One of our essential items that we keep stocked on our boat thanks to our trusty pack mules is TVP.  We discovered this product thanks to a fellow boater, s/v Mirador, while in Miami. TVP stands for Textured Vegetable Protein. It is a dehydrated vegetable substance (tofu like) that we use as a ground beef substitute. Now we are not vegetarian but the versatility and convenience of this food made it so that we now never buy ground beef and simply use this instead. You can find it in big box grocery stores like Milams in their health section or in health food stores sold in bulk.
   As mentioned, the stuff is dehydrated and so can be kept on a boat for extremely long periods, if stored properly in a dry container, and the grains are about the size of rice and so does not need to take up much room. It is a great product to use when provisioning or even when the quality of meat is not the greatest. And the best part of it, is not only does it taste good, but it’s cheap. It costs about $3 a bag (in the US), and the one bag is enough to be our meet substitute and  feed our family of four for about 5 meals.
   Eben looked into the specs of TVP and compared to lean ground beef,  looking per pound, TVP only has 10 grams less protein than the meat but none of the fat.
   We have used it in many different ways, pasta sauce, chilli, cabbage rolls, vegeburgers, and meatballs for pasta sauce. It is very easy to prepare (for a meal for 2 adults and 2 kids, with some to spare): bring 1 cup of water to a boil, remove water from stove top and pour 1 cup of TVP into the water. Let sit for 10 minutes. Once it has rehydrated you use it the same way you would ground beef; add it to sauces, ect. Side note: if you wish to make it taste like ground beef instead of rehydrating with 1 cup of water we use 1 cup of beef bouillon or add a beef broth cube to your boiling water .
   I highly recommend to everyone to go out and buy a bag and try out a few different recipes. And please if you come up with any favorites share them with us.