TVP

Last week I was in beautiful sunny Marco Island, Florida, the weather was in the mid 80's, sunny, just lovely...back to Ohio where its cold and gloomy...(actually today was pretty nice...sunny and almost 60!)..
What brings to my mind on those cold days is chili. I use to love my meat laden chili, but those days are gone, but I do miss chili like my mom use to make. So, I decided using TVP, Textured Vegetable Protein. What, you may ask, exactly is TVP? Textured Vegetable Protein is a made from defatted soy flour that has been cooked under pressure then dried. It is very high in protein and contains NO FAT!  What's great about TVP is it takes on whatever flavors you put with it. So why not replace my ex-love, ground beef with TVP? I did and now I have a new love with the initials...TVP! Give it a try...
TVP CHILI
1 large onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped 
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 - 4 oz cans tomato paste
1 - 35 oz can tomato (do not drain!)
2 - 16oz cans kidney beans, drained (or make your own using dried kidney beans)
2 cups TVP
4 cups water
In a large pot, saute onion, green pepper, and garlic until soft, add in chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper.  Add in 1 can tomato paste with 2 cans of water. (this is a very important step!) Simmer uncovered until tomato paste has thickened about 15 minutes.
After the 15 minutes, add the tomatoes and kind of "chop" up with your spoon, the other can of tomato paste,  kidney beans, TVP and the rest of the water.Bring to a boil, cover and simmer on low 45 minutes.
ENJOY! 
Kidney Beans made in a pressure cooker are real easy.
Just rinse 1 Cup dried kidney beans, add to pressure cooker with 2 cups water. Let soak about 15 minutes or longer...(not necessary but I think worth it). Cover and bring to pressure, lower heat to low and let cook 45 minutes, slowly let pressure out and take off lid, add 1/4 teaspoon salt and let simmer uncovered until all the liquid is absorbed about 15 minutes.