Most people either stop fasting halfway or misinterpret its meaning. All this forces those who wish to observe the fast, to find as much information as possible about it. The purpose of religious fasting is spiritual cleansing and abstinence from worldly pleasures. For 40 days, a person disciplines the mind and body in order to grow spiritually and free from earthly habits. Fast food is the first necessity. It can seem quite strict, especially for beginners. If you do not understand how to observe Great Lent, this material will tell you how to properly adhere to it.
Fasting and physical exhaustion are not the goals of fasting. If you correctly draw up a daily and weekly meal plan, you will be quite surprised at how varied and healthy a lean meal can be.
List of approved products
Fruits:
Grape
Garnet
Apples
Cranberry
Citrus fruits (lemons, oranges, tangerines, grapefruits)
All these fruits are eaten raw during the fast, and desserts, various snacks, fresh salads and other dishes are also prepared with them.
- Dried fruits:
- Pineapple
- Bananas
- Cherry
- Pears
- Dried apricots
- Dates
- Prunes
- Apples
Dried fruits can not only be eaten during fasting, but also necessary. During a limited diet, they will enrich the diet with valuable vitamins and strengthen the immune system. They can be combined with other lean dishes, cook compotes and jelly from them.
Sauerkraut and pickles are also welcome on the lean table.
Greens
Parsley
Vazilik
Leaf salad
Spinach
Sorrel
Vegetables:
Carrot
Potato
Beet
Celery
Bell pepper
Cabbage (white cabbage, cauliflower, Peking cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts)
Champignons, oyster mushrooms and other types of mushrooms are rich in protein, which is very lacking during the period of fasting. Mushrooms are a great alternative to meat. They can be used to make tasty and healthy casseroles with vegetables, soups, pies, stews and snacks. It is also convenient to combine them with cereals and pancakes. Don't neglect mushrooms in your diet.
- Legumes
Popular legumes such as beans and peas will also become irreplaceable sources of protein during Lent. They are ideal for those who are losing weight, athletes and anyone involved in hard physical labor. From legumes, excellent mashed potatoes and dishes with vegetables are prepared. The menu of these products will turn out to be hearty, healthy and at the same time simple. Fasting sports nutrition is always accompanied by vegetable protein.
- Cereals
Cereals such as rice, buckwheat, oatmeal and other cereals should become the basis of a lean diet. With the exception of the days where complete abstinence is recommended, porridge can be eaten during Lent every day. They should only be cooked in water, without oil. If desired, various types of cereals can be combined with each other and vegetables, mushrooms, nuts and dried fruits can be added to them. This will diversify the dietary menu.
- A fish
Fish can only be eaten according to the strict canon. During religious fasting, it is consumed on the day of the Annunciation and Palm Sunday.
-
Kissel
Beverages:
Compote
It is forbidden to consume milk of animal origin during the fast. However, almond milk, coke oven milk and soy milk are excellent substitutes.
The spring season is not rich in fresh vegetables, fruits and berries. They have to be bought in stores, or stocked up in advance for the post. Some presets will be a great addition to the main menu:
Beans (can be in tomato)
Green pea
Corn
Lentils
Frozen vegetables, but especially berries and fruits, will come in handy on fast days. They can be used to make wonderful tea delicacies.
Kazinaki
Dark chocolate (bitter only)
Lollipops
Turkish Delight
Sweets:
Marmalade
Lean Marshmallow
Oatmeal cookies
In addition to the listed foods, you can include the following in your post:
Nuts and seeds;
Pasta (no eggs);
Lean sauces and dressings (soy, mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, etc.);
Lean bread (Borodino, grain, capital);
Unleavened bread and lavash;
Flour (rice, corn, oatmeal, buckwheat and coarse wheat);
Seaweed.
In Lent, seafood (squid, shrimp) remains controversial. Some people think that such food should not be eaten during the fast. However, less conservative followers of the post disagree with this opinion and believe that seafood is acceptable on lax days.
What you can't eat during fasting
Alcohol (except on lax days);
Sweets and pastries containing butter, eggs and milk;
Pork fat and meat broths;
Fast food.
