Do you keep Lent?
I recently had someone tell me, somewhat smartly, that he “doesn't keep Lent.” Okee dokee. Funny that he thought he had to make that clear…
But why not keep Lent?
I think that we naturally want order in our days and in our years, and I don't mean the switching out of decorations prescribed by the “powers that be” in the mall. Problem is, if you don't want to play along, you can be left with a strange bereft feeling…
We need something. The Church has been gently guiding with that something for a couple of millenia now…
A penitential season is a little different from what you get from Hallmark: there are no decorations for it — nothing to buy, nothing to sell, nothing to send a card about.
But it's real. Don't you feel it? Is the urge to clean starting to grow in your bosom? Don't you feel a little sick of yourself eating cookies? (I still have Christmas candy. And Valentine's candy, which was a big bag of jellybeans I forgot to put out for Christmas. I haven't eaten it all yet! That's how much there was.)
We haven't felt much in the way of spring breezes hereabouts, but every once in a while in February there's a whiff of something far off, longing to be reborn…but it requires something from us, doesn't it?
Lent in the family is an amazing time to watch one's children rise to the occasion. More is asked and more is given, without any grumbling, which hardly seems possible, because in the deep winter everyone can be awful grumblers, complainers, and snackers. And slackers. Me too.
Ash Wednesday is this week. It's time, now, to start asking ourselves and the kids, “What should we give up?” “What should we give?” “How will we pray?” When our kids were little, we'd do this on Mardi Gras, which you might think is a bit of a downer 🙂
But they can astonish us with their response, and maybe prick our conscience a little, too. We can do better.
“Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy; if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others. If you do not close your ear to others, you open God’s ear to yourself.” —
Saint Peter Chrysologus
So let's talk turkey about cooking for Lent. (Later we'll talk about spring cleaning.)
We are shameless about loving ice cream in this family — a bowl every night before bed, mmmm…..
But I find that a little something milky does help settle the stomach and provide calcium for those who don't drink much milk. So, one of the few packaged foods I buy, instant pudding (the label shows it really isn't too bad, additive-wise), will make an appearance in these thrift-store custard cups.
Also some thickened yogurt with a little honey goes down well as a bed-time snack.
I have been trying to stockpile Lenten supper ideas — the tried-and-true and the new. We always have mujadara on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. The one I grew up with uses cracked wheat as often as rice (soak the cracked wheat for a couple of hours before cooking), needs some allspice and cumin, and is always served with plain yogurt on the side.
Hot cross buns are a must for a day of fasting.
One thing that observing the liturgical year does is build wonderful memories that are self-activating — in other words, the season spurs them, rather than the burden being on you to remember on your own to bring them up.
So if year after year you do more or less the same things on the same holidays or, in this case, fast days, the memories build, until one day even the least attentive of your children will say, with joy, “We always do this on this day!” And you will realize that it's true!
But it takes a long time, so hang in there!
We'll do a lot of pasta tossed with bits of fish, like sardines, and olives and sundried tomatoes. Clam chowder. And if I can get some pastry rounds in the freezer, quiche should be a breeze. With a side of sweet potatoes, salad, and good bread, it'll make up for those meaty dishes we'll cut down on a bit. Remember to make your weekly menus, as always.
For sugar fanatics like me (never mind the kids!), gingerbread, scones, and these date cookies called ma'amoul are a must. I've been dreaming about them for years, and I think I'll get to them at last. The only sugar in them is from the dates themselves. True, they have a lot of butter, but you gotta have something…
Erika says
We do a lot of canned tuna during Lent. Tuna melts, fried tuna patties in dill sauce, tuna risotto, tuna and pasta… We used to pick up Mrs Paul's fish sticks a lot, but we are trying to get away from a lot of processed foods. We also make our own spaghetti sauce and alfredo for pasta. Black beans and rice tend to show up on the menu quite a bit as well. So we don't really have a shortage of meatless meals during lent! Great post, thanks!!
Rachel says
Growing up, we often ate corn soup with rice. It's best when you cut the corn off the cob yourself. Fresh corn. Then you cook it slow and long… MMM. If there was any left on Saturday, we added meat. Tuna, fish, beans and rice or cornbread, eggs and rice, cereal and milk, pancakes. Now you have made me hungry for corn soup and I have no fresh corn.
Mrs. Byers says
Could you please educate me on the reason for changing your diet and not eating meat during lent? I can't seem to find anything in scripture on this topic and would love to know the history behind it.
