Upcoming Series: 40 Days of Meatless!
Hi all! I wanted to pop on here real quick to announce my 40 days of Meatless series that I have coming up in a few short weeks (if that!). Let me preface with some background for you. Each year in observance of Lent, Catholics are encouraged to give something up and/or pick something worthwhile to pursue to be of service to God's people. Whichever you choose, the point is to draw the person closer to Christ. I'm one of those people who opts to choose something TO do during Lent because it has been my personal experience that doing so is more effective in drawing myself closer to Christ than choosing something to NOT do, which is the whole point of any Lenten practices, and also because more of God's creation benefits from going that route. Whatever you choose will likely benefit you somehow even though that's not the point. To elaborate, if you give up your favorite TV show for Lent, that's one less thing taking you away from the items on your to do list and may shave a few dollars off your electric bill. But there's no benefit in that for others and if you replace the time you'd be spending watching your favorite TV show with the show your best friend recommended you watch on Netflix, that doesn't achieve the affect of drawing you closer to Christ. On the other hand, if you currently don't do much volunteer service but decide to make a habit of volunteering at your local soup kitchen during Lent, that is of great value to the least of God's people and is very humbling, allowing you to decrease so that God may increase. Scripture also tells us what TO do more than what to abstain from. Phillipians 4:4 does not say, "Never refrain from rejoicing in the Lord." No! Instead it says, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice!" This mindset of "what TO do, not what NOT to do" is what I try to practice as well.
This will be my third year taking the "choose what TO do instead" approach to Lent. The first time I did that is when I went vegan and I learned a LOT about the Creation Care aspect of being vegan and that made me a permanent vegan. Animals will be safer as long as I am walking this Earth. The second time, I made it a priority to set aside a minimum of one dollar for each day of Lent, including Sundays, and after Easter Sunday, donate that money to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and my parents agreed to match my donation. I surpassed my goal and I have watched the YouTube videos about children with very aggressive forms of cancer who were treated at St. Jude who probably wouldn't have made it if they were treated elsewhere. St. Jude also pays for living and travel expenses for families so they can focus solely on being there for their children. It is fitting that St. Jude would bear the name of the Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes because it's through his intercession that such a place exists that makes the impact that it does on families in the seemingly most hopeless of situations.
So what am I doing this year? That's what this series is all about! It's inspired by the rules in place regarding fasting and abstinence during Lent. There is a difference between the two, and probably not the difference you're thinking of. Fasting is the practice of restricting food intake, and Catholics aged between 18 and 59 are required to fast on Ash Wednesday (The 1st day of Lent. Feb 26 this year) and on Good Friday (Apr 10 this year, the Friday before Easter Sunday). They may eat one full meal and two smaller meals that together do not equal a full meal, but liquids are not restricted. Any liquids may be consumed in any quantity at any time on those days. The Eucharistic fast also applies during Lent with all the same rules that are in place for the rest of the year, and I'm happy to address the subject of that as well but that's a topic for the comments if someone brings that up, someone contacting me directly about that (such as via email or DM on Instagram), or another blog post if that somehow ties into the content of that post, but I cannot think of a specific example of a post to which the Eucharistic fast could be connected. Abstinence is the practice of completely avoiding something specific. Catholics aged 14 and up are required to abstain from consuming meat on Fridays in Lent and on Ash Wednesday. They may not consume meat at all on those days. Those who give something up for Lent (such as chocolate, a TV show, texting, etc) abstain from doing or using whatever that something is. They don't do it at all.
There are forty days of the season of Lent, and those 40 days do not include Sundays. I will be posting recipes six days out of every week and because they'd of course all be vegan, you could use any of them for Ash Wednesday and Fridays in Lent. If each day's or that Sunday's Mass readings or responsorial Psalms give me inspiration for a recipe, I will absolutely incorporate that as much as possible but not every recipe in this series will necessarily be liturgically inspired, but all of them will still be great even for those who just come for the recipes! All are welcome in my corner of the Internet! Even though the forty days of Lent don't include Sundays, it will actually be on Fridays that I take a break from posting because it's on Fridays that my Catholic followers who aren't already vegan will be abstaining from meat and by taking that day off from posting, it'll give them a chance to use some of my recipes before being bombarded with more! However, they also don't have to be used exclusively on Fridays in Lent. Any time someone limits or avoids animal products, that demonstrates strong care for God's creation which is a wonderful thing regardless of what day of the week it is or what liturgical season we're in. I obviously use these recipes outside of Fridays in Lent. With that said, I'm also not expecting that all of my readers (Catholic or not) will use all of my recipes in this series. I am assigning a theme to each weekday and making sure to address various diet needs so that everyone can find something relevant and useful for them. Even if my go-to way of making a recipe I'm posting would normally not fit my keto and nut-free categories, if there's a way to make that recipe keto or nut free, I will address that in the recipe notes. The following are my assigned themes:
Sunday: Keto recipes (posting a keto recipe that fits any of the categories below)
Monday: Breakfast recipes
Tuesday: Portable lunch recipes
Wednesday: Dinner recipes
Thursday: Snack/Dessert recipes
Saturday: Nut free recipes (posting a nut-free recipe that fits any of the categories above)
With that said, I hope y'all will think twice before giving up social media this Lent so that not only can you get these recipes, but also maybe some spirituality while you're at it! I wish all of you a wonderful Lent season and I look forward to doing this series for you.
