Quote:
Originally Posted by Linsy
A few questions: What is tvp? Also, I'm really interested in the exchange plan that you do.
tvp stands for textured vegetable protein (sometimes called textured soy protein). It's made from defatted soybeans and is dehydrated. You can buy it in various forms, flavored and unflavored. The one I buy looks like grapenuts cereal or beige gravel. You can buy it in health food stores and some regular grocery stores in their health food section. I used to buy it for about $2.29 per pound from the health food store bins (one pound of tvp is equivalent to about 3-4 lbs of ground beef). Then our local health food store closed. When I visit my family in Illinois, I always stock up, because I can still get it there for about $2.50 per pound. Walmart does carry it in our area, but it's about $4 for 12 ounces. That's still a lot cheaper than the cheapest ground beef per serving.
Dry TVP is reconsituted with equal parts of liquid, but it's really bland on it's own. I don't mind it plain, but hubby will only eat it cooked with meat unless
it's in something like chili (and he'll still complain, because the texture "isn't right").
As for my exchange plan. The great thing about exchange plan is that almost all of them are based on the original exchange plan developed by the American Diabetes Association and the American Dietetics Association. The exchanges themselves haven't changed much, so you can use almost all exchange plan cookbooks (like Richard Simmons', old Weight Watcher cookbooks, Joanna Lunds Health Exchanges....)
Here's a basic introduction to exchange plans from the hillbillyhousewife website (they've changed the website a bit, but I found an old link I used that still works).
http://healthy.hillbillyhousewife.co...tiontoexpd.htm
My actual plan is based on the high protein plan (it's pretty close, but I still adjust and tweak the exact number of exchanges. I like to have a few "flexible" exchanges which is what I call exchanges that I can spend on fruit, dairy, protein, or starch if I choose. Some old WW plans and Joanna Lund's Healthy Exchanges include flexible (or sometimes called floater or optional) exchanges. I like the idea that I can vary my calorie count (1500 - 2000, usually averaging about 1800) and my carb level. So I used the 1500 high protein plan as my base (my minimum) and then added 6 optional "flexible" exchanges that I can "spend" any way I want to (though if I do choose carby exchanges, I'm more prone to water retention, hunger, and smaller weight losses).
Here's the exchanges though.
http://healthy.hillbillyhousewife.co...tiontoexpd.htm
They also list the exchange values for 1200, 1400, 1500 and 1800 calorie plans at three carbohydrate levels.
http://healthy.hillbillyhousewife.com/foodplans.htm