than what we get for breakfast at the Holiday Inn - not so wonderful, to tell you the truth. Loved getting a bowl of coffee and a croissant for breakfast in Corsica, which is, of course, part of France.

I think maybe europeans aren't so in to overeating as americans. If I could learn to eat reasonable amounts, I wouldn't be overweight. What part of portion control don't I understand?

We are going to a bbq on the 4th. I will bring something, but I don't know what it will be yet. LOL. Your salad sounds good, Liz. I have made a plain coleslaw with a lightened dressing, but I like the pineapple and carrot idea.

Hello, one and all! Haven't visited here in a while, and I am glad to see some new faces (names? avatars?)....School's out for summer! As a bus driver, that means my summers are free (and broke!) - I started my walking again, and tried my son's bike today (legs are still a bit jelly-like). The scale is creeping in the RIGHT direction again (yay!). I am a summer fruit and veggie addict - the garden is growing in leaps and bounds (don't get too close to the winter squash - you might disappear!), and I'm loving the fruits at the store.

Liz, you and Gail mentioned salads to bring to picnics - one of my faves is broccoli coleslaw - I buy the packaged Broc slaw, add slivers of whatever is in the fridge - red or yellow bell peppers, jicama, snow peas, seedless cukes - and dress it with a low-fat sesame dressing. Sometimes top it with a sprinkling of toasted sunflowers seeds or chinese noodles. Known to dress up the dressing with additions of crushed garlic, crushed red pepper, or additional sesame oil or wasabi...just to kick it up a bit. Family favorite (gotta battle the kids for a serving!).

Glad to see this thread back up and running! I'll be popping in far more often now!

Yum, Judi. Love the Asian dressing.

Liz, I was looking at the forums over at fit-day. Didn't even know they had forums. Someone asked about camping. I have copied and pasted for you. I hope there's nothing illegal about doing this!!!!

I always love to make tinfoil dinners when we go camping. Usually I use lean ground beef, onions carrots, red potatoes, garlic, salt & pepper and maybe a little dribble of olive oil, cook 15-20 minutes each side. But seriously you can make a tinfoil dinner out of just about anything you would bake or throw on a grill, portabella mushrooms, mushrooms of any sort really, sweet potatoes, ground turkey, pork tender loin, chicken, fish, any veggie. One recipe my family loves is tinfoil chicken fahitas, wrap up chicken, onions, peppers, taco seasoning and salsa in the foil, cook 10-15 minutes each side and serve with chopped lettuce and tortillas The best part of tinfoil dinners is that you don't have to do dishes!

Shish kabobs are also a really great camping dish, and then the kids can put whatever they want on their own skewers, fruit, veggies, meat, whatever floats your boat.

We also love to make hobo pies, people call them different things but you make them in those camp fire sandwich makers. Instead of using canned pie filling, we use fresh fruit or reduced calorie jam, low-cal whole grain bread instead of Wonderbread, cooking spray instead of butter and whatever low-cal ingredients we're in the mood for. You can easily cut the calories by a ton and have it taste about the same.

What about chili? Make it in advance, freeze in a crock pot liner, use it for ice in the cooler and toss it into the crock pot after it thaws out. Viola' dinner's all done and it was almost no work at all.

For snacks take fresh cut veggies, fruit, granola bars, trail mix, protein bars, yogurt etc etc. Believe me you can camp without chips and junk food. You might even find that your ravenous teenagers eat a little less when the food they consume actually has nutritional content. My kids are swimmers, so they burn tons of calories at practice, which is 2-3 days/week. Switching them over to healthier snacks has saved us some money because they don't wolf down quite as much.

And did you know a s'more only has about 160 calories? So have your s'more if you want, just make sure you get in an extra hike to burn it off.

ArtCat - working at the shelter is hard work, but also fun. I been a full-time volunteer for over one year now and only took one dog home, which was not adoptable. He came out a Puppymil and can't stand to be close to anyone, so we let him run with the other dogs.
And yes, sometimes you think, this is the best dog and feel like you should take it, but in the end I thin, I got already 5 animals that is way over the norm and quit frankly the proper care for them is expensive. An average animal in the USA today costs $2000 a year.
Also it makes me very happy when I can team up the right dog with the right people and get a letter or e-mail how happy they are with their new pet.
Lots of happy endings is better as the must have for self
Volunteering in our shelter means picking up poop when walking a dog, and getting dirty. Everyone does everything. If you feel like walking, it would be great if you would take one of the dogs with you, it may be all the workout the poor dog gets for that day.
I better stop now or this will no longer be named the volumetrics, but the dog thread heheheh
Oh, almost forgot, the really hard thing is when you take a puppy or a kitten home to bottle race and bring him/her back when she/he eats on their own, that is REALLY hard.


Gail- I miss the German breads (over 700 bread types). Also products you just can't get here I grew up with. For instance If I make real German Cheesecake, I have to use Ricotta instead of Quark which you don't have here. I used to bring them to the shelter and peeps just went crazy over it.
About the overeating. Europeans are getting fatter every year. When I grew up lots of our stuff came from our own garden and we ate animals we raised, well granny did. I believe it is the processed foods we all start eating and the fast food joints.

Hi Judi, nice to meet you

Today I made New-York Steak, with mixed Salad (Romain lettuce, shaved carrot and plum tomatoes with a little red bell pepper). Mixed up some dressing with olive oil, balsamico, touch of dijon mustard some fresh black pepper and of course lots of garlic.
As side dish, half an acorn squash, with little cinnamon and a few grains of sugar, not enough to make it sweet or to cinnamony.
Hubby was very happy again.

I think since I know now what arcon tastes like I will try to put in a small amount of none fat milk, or none fat sour cream with a little bit of pepper and salt and mash the mixture up, should taste similar to mashed potatoes!?