Meat (sausages, sausages, balyks, bacon, etc.);
Fish (excluding lax days);
Milk, cheese and any dairy products;
In addition, it is necessary to exclude spices, too spicy, salty, sour and heavy foods that stimulate an unhealthy appetite. This is all that cannot be eaten in the post.
Lent is considered the longest and most demanding of the year. The first and last week before Easter are considered the toughest. For some lay people, food intake rules are strictly followed.
Clean Monday (first day of fasting) and Great Friday (penultimate) should preferably be spent without food.
On other days, the use of permitted foods is on schedule:
Contraindications to fasting
The Orthodox Church does not force all Christians to observe strict fasting. It is important to consult your doctor before following your diet. Pregnant and breastfeeding women can eat certain prohibited foods during fasting.
The main contraindications to fasting are:
Small and sick children;
Elderly people with physical ailments;
People who have undergone surgery;
People with serious medical conditions.
fast ,
Lent is the strictest and most significant of all fasting.
Smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages are prohibited on all days of fasting. You can not eat products of animal origin (meat, fish, milk and eggs), butter (white) bread, sweets, buns, mayonnaise. Only plant foods (fruits, vegetables, dried fruits), pickles (sauerkraut, pickled and pickled cucumbers), crackers, dryers, tea, mushrooms, nuts, black and gray bread, jelly, porridge on the water are allowed. And on the holidays of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos and Palm Sunday, it is allowed to eat fish.
In the first and last week, the fast is the strictest. On Clean Monday, complete abstinence from food is taken. On Friday of the first week, you can only eat coliva (boiled wheat sweetened with honey or sugar).
The rest of the time: Monday, Wednesday, Friday - dry food (water, bread, fruits, vegetables, compotes); Tuesday, Thursday - hot food without oil; Saturday, Sunday - food with vegetable oil.
But avoiding certain types of food is not the main purpose of fasting. Its main purpose is to spiritually uplift a person. Body cleansing should be combined with the transformation of the soul. "True fasting is the removal of evil, the curbing of the tongue, the deposition of anger, the subduing of lusts, the cessation of slander, falsehood, perjury."
Reasonable abstinence from food during fasting is beneficial for the body. But the church allows the sick, the elderly, and those who did not eat regularly during the year (for example, poor families) not to fast. But the best thing is to get permission from the priest. And if this is not possible, think: will fasting harm your health? After all, a person who deliberately harms his health commits a mortal sin.
During the period of fasting, our ancestors canceled the usual amusements, baked “Tuzhiki bread” (“I am pushing for abundant food”). Everyday eating utensils were replaced by a “sentry” made of clay.
BREAKFAST
For breakfast, you can have muesli (in water or juice).
Try:
Muesli: Boil (do not boil) the oatmeal or cereal mixture. Put prepared chopped walnuts, honey or sugar, prunes, raisins, dried apricots, figs there. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes.
Buckwheat flakes with sugar
Semolina porridge (thin) with honey
Fried semolina porridge (semolina slightly brown in a pan before cooking,
stirring constantly) with sugar or salt.
Pumpkin porridge: Boil rice until half cooked. Add the same amount of grated pumpkin. Cook so that the porridge comes out semi-liquid. At the end, you can add raisins, cinnamon. Sweeten.
WHAT IS AT WORK
It is generally hard to fast in the workplace. But at our work they found a way out, a little funny - they made vegetable shawarma. They bought Korean carrots, brought sauerkraut with them, added fresh vegetables, wrapped the whole thing in pita bread (thin), rolled it up and ate it. In general, you can take the same crackers, bagels, nuts, seeds, dried bananas, jam, seaweed (at worst) and salads to work with you.
During Great Lent, the first two and a half days (until the liturgy of the third day), those who in power do not eat anything except the morning prosphora with holy water. Others only eat bread with sweet tea. Some people eat, as in the following days, food without oil. The same strict and last - passionate
week (week). On the remaining days - Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri of the following weeks - they eat food without oil, on Sat and Sun - food with butter.
Annunciation - fish, caviar, oil and wine are allowed at the meal.
