The "Advent Season" has begun in the Orthodox Church! In the forty days leading up to Christmas day, we abstain from dairy and meat as a means to prepare ourselves for the feast day of the Nativity if our Lord. It is a time of spiritual exercise and great anticipation!
As a pregnant mama, I have loosened fasting restrictions given to me by my spiritual father as a means to help me (but most importantly the baby) stay optimally nourished. However, I will be preparing meat free/dairy free dinners to enjoy with Job.
Since I've been "into" meal-planning the past few months, I decided to jot out a list of as many Lenten meals I know. My hope is to go through this list without having to repeat a meal until at least mid-way through the Advent fast. Because I can't think of exactly forty meals that we, as a family, would eat. These are tried and true favorites that keep us fed during Lenten fasts. Hopefully, with some planning, we'll avoid having to eat spaghetti every other day. Here's my list, although be warned it is not in compliance with my "product-placement-free zone", as I heavily rely on specific retailer's amazing inexpensive pre-made dinners for some of those last-minute-dinner nights. Let me know if you'd like a certain recipe!
-Broccoli and Carrot Stir-fry (in the "seafood" section of the Better HOmes and Garden cookbook)
- Lentil soup
-Black bean and veggie soup
-"Pita night": Hummus, peas, kidney beans and rice on pitas/ flatbread
-spaghetti (yep, it's a given)
-vegan split pea soup
-Honey Baked Lentils (serve with salmon on "fish" days!)
- cheeseless pizza
-Chili and vegan cornbread
- zucchini "summer" stir fry (zukes, mushrooms, corn, basil and olives in tomato sauce, served over rice or noodles)
-Greek lemon potatoes (serve with, what else, more salmon!)
-Greek shrimp and rice back
-Good ol' fashioned frozen fish sticks and fries
-Burritos
-Minestrone (made that tonight!)
-Trader Joe's boxed Pad Thai (minus the egg)
-Trader Joe's frozen spicy penne (can't remember the exact name of it, but we like it!)
-Trader Joe's Indian fare boxed black lentils with brown rice and green beans
-Trader Joe's Broccoli and water chestnut stiry-fry frozen mix with noodles or brown rice
-Vegetable stew
Of course, when the end of the week rolls around and the cupboards look dismal and leftover veggie stew just won't do, we will probably make our customary visits to our neighborhood Baja Fresh (doh! More product placement) for the occasional $1.95 bean and rice plates. Mmmm! Sometimes it's all you need.
Thanks for your baby name recommendations! They are beautiful. The only problem is that all of those names are already "taken" by someone in our church, or someone very close to me. Of course, I can still name them that, but I always feel I have to "shop around" before doing so. I think we'll have an easier time thinking of a name once we find out the gender. We're praying God will just "give us" the right name! :)
3 comments:
Oooh, thanks for the recipes!
I love it when you write about your church's fasts and celebrations, it's always so fascinating to learn about the different ways people worship God. Having grown up plain old Baptist, sometimes I think we could do with a bit more tradition. :-)
since you seem to love TJ's as much as I, have you tried their delicious curry tuna packets? i highly recommend them...all of them. so good on rice, or i'm sure on some asian noodles
thanks for the idears :)
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