Feb 22
One day I was looking for something for lunch that was gluten-free and vegan. In other words, free of all food fun. I wasn’t coming up with much until I spotted this recipe for Warm Kale and Quinoa Salad in Kris Carr’s Crazy Sexy Kitchen cookbook. I didn’t have kale on hand, but that kind of thing has never stopped me before. I substituted some mixed spring greens instead and it was perfect. Read more
Are you using the CRS Rice Bowl this Lent? If not, why not? It’s one of our favorite Lenten traditions, so much so that last year when our parish didn’t make the cardboard “bowls” available at the back of our church at the start of Lent, I contacted Catholic Relief Services directly and ordered one for free. Within days I had my Rice Bowl, and all was right with our Lenten world. Read more
It’s the first Friday of Lent and right about now you might be thinking, “What’s on the Friday menu besides pizza and fish fry?” I’ve got a combination of vegetarian and vegan recipes to see you through. I’ll start with a few today and add more in the coming weeks. Read more
Lent is just around the corner. That means our Friday meal posts will go from vegetarian to vegan. (Since I already don’t eat meat, I need to find a different way to up the ante on Fridays of Lent.) But, as we head into this beautiful season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, I thought I’d kick us off not with a recipe but with a post on fasting. Read more
Mar 6
I love this song by Laura Story. (If you’re my Facebook friend, you’ve probably seen me post it over there at least once in recent months.) I needed to hear it again today, during this Lent that feels particularly desert-like to me for so many reasons, none of them earth-shattering. And still it feels awfully dark. This song reminds me to look for light there anyway.
So we’re into our first full week of Lent with two meatless days under our belts already, and right about now you might be thinking, “We’ve done pizza. We’ve done fish fry. Now what?” I’ve got a combination of vegetarian and vegan recipes to see you through. I’ll start with a bunch today and add more in the coming weeks.
Before you click by this post because the word “lentils” scares you, especially in relation to pasta, I beg you to stop and just consider it for a moment because it is out-of-this world delicious. This particular recipe is actually a combination of two: a lentil sauce recipe from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and my own addition of roasted butternut squash and garlic that gets added in right before serving. (That change-up happened because I had a squash that needed to be used and, voila, a new recipe was born.) The result is a dinner that is not only vegan (no meat, dairy, eggs, etc.) but incredibly yummy, with a complex texture and taste even though it’s easy to make.
Recipe #4: Israeli Couscous with Apples and Dried Cranberries
Click HERE for a great side dish to go with your Lenten fish or tofu. The recipe I have posted suggests chicken broth, but that’s easy. Just swap it for vegetable broth.
Reciped #5: Creamy Polenta with Garlic and Cheese
This can be a main dish or a side dish. It can be vegan or not, with some minor adjustments.
1/2 cup milk, preferably whole, although I used skim with a splash of half and half (Use plain almond milk to make this vegan.)
2 cups water
Salt
1 cup coarse cornmeal
I tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 spring fresh rosemary chopped, or a teaspoon of dried rosemary
1 teaspoon of chopped garlic
1 tablespoon of butter (Earth Balance for vegan version)
Grated Parmesan cheese, optional
Combine milk and water with large pinch of salt in a saucepan over medium heat. When it’s close to a boil, add the polenta in a steady stream, whisking the whole time to keep away the nasty lumps. Add the rosemary.
Turn the heat down to a simmer and keep whisking until the polenta gets thick — about 10 or 15 minutes. If it starts to look too thick too soon, add a little water. (I did this. I was fine.)
Add the butter, cheese (if using), garlic and stir. Grind some pepper into it to taste. Serve immediately as a side dish or main course. I doubled this recipe for my hungry family and used it as a side dish with baked salmon and sauteed broccoli rabe.
Variation: You can make grilled or fried polenta by decreasing the amount of water and making a thicker mixture. Don’t add the butter, cheese. I’d probably skip the garlic and rosemary as well for this version. When it’s done, spread the polenta on a board and let it cool for a while. Then cut it into slices — about 1/2 inch thick. Now you can brush the slices with olive oil, salt and pepper and throw them on the grill or into a frying pan.
Stay tuned for more veggie recipes for Lent…
Feb 21
From my post at OSV Daily Take today. Follow the link at the end of this post to leave a comment and enter the book giveaway.
Paula Huston’s beautiful new book, Simplifying the Soul: Lenten Practices to Renew Your Spirit, is so much more than spiritual reading for one particular season. With its daily meditations, practical exercises, and gentle guidance, I know this book will be one I pull out not only during each Lenten season but any time I feel spiritually “stuck” and in need of something to jump start my prayer life.
Maybe it’s because so many of the daily activities remind me of things I’ve tried at different points along my journey — making a meal from “stored or forgotten items,” spending time in solitude and silence, turning off the cell phone or TV, learning to do the Examen. Maybe it’s because I’m intrigued by suggestions I hadn’t yet considered or tried — sleeping on the floor for a night or covering the mirrors for a day. And maybe it’s because Paula reminds readers that her book of Lenten practices does not include Sundays, days typically set aside as celebrations of the resurrection in miniature. Do you know how many times I’ve had to argue that point with people who insist the Sundays “count”?
