A New Appreciation for God's Creation

One thing I've particularly enjoyed during our first Great Lent has been experimenting with new recipes and ingredients. I've always loved cooking, so I've been treating this as an opportunity to try foods I hadn't necessarily considered before. And I've discovered quite a few things I like! Unfortunately, I've also discovered that just because I enjoy eating something doesn't mean my body appreciates it quite as much. Take legumes, for example. I've always known that beans, lentils, and similar foods tend to upset my digestive system. But during our first week of Lent, I relied heavily on chickpeas, peas, beans, and lentils as substitutes for meat.

Apparently, eating large quantities of legumes every day wasn't the best idea for me! I ended up developing a painful, itchy rash that lasted about two weeks. I'd experienced digestive discomfort from legumes before, but never anything quite like this. I've heard that preparing legumes from dried beans rather than using canned varieties might make them easier to digest. Whether that would make a difference for me, I don't know. And quite frankly, I don't have the time to experiment with soaking and preparing dried legumes right now! Instead, I've reduced how often I eat them. So far, I haven't noticed the same reaction when eating legumes once or twice a week rather than every day. It's been another reminder that I need to pay attention to what works for my body rather than assuming that every commonly recommended fasting food will work for me.

Another ingredient we've discovered is TVP (textured vegetable protein), which was even recommended to us by our priest. He actually made chili with it for a church potluck! It's been quite helpful, particularly when we're looking for ways to incorporate more protein into our meals without relying so heavily on beans and lentils. It's also useful when we want something with a texture similar to ground meat, such as in chili. We've also discovered just how many plant-based products are available in ordinary grocery stores. I hadn't realized how many options there were until we started looking for them!

Plant-based cheese, for example, has been surprisingly good at melting! I've even made plant-based macaroni and cheese, and I bought some plant-based steak tips to use in plov, a rice pilaf dish I'm familiar with from Russian cooking.

Tofu has actually become one of my favorite snacks. I was already familiar with it because I love Japanese and Korean food, both of which frequently incorporate tofu into their dishes. I even used to snack on half a block of tofu with spicy kimchi before we ever started attending the Orthodox Church! But I never fully appreciated just how versatile it could be. It absorbs the flavors of whatever you prepare it with, making it useful in so many different dishes. Extra-firm tofu is especially good on the grill. It develops a lovely char on the outside while staying creamy on the inside!

I've noticed that people who aren't particularly interested in vegan foods sometimes dismiss them as unnecessary, ridiculous, or even fake. I actually remember hearing about soy-based foods when I was a child, and we all thought they were some kind of artificial food with no natural ingredients whatsoever. Looking back, I have to laugh at that! 🤦‍♀️ And while I'm certainly not vegan myself, this experience has given me a greater appreciation for the variety of plant-based foods available and the nutritional benefits many of them offer. It has also made me stop and appreciate God's creation a little more. There's such an incredible variety of foods in this world, each with its own qualities and uses, and I think we sometimes overlook just how remarkable that is!

It also reminds me that, in the beginning, God gave Adam and Eve plants for food. Meat wasn't part of that original diet described in Genesis. Of course, we live in a very different world now, and Scripture later tells us that God permitted mankind to eat meat. Still, it's interesting to think about how much nourishment and variety God provided through plants alone. And the more I discover, the more I find myself thinking of three songs from my Protestant upbringing: Indescribable, Our God Is an Awesome God, and the hymn How Great Thou Art. Even as we continue our journey into Orthodoxy, there are still things from our Protestant background that remain with us, and I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing. Some of those songs, especially the ones that remind me of the beauty and wonder of God's creation, still come to mind.

Of course, I understand that Orthodox fasting isn't supposed to be about replacing every familiar meal with a vegan version of the same thing. There's much more to fasting than finding substitutes for meat, dairy, and eggs. It's also about simplicity and humility, learning to be content with less rather than constantly trying to recreate everything we're accustomed to eating. But when you're just beginning and trying to figure out what to cook for your family, having those options available can be incredibly helpful, especially when you're learning to practice obedience through fasting for the first time. I've found the Impossible line of plant-based products at Walmart particularly helpful during this adjustment. Interestingly enough, it's the same brand of plant-based meat used in Burger King's Impossible Whopper!

Sometimes, making a few familiar meals with different ingredients can make the adjustment a little easier while you're learning. And surprisingly, it's been a really enjoyable experience! Even something as simple as leaving the meat out of a familiar recipe has been an interesting experiment. Sometimes the results are surprisingly delicious, while other times... well, let's just say not every experiment is a success! And that's really where we are right now: learning, experimenting, making mistakes, and gradually figuring things out.