Some Support for Fasting

You feel called to grow deeper in your relationship with God through the rhythms of the church but don't have the time and experience for gauging next steps? 

You were raised with a fasting culture that emphasized giving up and suffering? 

You fast from food without difficulty but never really learned the theological and spiritual components of fasting?

You do not have access to a strong, healthy church community and are looking for sustainable ways to develop your domestic church life?

You've been fasting for years but now have children, a spouse, relatives, medical conditions, budget or time constraints that require re-assessing what you're doing? 

You were raised fasting but never learned the hows and whys of menu planning or nutrition? 

You are in a position of teaching others about food or fasting?

You're bored or listless and want to re-commit yourself to a lived faith life?

If this describes you, I made a little thing to share!

Click here to download the PDF:

Traditional Slavic Fasting
on the 2021-22 Gregorian Calendar

😇🙏🏼 Please offer a prayer for my intentions when you use it.  👏🥰

Included in the PDF:

• A one-page cheat sheet for major fasting dates in 2021-2022 for the Slavic tradition on the Gregorian calendar. Easy to hang in a pantry, cupboard, on a bulletin board, or on the fridge.
• A quick overview of the aims of fasting and the typical structure of abstention.
• Nutrition information for fasting (protein, iron, calcium, Vit B12 and Vit D, iodine, omega-3s, etc)
• A sample week's menu with images. Foods from around the world that provide a well-rounded nutritional profile, ease of use, low cost, and family-friendliness are prioritized.
• An extensive list of whole food ingredients.
• St. John Cassian's Eight Deadly Dominoes on fighting the passions.
• Quotes from the Fathers on fasting.
• St. John Chrysostom's homily on fasting.
• Fr. Milan Savich's explanation of the meaning and purpose of fasting in the Byzantine tradition.
• FAQs on fasting.
• Bonus meal plan ideas and a recipe.

This menu emphasized diversity to give you a lot of new ideas. If there's interest, an update will include a batch prep menu with ingredient lists to streamline shopping and cooking--let me know if you'd like to see that and how many people you'd want it to plan to feed. And add your own favorite prayer-fasting-alsmgiving advice for others who are looking to grow!

Stress-free pot-luck

I asked a few ladies to share some of their favorite recipes with me so that I could pass them on to you. I got a response that I couldn't wait to tell you about because it doesn't only contain a fabulous recipe, but also a sanity-saving tip for how to arrive at church on Sunday morning stress-free and well-composed with a pot luck offering that tastes great.

Marylouise leaves home around 8:20 AM on Sunday and might not get home again until 3:30 PM, depending on her other obligations. Her parish has a sit-down style pot-luck agape meal after Divine Liturgy every Sunday, which provides a great way to fellowship as they break their Eucharistic fast. It also means she needs to have her own dish ready to go early Sunday morning, which could translate to Saturday evening stress for many of us.

While individual adherence to the fasts varies from one household to the next, her parish's public meals have an expectation that the food will conform to the strictest fasting guidelines which are distributed to parishioners on a calendar each year. During non-fasting times, their priest generously brings meat and shellfish to the potluck, which will take the form of a Chinese dim sum demonstration this coming weekend to coincide with the region's celebration of the Chinese New Year. If you're near San Francisco, I encourage you to join them!

Marylouise favors vegetarian side-dishes that she can prepare in stages over several evenings, which keeps her from having a mad rush to fit it in on Saturday night. Here's one of her favorites: a Korean BBQ marinade she found in the October 1981 edition of Sunset Magazine which she's turned into a cold pasta salad that serves 8-10.

Ingredients:
1 C soy sauce
1/3 C sugar
2 ½ TB fresh garlic
2 ½ TB fresh ginger
1/3 C sesame oil

Extra firm silken tofu cut into 1/3" cubes

16 ounce package of angel hair pasta, cooked and refrigerated
2/3 C thinly sliced green onions

Instructions:
Mix the soy sauce, sugar, garlic, ginger, and sesame oil together well. Put the cut tofu into the marinade and let it soak in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, toss the marinaded tofu on top of the refrigerated pasta, garnish with the green onions, and serve. The entire dish will fill a 2QT serving dish.

This recipe could also use a grain instead of the pasta and cooked meats or veggies could replace the tofu. Marylouise says that the church hall's chilly temperatures don't hinder the cold pasta salad consumption as she usually brings home an empty bowl. One other great tradition her parish has is to informally bring photocopied recipes to share in preparation for the four major fasting periods, so the empty bowl and full tummy isn't all she has to take home on Sunday afternoon.

Talented Tuesdays is a feature which focuses on art, architecture, music, culture, food, and the running of the domestic church. User submitted questions and solutions are welcomed.



Armenian Coffee and Fruit

In honor of the Nineveh Fast that the Armenian Catholic Church, among others, will soon undertake in memory of the three days Jonah was in the belly of the fish, I bring you this glimpse into Armenian culture and food. It is traditional for Armenians to completely refrain from food and drinks over the three day fast. Abstaining from meat, dairy, and fish during the fast are still considered minimal expectations.

Armenian food is distinguished from other Mediterranean diets by its heavy emphasis on using fresh and ripe produce, few spices, and a lot of bulgur. There's one fruit that stands out in the mix:

I like to eat many fruits and vegetables. Maybe this comes from the fact that I am from Armenia, the place that is rich in fruits and veggies. But there is one fruit that I like most of all, and which has a special meaning for me. I think the reason again is the fact that I am Armenian.  -Marina Hovhannisyan; Krupnick Essay Contest Winner, 2006 

Because the work is presumably still under copyright, I've only quoted a small portion of it. Make yourself a cup of Armenian coffee following the directions below, then settle in to read the short essay about Armenia's national fruit at the Los Angeles Valley College's website here.

Talented Tuesdays is a feature which focuses on art, architecture, music, culture, food, and the running of the domestic church. User submitted questions and solutions are welcomed.