[ewriggs]

Well, it's been a looooooong time since I last posted.

I know some of you are wondering what on earth we eat during Great Lent, when we cannot have animal products (meat, milk, butter, cheese, eggs, fish). Well, there are lots of vegetables, grains, and beans that are available!

An example is what we had the other day:

Rice, Lentils and Tomatoes

2 cups cooked Royal Blend Rice (white rice, wild rice, red rice)
1 can Progresso Lentil soup (totally legal and very tasty - if it's Lent we have lentils! LOL)
1 can (14 1/2 oz) Hunts diced tomatoes, chilled

Cook lentil soup down by about 1/3 - 1/2
Put 1/4 of the hot rice in each of two bowls
Put 1/4 of the soup over each bowl of rice
Put 1/4 of the chilled diced tomatoes over each.

This is a very hearty and filling lunch, and there is enough for lunch the next day.

Spaghetti and Beans

2 servings of cooked spaghetti (or other pasta of choice)
1 14 1/2 oz can of crowder peas (or legumes of choice)
1 14 1/2 oz can diced tomatoes (or tomato sauce)

Warm peas or beans up in a thick-bottom pan. If watery, cook down by about 1/3 to 1/2 or until the liquid is thickened.

Serve peas over the spaghetti. Add diced tomatoes or a little tomato sauce over the peas if desired. You will have enough of the peas and tomatoes for another meal the next day or day after.

As you can see, we use a lot of tomatoes - because they are such a nice, tangy addition to the plain foods of Great Lent.

We don't use many herbs and spices during Great Lent - the whole purpose is to make us hungry for God. We just didn't "get" it until about half-way through our first Orthodox Lent. Then, hungry from fasting since breakfast, we went to a mid-week Presanctified Liturgy - about 6pm it starts and isn't over until about 7:30 or 7:45pm. We were doing the pre-communion chants, when Father poured hot water over the wine, and the scent pervaded the Church! We salivated - and were truly ready for Holy Communion about 30 minutes later! Afterward, we were not as hungry as we anticipated being - because we had received the Body and Blood of Christ into our bodies, and we were, however briefly, filled with Him. We had some Lenten bread and lentil soup while Father gave a homily about Great Lent. But it was at that moment that we truly understood - as far as we were capable of doing so - that fasting wasn't just some legalistic requirement of the Church. We understood that Orthodoxy is a very *Practical* way of life. Fasting puts us more in touch with the spiritual world. Every religion has fasting - whether it is practiced by many or not - with the experience over ages that fasting will make you more aware of the spiritual world. We have to take care, however, to increase our prayer life and to receive the Holy Gifts more frequently during Fasts - because we are not only aware of the goodness of the spiritual world, but the evil, also. And are more susceptible to temptations and spiritual attacks. So we fast, carefully, and try to be aware of the need to fight off spiritual attacks from the Evil One.

Some days we just have various kinds of bread - with or without margarine, with or without cinnamon-sugar, toasted or not - with some water. I used to make bread using pureed pinto beans for the liquid. It really rose! And together with the wheat flour, made a complete protein. So eating bread and water was not exactly as "fasting" as some people do. Monks often literally eat only one small meal a day! For the full 56 days of the Fast.

So, plain, vegan foods are the rule.

Some shellfish are allowed, so for supper we tend ot have shrimp or scallops, in small amounts, with rice or pasta. The Ol' Curmudgeon is doing a good bit of the cooking these days, and he doesn't "do" fasting meals very well. He does like to make various shrimp and scallop dishes, so we tend to eat fairly "luxurious" dinners.

I hope to post more in another week or two.