Another food blog. What can I say? It's life! It's Lent!

... plus I was inspired by Lauren and Christina's recent posts.

This Lent, I was seriously dreading having to get back into preparing and cooking Lenten foods. Like, ready to tear my hair out. Since my own fasting requirements are lightened due to my pregnancy, it was very tempting for me to thereby "lighten" Job's diet too, and fudge a little on preparing him strict-fasting stuff. But, I realized that God's ascetic challenge for ME was to lovingly prepare Lenten foods for Job. Besides, it's what Job prefers.

I was about to go crazy when preparing my first Lenten weekly menu/shopping list for Clean week. I couldn't stand the idea of repeatedly eating the same stuff over and over again (why should I complain? I'm only eating Lenten dinners, I'm such a baby).

So I corralled several cookbooks and started searching for new vegan recipes that would help me expand my horizons. I've yet to make some... I'll let you know how they turn out. Here are some of the interesting recipes I've made that have helped me branch out and dive into some new Lenten food adventures. Some I gleaned from other Orthodox blogging folk (indicated where links are provided):

Shrimp Creole with Brown rice

Bean and Beer Soup

Lenten pancakes

Homemade French bread (much easier to make than I thought! Makes 2 loaves, you can freeze the other instead of having to make a trip to the store)

Lenten Banana Cream pie (from a composite Orthodox cookbook-- this was a recipe that was submitted, I discovered, by the same woman who provided the above linked recipes! She's got some great ideas). I made this to celebrate our "house closing."

These recipes were rock-solid "winners" with me. Mainly because (french bread and pie aside... ahem...) they all make for satisfying meals and yet don't take a long time to prepare. Since we only have three in our family (although I'm very much "eating for two" *blush*), we always have plenty of leftovers, which is super-helpful.

Other cool discoveries:
Ezekiel bread (adds some added nourishment to sandwiches and toast)
Sprouted corn tortillas (nods to Carrie)
Coconut bliss.... ARRRGGGGHHH!!!! THIS SHOULDN'T BE IN MY FREEZER! I have NO GOOD EXCUSE!

In other news? Today I took V. to her first carousel ride! Darnit, I wish I had remembered my camera!!! She liked it at first, then as the ride got faster, she got a little more nervous and was ready to be done :) Then when she got off, she pretended she wasn't ever scared. hehehe. Thanks to Grandma Marmee and Aunt Carrie (and cousins!) for bringing us along!