This will be my third year taking the "choose what TO do instead" approach to Lent. The first time I did that is when I went vegan and I learned a LOT about the Creation Care aspect of being vegan and that made me a permanent vegan. Animals will be safer as long as I am walking this Earth. The second time, I made it a priority to set aside a minimum of one dollar for each day of Lent, including Sundays, and after Easter Sunday, donate that money to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and my parents agreed to match my donation. I surpassed my goal and I have watched the YouTube videos about children with very aggressive forms of cancer who were treated at St. Jude who probably wouldn't have made it if they were treated elsewhere. St. Jude also pays for living and travel expenses for families so they can focus solely on being there for their children. It is fitting that St. Jude would bear the name of the Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes because it's through his intercession that such a place exists that makes the impact that it does on families in the seemingly most hopeless of situations.
So what am I doing this year? That's what this series is all about! It's inspired by the rules in place regarding fasting and abstinence during Lent. There is a difference between the two, and probably not the difference you're thinking of. Fasting is the practice of restricting food intake, and Catholics aged between 18 and 59 are required to fast on Ash Wednesday (The 1st day of Lent. Feb 26 this year) and on Good Friday (Apr 10 this year, the Friday before Easter Sunday). They may eat one full meal and two smaller meals that together do not equal a full meal, but liquids are not restricted. Any liquids may be consumed in any quantity at any time on those days. The Eucharistic fast also applies during Lent with all the same rules that are in place for the rest of the year, and I'm happy to address the subject of that as well but that's a topic for the comments if someone brings that up, someone contacting me directly about that (such as via email or DM on Instagram), or another blog post if that somehow ties into the content of that post, but I cannot think of a specific example of a post to which the Eucharistic fast could be connected. Abstinence is the practice of completely avoiding something specific. Catholics aged 14 and up are required to abstain from consuming meat on Fridays in Lent and on Ash Wednesday. They may not consume meat at all on those days. Those who give something up for Lent (such as chocolate, a TV show, texting, etc) abstain from doing or using whatever that something is. They don't do it at all.
There are forty days of the season of Lent, and those 40 days do not include Sundays. I will be posting recipes six days out of every week and because they'd of course all be vegan, you could use any of them for Ash Wednesday and Fridays in Lent. If each day's or that Sunday's Mass readings or responsorial Psalms give me inspiration for a recipe, I will absolutely incorporate that as much as possible but not every recipe in this series will necessarily be liturgically inspired, but all of them will still be great even for those who just come for the recipes! All are welcome in my corner of the Internet! Even though the forty days of Lent don't include Sundays, it will actually be on Fridays that I take a break from posting because it's on Fridays that my Catholic followers who aren't already vegan will be abstaining from meat and by taking that day off from posting, it'll give them a chance to use some of my recipes before being bombarded with more! However, they also don't have to be used exclusively on Fridays in Lent. Any time someone limits or avoids animal products, that demonstrates strong care for God's creation which is a wonderful thing regardless of what day of the week it is or what liturgical season we're in. I obviously use these recipes outside of Fridays in Lent. With that said, I'm also not expecting that all of my readers (Catholic or not) will use all of my recipes in this series. I am assigning a theme to each weekday and making sure to address various diet needs so that everyone can find something relevant and useful for them. Even if my go-to way of making a recipe I'm posting would normally not fit my keto and nut-free categories, if there's a way to make that recipe keto or nut free, I will address that in the recipe notes. The following are my assigned themes:
Sunday: Keto recipes (posting a keto recipe that fits any of the categories below)
Monday: Breakfast recipes
Tuesday: Portable lunch recipes
Wednesday: Dinner recipes
Thursday: Snack/Dessert recipes
Saturday: Nut free recipes (posting a nut-free recipe that fits any of the categories above)
With that said, I hope y'all will think twice before giving up social media this Lent so that not only can you get these recipes, but also maybe some spirituality while you're at it! I wish all of you a wonderful Lent season and I look forward to doing this series for you.