Dear Diary I can’t believe it’s not meat!

Well I am on my way to my goal of more vegetarian friendly meals.  The other night I made a Hearty Tuscan Vegetable Chowder that had no meat in it.  What it had were “meat” crumbles from Morningstar which is basically Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP).  I got the recipe from Weight Watchers which has yummy recipes.  I doctored it up a bit for my tastes since I am not a big fan of kale (me no likey).  It is so good that Jonathan had 3 bowls!  Yeah he can do that because he does hard core work outs.  My hard core work outs are typing on this key board and moving this mouse and one and two and one and two, ugh let me stretch my index finger and one and two… So below is my version of the recipe.

	Hearty Tuscan Vegetable Chowder 2 tsp olive oil
	1 cup(s) onion(s), diced   ( I substituted 2 cups of Leeks)
	3/4 cup(s) carrot(s), diced
	1/2 cup(s) celery, diced
	4 cup(s) vegetable broth
	28 oz canned tomatoes, diced, in juice, undrained
	15 oz canned cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
	3 tsp minced garlic
	1/4 tsp dried thyme
	1 cup(s) kale, frozen, chopped   (I substituted chopped frozen spinach)
	1 cup(s) frozen cut green beans
	1/2 tsp table salt
	1 cup(s) dry textured vegetable protein, granules (TVP)   ( I used Morningstar Crumbles)
	1 tsp fennel seed
	1/2 tsp black pepper   (I used red pepper flakes for spice)

Instructions

• Heat oil in a large saucepan. Add onion, carrots and celery. Saute 5 minutes until onion is translucent. Add broth, tomatoes and juice, beans, TVP, garlic, fennel and thyme. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 5 minutes. 
• Stir in kale, green beans, salt and pepper. Simmer, covered, 10 minutes or until vegetables and TVP are tender. Yields about 1 1/2 cups per serving. (Note: Store in refrigerator for up to 4 days or freeze for future consumption.)

This chowder is approximately 4 points per serving which is pretty low in calories.  So go and make it and be amazed that there is NO meat in it, NONE.  Well yeah it only fools vegetarians who haven't had meat in years but it is still delicious!!!!!!