Fasting spirit and body

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

After enjoying pancakes with jam, caviar and other delicacies on Shrovetide, rolling on ice slides and having fun until we lose consciousness, according to the laws of life's drama, we proceed to the ascetic Great Lent, in which earthly joys, including gluttony, are strictly prohibited.

Great Lent in the Orthodox tradition is the longest and strictest of all. They observe it in memory of the forty-day fast of Jesus Christ, who, soon after his baptism, retired into the wilderness. Fasting is divided into Forty days - a forty-day fast - and Holy Week. Seven weeks of fasting is extremely difficult even for a hardened body, what to say about who decides to experience the hardships of deprivation for the first time. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare for the fast in advance.

It is believed that one can fast gradually, and for the first time various indulgences are provided for the fasting person. You yourself can determine how much food and drink you need per day. For believers, it is more important at this time to observe ritual prayers than to strictly follow a diet.

There are those who can completely free themselves from fasting. These are the elderly, sick people, children and pregnant women: you can also not fast for the military. The Church constantly emphasizes that fasting should not be so much bodily as spiritual. This is a time of repentance and prayer. Without them, fasting becomes just a diet.

Gourmet bans

During Great Lent, you will have to forget about meat, eggs, milk and other dairy products, give up fish, vegetable oil and, of course, alcohol. But be vigilant: it is not so easy to identify forbidden food, because forbidden ingredients can lurk in the most seemingly harmless foods. For example, most chewing gum contains animal gelatin, which means they fall under the lean ban. It's the same with chocolate, pastries, and the favorite fast food. So during the fasting period, you will have to make the preparations yourself. Very handy will be "grandmother's reserves" in the form of various pickles and ferments. Cucumbers, tomatoes, cabbage - this is what you can enjoy in plenty. Also keep pickled vegetables and berries, juices and preserves nearby. During the fast, special attention is paid to herbs, dried and salted parsley, celery, dill, as well as spices. They are added to almost all dishes, because the table at this time is very meager and simple, and you can only diversify it with such "nuances".

However, even during the strictest fasting, pleasant exceptions are possible. So, you can still sip vegetable oil and grape wine on Saturdays and Sundays (except for Holy Saturday). On the days of the memory of the most revered saints, it is also allowed to eat vegetable oil. Fish dishes can be prepared on holidays - for the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos (April 7) and the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem (the last Sunday before Easter). You can try fish caviar on Lazarev Saturday (on the eve of Palm Sunday).

There are also less pleasant restrictions during Lent. The first week (week) and the last, Passion, week are the most severe times. For example, on the first two days of the first fasting week, the highest degree of fasting is established - on these days, complete abstinence from food is generally prescribed. On Holy Week (the last week before Easter), fasting of the second degree is prescribed - dry eating (food is not brewed, boiled, and even less fried), and on Friday and Saturday - complete abstinence from food. By the way, sex is also prohibited during Lent. Kisses between wife and husband are allowed, but only in the dark. With Easter it all ends. Beyond the restrictions comes the time of the holiday, with wine, festivities, adrenaline rush. Then we will recoup for 48 days of hardship.

Lean variety

There are so many restrictions that sometimes you don't know what to cook for yourself and your loved one. In addition, it is difficult to "sit" exclusively on parsley for seven weeks, even for an experienced vegetarian. What can we say about men! Not every man "sits" on such a monotonous diet. And since everyone knows that a man's stomach is the most "sore spot", you will have to surprise him even during fasting.

Start with a salad:

400 gr. sauerkraut, 2 tbsp. l. cranberries, 1 apple, 1 tbsp. l. granulated sugar, 1 bunch of green onions.

The cranberries must be sorted out and washed thoroughly in cold water. Put the berries in a colander, wait for the water to drain, then sprinkle the cranberries on a paper towel and pat dry. Remove the core from the apple and cut the flesh into thin slices. Cut the green onions into small rings. Squeeze sauerkraut, put in a bowl, add cranberries, green onions. Sprinkle with granulated sugar to taste and stir gently. Divide the salad into bowls and garnish with apple slices. Instead of a fresh apple, you can use a soaked apple or canned fruit. To do this, cut the soaked apple into four parts, remove the core, cut the pulp into cubes and mix with the salad. Remove seeds from canned fruits, chop the pulp and mix with salad.

Alternatively, a Berlin-style salad:

2 pickles, 2 small beets, 2 potatoes, 100 g of celery root, 2 apples, soy mayonnaise, 1 tbsp. l. tomato sauce.

Boil beets, potatoes and celery. Cool, peel vegetables and cut into cubes. Chop the pickled cucumbers, peel the apples and cut into strips. Combine all the ingredients, adding a mixture of mayonnaise and tomato, and season with spices to your liking.

Moving on to the first: cauliflower soup:

80 g cauliflower, 30 g leeks, 80 g potatoes, 20 g canned peas.

Cut the white part of the leek lengthwise into 2.5-3 cm pieces and lightly salve in oil. Put heated onion, cauliflower, chopped potatoes in boiling mushroom broth, vegetable broth or water. 5 minutes before the end of cooking, add canned green peas and parsley leaves.

For the second, please yourself and his dried fruit pilaf with nuts:

2 cups of rice, 1 handful of dried apricots and raisins, 10-12 dates, prunes, 4-5 walnuts, 2 tbsp. L. honey, salt.

Cook rice until half cooked in lightly salted water, add carefully washed and sorted raisins, dried apricots cut into strips, a few dates cut into strips and pitted and chopped prunes, as well as roasted crushed nuts. Bring under the lid to readiness, add honey, stir and let it brew.

Stuffed potatoes:

10 potatoes, 500 g of champignons, 2 onions, vegetable oil, salt, pepper and herbs.

Boil potatoes in their uniforms. Chop the mushrooms, scald with hot water and sauté in vegetable oil along with chopped onions. Peel the potatoes, cut in half, take out some of the pulp with a spoon, mix it with the mushrooms and fill the potatoes with this minced meat. Sprinkle with chopped herbs on top.

Let's move on to the sweet:

Cheesecake with jam and apples:

500 g of lean yeast dough, 1/2 cup of jam, 8-10 apples, 1/2 cup of sugar.

Sodium apples on a grater, put sugar, stew with 1-2 tablespoons of water. Roll out small cakes from the dough, put jam on them without liquid, put stewed apples on top. Raise the edges of the cakes and pinch them. Bake in the oven until tender.

Lenten cookies:

6 tbsp. flour, 2 tbsp. starch, 1, 5 tbsp. vegetable oil, 1 tsp. soda, salt and citric acid to taste, 1, 5 tbsp. water, 2 tbsp. Sahara

Grind flour with starch and vegetable oil until a sticky mass is formed. Quench the soda with citric acid or vinegar, add a little salt and add to the dough. Mix everything, add water and sugar. The dough shouldn't be tough. Roll out, cut into diamonds, bake for 15 minutes.

Fasting is an ordeal for body and spirit, Lent is seven times harder than others. However, many of those who fasted for religious convictions, and those who decided to join the fasting for other reasons, say one thing: after difficult weeks, you begin to feel completely differently, your inner world changes, and of course, your kilograms and centimeters decrease. …

In any case, I wish you to achieve that peace of mind that should visit you after fasting and getting rid of unnecessary roundness on your body.