It will help us ev'ry day, it will brighten all the way, If we'll keep on the sunny side of life

we have had one of Those Weeks. i guess sometimes that happens when you get back from an awesome trip... you still want to be la-la-la-ing and skipping about but the universe has other ideas. so it goes, so it goes.

while in portugal, we picked up some TVP (at a tiny supermarket, no less, on a shelf next to the cereal. i was super excited as ive not found any here), so i made us some crumbles to use this way and that throughout the week. i made sausage patties, "meat" pie, and this morning, my favourite, cornbread with crumbles and egg.

i started with the following:
1/2 cup tvp
3/4 cup smoked tea* (lapsang souchong), divided into 1/2 cup and 1/4 cup
1/4 cup oats
various spices (i used some rosemary, garlic, thyme, oregano, cinnamon, and lemon zest)
2 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 caramelized leek
1 apple, grated
3 parboiled fingerling potatoes

first i made some tea.

i added half a cup of piping hot tea to the half cup of tvp and set it aside. i let the tea leaves soak in the quarter cup of water while i mixed everything else.

in a separate bowl, i mixed the dry goods, then added the tvp, and all the other ingredients.


i kept the crumbles in the fridge and used them for this and that. this morning i decided we needed some corniebread for breakfast.

i made my usual recipe:
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1 1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp bkg powder
food colouring (this is what makes it corniebread, not cornbread)

into two small individual casseroles, i poured 1/4 cup batter and added the last of the crumbles on top. they were baked at 175 for roughly 20 minutes.

i fried an egg to top it off, and sprinkled on some fresh parsley.

then i stuck the remaining batter in a casserole, swirled the colours, and let it do its thing. corniebread usually takes 35 minutes to bake.

snack time!

now if only i could find some tvp here... it has got to be here! next time i go to the bio shop for gluten, i'll see what they say.... because i can see these crumbles being used for pizza, lasagna, tacos...



*i wanted to add a smokey flavour to the sausagey crumbles, and i thought infused water would do the trick. it did.