Lazarev Saturday - fish caviar, wine (and oil) are allowed.
Palm Sunday - fish, caviar, wine (and oil).
Holy Week. From Fri to Sun (morning) - the same as the first days. And in the morning, after the Liturgy, everything is possible - Easter! - but they start with a blessed egg, Easter (cottage cheese, not baked) and Easter cake (baked pastry with dried fruits and spices). At the same time, food, as always, is blessed (at least baptized) and not overeat.
The first thing to do is a base of fried onions and carrots, you can add ketchup or tomato paste, then the soup will be tastier. You can add bell pepper to lean borscht or cabbage soup to improve the taste. Pea soup or bean soup, mushroom soups, sorrel soup perfectly saves. Also, for thickness, cereals (rice, barley) are usually added to lean soups.
Try:
Pumpkin soup: boil potatoes, add the same amount of pumpkin, the same amount of onion. Greens - in plates. Serve with toasted bread.
Noodle soup: lots of onions, carrots. The noodles at the end. Greens in plates. It is better to eat the soup right away, until the noodles are sour.
Mashed potato soup: boil the potatoes, grind them separately into smooth mashed potatoes, combine with potato broth, add crushed garlic, dill. Black pepper can. Serve with croutons. You can add some wild garlic instead of garlic.
Soup with cereals: boil potatoes, add any cereals (buckwheat, rice, millet ...), lots of onions, carrots and other roots to taste (parsley, parsnips, celery). Garlic, herbs in plates. You can add a little tomato (it is better not pasta, but homemade, or ketchup, such as “Veres - sauce with
mushrooms "). Instead of garlic, you can use wild garlic.
French soup: do not boil the potatoes, but cook until tender; green peas (better frozen, but you can also canned), white cabbage or cauliflower, carrots, onions. Broken asparagus can be added. Greens - in plates.
Bean soup: boil beans, onions; add 2 tomatoes (twisted) or homemade tomato juice, boil. Parsley (wild garlic) in plates.
Pickle vegetable: boil potatoes, rice, carrots, then parsley, turnips (strips), leeks, finely chopped pickles without peel. Fresh parsley in plates. Serve with toasted bread.
Soup with mushrooms: mushrooms, onions, carrots, black pepper - boil. Add finely chopped potatoes, season with flour (separate flour in cold water and pour into the soup in a thin stream). At the end - greenery, laurel. sheet.
Soup with peas: boil potatoes, then onions, carrots and how many potatoes, the same amount of green peas. Greens in plates.
Sweet soup: Boil crumbly rice, boil dried fruit compote, sweeten. Pour the rice with compote with pieces of dried fruit. Eat cool. (Serve cold in summer.)
SECOND COURSES
The most delicious, in my opinion, lean dish is fried potatoes with sauerkraut. Potatoes will most likely be the main food: french fries, mashed potatoes, potato cutlets, potatoes with gravy, baked potatoes ... sauce), corn. Fried mushrooms are a substitute for meat. If you are already tired of everything, remember the vegetable stew and hodgepodge. If it is immediately clear what the hodgepodge can be, then everything that comes to hand can be put into a vegetable stew. Nuts (walnuts or hazelnuts) can be added to any dish during cooking, this is both tastier and more satisfying. You can buy frozen vegetables for future use (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, green beans, vegetable mixes).
Try:
Noodles with olives: Boil any pasta, rinse with cold water, add olive juice there, chop the olives themselves, tomato or ketchup like "Veres - mushroom sauce", garlic or wild garlic, basil (dried or fresh). When possible, grow well there. butter, grated cheese. Green beans can be cooked in place of noodles.
Sweet beans: Boil the beans and onions. Make a sweet sauce from the broth: Stir flour into the cooled broth, boil, add sugar.
Stewed potatoes with peas or mushrooms: Boil 3 parts of potatoes until half cooked, add 4 parts of diced carrots, 1 part of chopped celery roots, cook for half an hour; then 1 part of onion, 1 part of mushrooms (fresh or dried and boiled) or peas (any: fresh, frozen, dried and boiled) cook for 5 minutes. Greens in plates.
