From Our Home: Healthy Eating and Lenten Fasting
We have passed the halfway point in Lent, which means I'm overdue for sharing some Lenten meal ideas as promised. Whether you "do Lent" or not, I hope there is something here for everyone.
Aside from our physical distancing and quarantines, this is a time of fasting and waiting even in the natural world. Just look out the window and you'll see what I mean. Spring is just around the corner, but the grey snow is still as drab as ever. Animals in hibernation have slowly been running out of food. Evolutionarily speaking, our human bodies expect a time of year when food is prosperous and a time of year when food is scarce, but now that we live in a time of plenty it takes self-discipline to keep a healthy lifestyle - especially when you are stuck at home!
Certainly it has not been easy meeting even our own little goals in this house. A little suspension of our fasting guidelines was also necessary in order to use what we had in the fridge, freezer, and cupboards so we could avoid excessive grocery shopping while social distancing. But to explain what our goals were, before sharing my recipes, I'll begin with some thoughts on the fasting tradition in our church as a whole.
In our Eastern Christian tradition, participation in the full fast is voluntary and generally involves abstaining from meat, fish, dairy, oil, and wine. But I've observed a few questions that arise from these fasting guidelines:
1. A lot of Lenten dishes are heavy on the pasta and bread, and it's easy to gain weight during Lent. Unhealthy replacements such as margarine are used. Shouldn't our fast be healthy?
2. It's easy to replace dairy products such as cow's milk with plant-based milk and still follow the fasting rules, and where is the sacrifice in that? (This is not a criticism, but a question we have asked ourselves.)
3. Lent is a time of simplicity, and a vegan lifestyle can be expensive. Even in the West/Roman Catholic tradition where fish is allowed, we know that fish can be more expensive than meat. If Lent is a time to eat less and to give your excess to the poor, is expensive food appropriate to the fast?
And so, since the fast is voluntary, we have adjusted the fast entirely (Dr. Jason Fung on YouTube helped). We have cut on bread and carbs, keeping bread to the minimum of oatmeal, whole wheat tortillas, and the occasional rice or quinoa dish; increased vegetables; cut down on sugar; kept Fridays meatless; avoided snacking between meals; and kept our 2-3 meals within a 8-10 hour period.
Here are three sample Lenten meals from our home these past few weeks:
I started by baking the sweet potatoes until they were soft, and then scooping it out of the peel, keeping the peel intact. I mixed the sweet potato with quinoa, green onion, red pepper, avocado, and cumin. (I would have added melted cheese but this was the first day of Lent - Clean Monday - and we were going dairy free for the day.) I stuffed the filling back into the shells and baked them a little longer before serving - without sour cream in our case, but recommended.
✔️ Low carb
✔️ Lots of vegetable
✔️ Meatless and dairy-free
✔️ BLW friendly. My 11 month old seemed less enthusiastic about it than I was, though. I made sure the pieces were soft enough or small enough for him, and he didn't have any of the outer peel.
Aside from our physical distancing and quarantines, this is a time of fasting and waiting even in the natural world. Just look out the window and you'll see what I mean. Spring is just around the corner, but the grey snow is still as drab as ever. Animals in hibernation have slowly been running out of food. Evolutionarily speaking, our human bodies expect a time of year when food is prosperous and a time of year when food is scarce, but now that we live in a time of plenty it takes self-discipline to keep a healthy lifestyle - especially when you are stuck at home!
Certainly it has not been easy meeting even our own little goals in this house. A little suspension of our fasting guidelines was also necessary in order to use what we had in the fridge, freezer, and cupboards so we could avoid excessive grocery shopping while social distancing. But to explain what our goals were, before sharing my recipes, I'll begin with some thoughts on the fasting tradition in our church as a whole.
In our Eastern Christian tradition, participation in the full fast is voluntary and generally involves abstaining from meat, fish, dairy, oil, and wine. But I've observed a few questions that arise from these fasting guidelines:
1. A lot of Lenten dishes are heavy on the pasta and bread, and it's easy to gain weight during Lent. Unhealthy replacements such as margarine are used. Shouldn't our fast be healthy?
