RECIPE: "Sausage" Meatloaf (Extended with Textured Vegetable Protein)

While PsychDisABILITIES' main blog will not be resumed until September 4, 2018 due to kitten-guaredianship leave, I am picking up with Thrift with Flair posts several weeks early!

RECIPE—“Sausage” Meatloaf (Extended with Textured Vegetable/Soy Protein)

¾ c textured vegetable protein/textured soy protein. (Many stores carry this in the bulk section.)

½ c water

Combine in a small bowl. Set aside.

One egg

¼ c milk, dairy or alternative

2 T finely-chopped onion (one-half of a small onion is fine to increase to)

One teaspoon salt

Black pepper, preferably freshly-ground. (I use just enough so that I can easily smell it above the onion.)

One teaspoon fennel seed, ground in a coffee grinder. (If you have only one grinder, run in it [and then discard] a little white rice or a half-slice of bread in the grinder to clean it from the spice before you grind coffee beans in it again.)

One teaspoon dried leaf sage, rubbed between your palms

One teaspoon pure maple syrup (if used rarely and only in recipes, not over pancakes/French toast, anyone can afford the real thing! It makes a world of difference….)

Combine in a large bowl.

Add the “TVP” mixture to the contents of the large bowl and mix well.

Add to the large bowl one-half to one full pound of ground chicken, or pork, or of turkey if you can afford it. (One-half pound of meat works; three-quarters of a pound is plenty; don’t use more than one pound.) Mix well.

Line two eight-inch square pans with parchment paper and trim the paper, OR grease the pans. Pack the mixture into the pans, dividing evenly by adding one spoonful to each pan in turn.

Bake at 350 degrees for forty minutes, until lightly browned. 

Cool on a wire rack, wrap, and freeze one pan’s contents.

Each pan provides four servings.