So... What\'s for Lunch?

Humus is the staple. And all-veg soup. Other than that, it\'s rice and beans or quinoa and beans.

I\'ve given up lunch. I have enough on board to last a month. But I eat lots of peanut butter when I get home from work.

Steamed veggies in those twist-and-lock containers. Whole wheat pasta with a tiny bit of peanut butter. Pita pockets with tomatoes, olives and oregano. Salads mixing cucumbers with kiwis, onions and cilantro. The twist-and-lock containers, and my huge purse, surely save the day :-)

Well, normally I don\'t observe the fast except no alcohol during the fasting times. Today, I was kind of under the weather, dehydrated, and had a stiffness and a sore neck. For lunch I had some hot apple cider, for dinner I had a cup of chicken soup. Dave

being the bad Christian that I am, I don\'t observe the Advent fast much, considering on weekdays I eat little, or no meat or cheese throughout the year - since it\'s not cheap at the restaurants, not fast either... so today was pibimpap (rice with fresh vegetables and a fried egg on top, with some pepper sauce).

I usually have a gardenburger/veggieburger ready to heat up. Or I go to the cafeteria here at school and get some rice.

Indian restaurants usually have vegan choices. As for me, I work at home, and have three huge vegetarian/vegan cookbooks. Just a quick recipe: Thai peanut soup--organic vegetable broth, peanut butter, hot chiles, cilantro and lemongrass. Throw it all together and it will look spoilt while you\'re heating it up but never mind. Eventually as it heats it will smooth out and be delicious! Also roasted sweet potatoes with salsa, wassail (a mixture of beer, honey, roast apples, pumpkin pie spice, and toast--only if you\'re Russian, though!), fruit, pasta salad, and I make a brown rice-lentil salad. You can also soak raw lentils for a few days in a jar until they start to sprout and add them to salads--they have a wonderful peppery taste! If your children are missing sweets, you can make them fruit sorbets--or the stores also have non-dairy ice creams made with rice and soy. And soy/rice \"cheese\" too :)

When ever I ate at the KATUSA Snack Bar, I would eat Bulgogi (Beef) Ramyon w/o the cheese. The Korean Snack Bar Ramyon was always spicy. Not a bad price either. Dave

The thing that I like about the Nativity Fast is that it\'s cool enough here for soups. Fasting soups are easy to make and take. For a while longer anyway, it\'s still a fairly easy fast too. My favorite fasting soup is a sort of lentil soup. It\'s really good for Great Lent as well as it has no oil. 3 c 1 (28-oz.) can whole tomatoes in juice 5 c. vegetable stock 3 c. water 1? c. lentils, rinsed and sorted 1 c. brown rice (white will disintegrate) 3 carrots, diced 1 onion, chopped 1 stalk celery, chopped 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 tsp. chopped fresh thyme 1 bay leaf ⅓ c. cilantro 2 T. cider vinegar 1? tsp. salt ? tsp. freshly ground pepper In a large, heavy pot, combine tomatoes (undrained), stock, water, lentils, rice, carrots, onion, celery, garlic, thyme, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally until lentils are done, about 45 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients. Taste and adjust seasonings, if necessary.

As a convert who is still adjusting to fasting, these are my staples: peanut butter and jelly sandwich baked potato (or leftover mashed) vegetable soup vegan Boca burger After that I turn to my husband, Fr. Peter, who has all these Romanian recipes and makes an excellent from-scratch pizza (with sliced up veggie dogs, peppers, and onions). For me, remembering *to* fast is the important thing, so I keep forgetting that in the first part of the Nativity Fast we can have fish. (Now, if only I liked seafood ...) Fortunately, I have also found that Duncan Hines and Target brands of brownie mix are lenten, and you can substitute an egg (for baking), with 2 Tbsp flour, 1-1/2 tsp oil (or less), 1/2 tsp baking powder, and 2 Tbsp water. The lenten brownies last longer without going stale, and Father likes them better than the regular kind. The handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips thrown in doesn\'t hurt, either.

I\'ve made something that people seem to like, but I don\'t really have a recipe for it, as it can vary depending on how many people you\'re trying to serve. Just be warned, it does take some time to do this! First, get a whack of lentils - doesn\'t matter what colour, other than personal preference. Soak them for a few hours at least (I usually do this overnight. If you\'re going to do this for supper, start soaking just after breakfast). When you do this make sure there is enough water to cover them when they expand, and they WILL expand! Usually about double the volume! One of the little bags you get at grocery stores will usually make about three to four servings. Once you\'ve got them good and soaked, drain \'em and cover them again with clean water. Not sure why, but a lot of recipe books warn that lentils shouldn\'t be cooked in the water they were soaked in. Then chop up and throw in other veggies and savoury stuff like, mushrooms, onions, garlic and other stuff you might have around. You could throw in shrimp, if you like. Then start applying heat. Gently bring to a boil (don\'t want to burn stuff to the bottom of the pot!). Once you\'ve got some boil action going, throw in some curry. It depends on what you can get in your locale, but I like Patak\'s pastes that come in small jars. How much curry to put in depends on what kind of curry you\'ve gotten ahold of. You kind of have to add to taste. Not all curries are created equal. Then keep it boiling until the veggies are cooked and the lentils are soft (onions are a good measure of this - once they go translucent and floppy - you\'re in the ball park!). Anyway, taste test! This can be served on rice, mashed potatoes, even slices of bread. Just keep in mind that if you\'ve made it hot, you might want to have some water around. This can qualify as lunch if you package it up in some tupperware-like contraptions and microwave it later. It usually seems tastier the day after it is cooked too. Hope this helps.

Leftovers if applicable, but I usually fall back on good ol\' peanut butter \'n\' jelly. I think the reason I\'m not sick of it yet is because we do have leftovers so often, and my wife is a really good cook. :)

a concoction we call \"Mommy\'s Kraft\" at home, though it is commonly known as chickpeas and orzo. The namne cought on when our daughter wanted mac n cheeze and we had that and told her it was \"mommy\'s kraft\". She liked it and during lenten periods we have it frequently. Pantelis

To absorb Iron from dark greens and lentils always pair with some vitamin C (conveniently found in lemon, so sprinkle plenty of the juice!!)