2. It's easy to replace dairy products such as cow's milk with plant-based milk and still follow the fasting rules, and where is the sacrifice in that? (This is not a criticism, but a question we have asked ourselves.)
3. Lent is a time of simplicity, and a vegan lifestyle can be expensive. Even in the West/Roman Catholic tradition where fish is allowed, we know that fish can be more expensive than meat. If Lent is a time to eat less and to give your excess to the poor, is expensive food appropriate to the fast?
And so, since the fast is voluntary, we have adjusted the fast entirely (Dr. Jason Fung on YouTube helped). We have cut on bread and carbs, keeping bread to the minimum of oatmeal, whole wheat tortillas, and the occasional rice or quinoa dish; increased vegetables; cut down on sugar; kept Fridays meatless; avoided snacking between meals; and kept our 2-3 meals within a 8-10 hour period.
Here are three sample Lenten meals from our home these past few weeks:
Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
✔️ Low carb
✔️ Lots of vegetable
✔️ Meatless and dairy-free
✔️ BLW friendly. My 11 month old seemed less enthusiastic about it than I was, though. I made sure the pieces were soft enough or small enough for him, and he didn't have any of the outer peel.
Stir Fry Mush Thingie
I never know how to describe this Asian-inspired dish, which I make variations of every so often. Usually it's carb-based: quinoa, rice, or rice noodles; but in this case we are making them with veggies and meat alone. Some typical vegetables I might use in various combinations: bok choy, spinach, sweet peppers, mushrooms, onions or green onions, zucchini. Just about ANY veggie will do. I pretty much always use soy sauce (okay, health-wise this dish might be a little high on the sodium), and occasionally sweeten it with a bit of honey, maple syrup, or hoisin sauce. (We look forward to being able to put honey in dishes again when our son turns 1!) Sometimes I might put barbecue sauce. I have put peanut butter to imitate an Asian peanut sauce taste, but we have yet to try authentic peanut sauce in our kitchen. I like to experiment, but I'm not nearly as adventurous as my husband (whose "secret ingredient" on a roast the other day was mint jelly, and of course vodka). Garlic powder and ginger are musts - lots of ginger. I often add cinnamon, piri piri, basil, rosemary, or whatever else I feel like throwing in. Usually, bite-size chunks of chicken, pork, or beef are part of this recipe. Add a bit of red or white wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar, since vinegar is an antidote to carbs and helps regulate your insulin levels.
This particular pictured version contains zucchini, spinach, onion, corn, and pork. Yum.
This also makes a great wrap filling with some grated cheese and avocado slices, grilled in the toaster oven!
This also makes a great wrap filling with some grated cheese and avocado slices, grilled in the toaster oven!
✔️ Low carb (can be a carb-based meal, or you can use riced cauliflower)
✔️ Lots of veggies
✔️ BLW friendly. My son loves these dishes, even when they're on the spicy side!
Twice-Baked Cauliflower Pasta Casserole
For a little break from the veggie-heavy stuff, this dish does have pasta in it, an ingredient we're generally avoiding during Lent. But a good portion of what would normally be pasta has been replaced by baked cauliflower.
1. Bake cauliflower
2. Mix with noodles (optional, if you can handle only cauliflower!) in a casserole dish
3. Pour and stir in your cheese sauce
4. Top with grated cheese
5. Bake again
Be sure to include more vegetables! Roasted red peppers are DELICIOUS with cheesy pasta. This casserole contains red peppers, onions, and of course cauliflower. It would be good with spinach in it too!
My cheese sauce is pretty straightforward: whole wheat flour and butter whisked with meat broth, mushroom soup, and/or milk, and then lots of shredded cheese melted in.
I grated cheddar and romano cheese both on the top of this casserole. Yummy!!
✔️ Lots of veggies, and some carbs replaced with veggies
✔️ Meatless if desired
✔️ BLW friendly! Who doesn't love pasta? The cauliflower was still a bit hard even twice baked, so I had to be careful about him eating chokeable chunks of cauliflower.
And that's all I've got for you! A little bit of celebrating is worth doing too - we've had cake or ice cream for a birthday, St. Paddy's, and the church feast of the Annunciation.
17 days left until Easter! Keep going, Lenten fasters, and stay healthy (in more ways than one)!
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