Hello!! Man, I feel like it's been quite a while since I've posted anything! Well, I guess it has been. I'll blame it on work, kids, life in general, but honestly, if I had wanted to make putting my voice out there for others a priority, I would have made the time to do it. This is true of so many things in our lives isn't it? But I digress...
The purpose of this post is to talk about our annual Daniel's fast, to inform those of you who are wondering what in the world it is and why we have decided to participate, and also to give some of my fellow participants some ideas for meals that are approved by the fast. In the book of Daniel, Daniel instructs the king's guard to let some of his men to not eat the royal food, but to only eat vegetables and water, and the Lord blessed them with knowledge and understanding. That is the bare-bones explanation.
The Daniel Fast is not an all-out total fast, but a partial fast that allows you to eat fruits, vegetables and whole grains, but cut out all animal products, fried foods, sugar and processed white flour of any kind. Oh, and you can't have caffeine (that one is hard for me!) or use social media. The purpose of the fast is to bring your body under submission and focus your mind solely on the things of God. During the fast, we don't watch television or use social media, and I only read the Bible or other religious materials. In a nutshell, the purpose is to draw closer to God. In our church, those who choose to participate will either do so for 40 days or 21, depending on what each family feels led to do. Do I still let my kids watch television? Yes, however I do put limits on screen time so we can do things as a family instead (I'm totally going to teach Kennedy to play Dutch Blitz). If you want more information about the fast, there is all kinds of info out there on the internet. Now, on to the food!
Every year I hear other members of my church talk about the fact that they lost so much weight during the fasting season. Not us! We actually gained weight. We don't just exist on steamed veggies and plain baked potatoes. I kind of nerd out and get all excited about finding different things that I can make that are approved for the fast. For instance, I made chai and iced coffee mix for our church coffee shop that is approved, just by making small adjustments and substitutions. This week our menu includes vegetable soup, kung pao noodles, hot and sour soup with a thai salad, Boca burgers, black bean and rice burritos and pizza. Honestly, these are things that we usually have for dinner, but we make adjustments to the recipes to reflect our fast. For instance, I take the meat and sugar out of the kung pao, and I substitute tofu and agave nectar, load up on the vegetables and use whole wheat noodles instead. It's not hard to make substitutions. If you're unsure of what to substitute, just Google it! I'm always looking up what to substitute for wine or chicken broth or other things that aren't 'allowed'. For breakfast, we have a lot of natural peanut butter and bananas on whole wheat tortillas or baked oatmeal loaded up with whatever fruits and nuts we can get our hands on.
Fasting isn't fun, but to do so with a submissive spirit that is willing to seek the Lord reaps so many benefits for such a small cost. I love this time of year! It is so exciting for me because we spend so much time focusing on truly important things. There is such anticipation for what God has in store for us, our family comes closer together, our church family is unified, and I just really feel so renewed and restored!
I'm going to try to update daily or every other day with recipes, verses or thoughts, so check back often! Happy fasting!
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