Here’s a brief excerpt from Paula’s introduction:
“The beauty of the Lenten season is that it encourages the development of a humble heart. In Lent, we are invited to look deeply inside, identify what is impeding our ability to follow Christ along the way of humility, and begin applying antidotes…Simplifying the Soul is meant to aid you in this process…My prayer for you as you begin this retreat is that, first of all, you enter into it with the right spirit. This book is not meant to be a spiritual version of the Girl Scout honor badge program, and if you look upon it as a handbook for self-improvement, you’ll more likely become frustrated and disappointed. Instead, think of it as an invitation to self-knowledge and as a small step in liberation from destructive complicatedness — that is, from sin.”
And here’s a snippet from Ash Wednesday, with its focus on clearing out a junk drawer or closet, so you can get started while you wait for your book to arrive:
A junk drawer is the classic repository for what we are meant to leave behind. Not only does it symbolize our histories, but it also reveals the speed at which we lived through them: how did a sunflower seed wind up among the rubber bands and old corks, and this seventy-five-year-old baptismal gown stuffed into a brown paper sack?
When we clear out a junk drawer for Lent, we are in some small way dealing with the detritus of breathless hurry and our corresponding inability to focus. We are beginning to tear through the sticky web that binds us to our past: not only to the fine and happy times, the poignant seasons of growth and change, but also to the tears we once shed, the idols we once worshiped, the myths we once believed, and the lies we once told ourselves.
If you’re hungry for more, enter our book giveaway and you just might win a copy of Simplifying the Soul (Ave Maria Press, $14.95). Leave a comment at OSV Daily Take by clicking HERE. Share what you’ll be doing as a spiritual practice this Lent, and we’ll pick one winner at random. (My kids will be picking a name from a hat. Very scientific.)
Happy Fat Tuesday, and blessings as you begin the journey through Lent.
Apr 23
I’ve been awake since 4:30 a.m., which seems appropriate somehow on this day of watching and waiting. The rain is coming down. The sun has not made an appearance. It is as if the world is weeping and holding its breath all at once, waiting for an answer.
Then I remember Peter, and I can’t help but be comforted. He doubted, denied, ran away, and yet Jesus saw fit to call him the “rock,” the one who would go on to lead his church, or, at that point, his band of disciples. Maybe, just maybe then, Jesus sees some shred of worth beneath my many failings, behind my own doubts and fears.
This Lent certainly did not turn out the way I imagined it would. My plans to set aside certain times for silence and prayer were waylaid by sick children and my own bout with a brief illness. For weeks on end, we seemed to have one virus after another at our house, keeping us down — both physically and spiritually. Rather than hang on for dear life to what I wanted, however, I began to realize that perhaps my “sacrifice” for the season was to let go of my plans, even the plans to pray more, and accept what was right there in front of me — my children in need of a mom to read to them, comfort them, make them snacks, or just snuggle on the couch in the middle of the afternoon. In some ways, my Lenten plans were far more selfish than the Lenten reality I was handed. I wanted to lock myself away in silence. Instead I had to give up my quiet time and make time for someone else, and isn’t that what I should have been doing in the first place?
So today, as I sip coffee in the silence of early morning, while everyone else is sleeping, I’m focusing on the fact that things often are not as they appear — as the earliest disciples learned after what at first seemed like defeat on the cross. My Lent wasn’t really a failure; it was simply different than what I wanted it to be initially. Perhaps then, my Good Friday wasn’t a failure either. Perhaps it was simply another — albeit bumpier — path to the same Truth.
On this Holy Saturday, I am waiting in shadows of my own making, like Peter, longing to be set free.
“If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” — John 8:31-32
Today I’m guest blogging over at Sarah Reinhard’s blog, SnoringScholar.com. I’ll start you here…
By Mary DeTurris Poust
My teenage son came home from school last week and reported that he took his younger Catholic school “buddy” across the street to our parish church to walk him through the Stations of the Cross. After they were done and were getting ready to leave the church, Noah had a strong desire to stay – and not just because he likes missing class. It was something he had never felt before, he said, something comforting that made him want to kneel down in the midday silence.
I know that feeling. I’ve been in our church when it’s semi-dark and completely empty. It feels deeply spiritual and powerfully peaceful. It feels like home.
It’s really not surprising that it would feel that way. After all, ours is a faith that centers on a shared meal, a spiritual version of the kitchen table, a sense of home even among strangers, even in a foreign land, wherever Jesus is present in the tabernacle.
Holy Thursday drives that point home for me. I can easily allow myself to slip back in time and imagine Jesus and the Apostles gathered in the home of a friend…Continue reading HERE.
I am a mother, a wife, a chronicler of life, and a believer who understands that this journey leads us ever closer to God, even when I feel as though I'm standing still. Read moreLinen Theme by The Theme Foundry
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