Leila says
Great ideas, Erika and Rachel! Keep 'em coming…Thanks, Mrs. Byers, for your thoughtful question. I hope you will take a moment to click on the link before the quote in the post(where it says: We can do better.).Lent is forty days and you can be sure I will write about this topic again 🙂 and I will try to give my best answer to your question. In the meantime, perhaps you would also like to see this quick Q&A about Lent (including Scriptural basis, although there is more than he says) here: http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2001/0104fea1.as…
Erika says
I have an award for you ladies on my blog.
Connie says
In our family we try to do more of a "sacrificial meal" instead of going out to a Friday night fish fry (and spending more money than usual).We tend to stay away from eating shrimp and Lobster or pricey fish. Quite often our meatless Fridays consist of tuna melts, salmon patties,or grilled cheese and tomato soup. Sometimes we make veggie omlettes or quiche. Lent is a time to reflect on the sacrifice that Jesus gave His life to save us from our sins.
Seraphima says
I'm Orthodox so I need to have 40 days worth of Lenten suppers. We don't fast as strictly as some, but I do strive to keep the spirit of the fast, even if I can't keep the letter of it. I found some very nice fish at Aldi's/ My freezer is full with shrimp, tilapia, mahi mahi, salmon, crab cakes and scallops. I make pasta and pasta bakes, spaghetti squash with veggie marinara is delicious as are homemade potato, corn and broccoli soups. I also make a pretty mean refried bean quesadilla, if I do say so myself.I also plan to make some buffalo wing style clams one of these nights.
Renae says
Thank you for sharing such beautiful thoughts. I have never participated in Lent, but so many lines in this post resonate with me. I want self-activating memories. Yeast spreading throughout our moments giving rise to even more love.
Linda says
My idea of fasting was that one doesn't eat anything pleasurable…. we do that every wednesday.I really can't see how these menus are concidered 'fasting' (other than the fact that they don't contain meat)I would still call this a feast…. ;)Greetings from the netherlands!
Erika says
I don't run into very many people with my name, spelled the way I spell it. I was so shocked when I started reading the comments for this post, which I had just read: "did I already read this and not remember leaving a comment?! No, that's definitely not my comment….(gasp) Someone is commenting as ME?!" Even clicked through to the profile. Nice to meet you, OtherErika 😉 Anyhow, you have really given me something to think about here, Leila. We are Protestant, and Lent has never been emphasized much in any church I've attended. I'm going to read these other resources you reference…feel like I'm missing something. My primary experience with Lenten food comes from my oldest son attending Catholic school. [You see, we are open-minded Protestants ;)] I pick him up from school on Ash Wednesday when he is in 5th grade (his 1st year at that school.) He is wide-eyed, and the moment we are in the car he tells me how Sister was not happy when she saw his lunch and Sister took his sandwich and took the ham OUT and threw it away and told him to eat it like that and WHY was Sister unhappy with him?! Probably traumatized the boy for life with my cluelessness! Of course once he told me I recognized my error and explained things to him. It is funny to us now, but remembering it also makes me wonder why I've not given more thought to keeping Lent in the traditional sense.
Linda says
Hi Leila!Thanks for your comment on my site. Reading it, I think I might have offended you by stating my previous comment. This was in no way my intention.. I hope you're not taking it the wrong way. I was just thinking to myself something along the lines of 'bread and wine' when I saw all these delicious pictures.. *lol* ;)Greetings from the netherlands!
Erika says
Having remembered the story of The Sister and the Sandwich I brought it up with my son (now 16). He must not have been too traumatized because he had no memory of this incident whatsoever, to the point he thought I was making it up! At least he found it entertaining, regardless…
gosduck says
What a lovely, and helpful post. I always struggle with Lenten menus – because it seems wrong somehow to satisfy our "meatless" meals with shrimp pasta or broiled fish (which are both luxuries in our home, and not exactly in keeping with the idea of restraint during Lent.)But we do eat a lot of canned tuna, which I don't consider nearly so much of a luxury.
Mrs. Pickles says
I know I'm a little behind with this, as I'm still catching up! 🙂 Something we do for Lent is give up meat entirely for the whole season, and give the money we would have spent on it to charity. My husband wanted to try this a couple years ago, and we liked it so much we try to do it each year. It's more of a sacrifice for my husband — the giving up eating meat part, that is — for me it's a sacrifice to give up cooking meat! Trying to come up with 40 meals that still satisfy and have enough protein to keep us going is a challenge — this year I slacked off and prepared meaty meals for Sundays. But going without really makes that Easter ham all the more celebratory!