Monastic beans: Boil the beans until half cooked, add a lot of finely chopped onions, cook for another half hour. Greens in plates.
Braised cabbage: Simmer 1 kg of cabbage until softened, add red ground pepper, 2 cf. potatoes and simmer until tender. Pour in 200g of tomato juice (or fresh tomatoes, or canned). At the end there is dill. Can be stewed with bell pepper (ice cream).
Cabbage with mushrooms: Boil mushrooms until half cooked, finely chop. Stew the onion in a small amount of mushroom broth, then chopped cabbage, add red pepper, then mushrooms. Make a sauce from the remaining broth (dilute the flour in the broth, add spices, cook until thickened).
Season the finished cabbage with sauce and herbs.
Salad with corn (peas): Boil the potatoes in their skins. Cut into small cubes, add finely chopped onions (preferably green, you can use wild garlic), pickled (pickled) cucumbers (zucchini) without skin, canned corn with juice (peas).
Add some cucumber marinade. Greens. It is possible with olives and juice from olives.
Salad with beetroot: bake 2 beets, coarsely grate; Finely dice 2 peeled pickles, cut 1 onion into half rings. Season with sugar, lemon juice, caraway seeds, brine. Sprinkle with green onions.
Carrot salad with apples: Coarsely grate 3 carrots; Cut 2 apples into strips. Soak raisins, mix with apples and carrots, season with honey diluted with water. You can sprinkle the apple with lemon juice (1 tsp) so as not to darken.
DRINKS AND DESSERTS
Juices, jelly, compotes, tea, fruit drinks. For sweets, you can cook such a wonderful children's dish - apple and carrot puree. Remember how it used to crack behind the ears? Or other fruit purees.
Try:
Fanta: pour 1-1.5 liters of warm water over the zest with 3-5 oranges, add sugar to taste and let it brew overnight. Strain. Add the juice of 0.5-1 lemon.
Happy post everyone!
The most important component of fasting is a special nutrition system, which is designed to help a person cleanse himself physically, as well as prepare the body for spiritual renewal. At the same time, nutritionists warn that ill-considered fasting during fasting can significantly reduce the intake of essential vitamins and minerals into the body, as well as adversely affect metabolism. You can only avoid such problems with a well-balanced lean diet ...
Food during fasting provides for the refusal to use all types of meat products, poultry, milk and its derivatives, fish, eggs and animal fat. At the same time, the Orthodox Church distinguishes between special days of strict fasting and the time when Christians are allowed to eat certain foods. For example, on the day of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Palm Sunday, the Lenten menu is supplemented with fish and seafood.
Scientists say that the daily protein requirement of an adult is approximately 90 grams. During fasting, the intake of protein food into the body is sharply reduced. Compensate for the deficiency of animal proteins at the expense of soy and other legumes, sunflower seeds, mushrooms, nuts, which are very close to meat products in their amino acid composition. In addition, a lack of protein food is easier to tolerate for those who get enough sleep and spend a lot of time in the fresh air.
On days when seafood is allowed, include shrimp or squid in your diet. They are distinguished by high nutritional value and are perfectly absorbed by the body.
Watch the calorie intake during the fast. It is important that the food consumed provides the body with the required amount of energy. Supplement boiled and raw vegetables with cereals, which contain a large amount of healthy carbohydrates. Sugar is an important source of energy during fasting, but sweets should not be overused.
Do not start fasting without prior preparation: a sudden change in your usual diet can be detrimental to your health. Prepare your body for a new diet in advance (at least 2 weeks before fasting). It is also impossible to quickly return to modest dishes after the removal of church prohibitions. Introduce animal products into the menu gradually and in small portions.
In order for fasting in fasting to be beneficial, introduce proper nutrition into the habit: avoid fried and smoked foods, limit the consumption of alcohol, sweets and salt, try to eat small portions, etc. will not become an ordeal for the body.
Lenten Recipes in Lent 2013
Lenten table- not only is it considered good for health, lean foods: vegetables, cereals are the most refined culinary products, often requiring a special art of preparation and giving the most amazing results ...
During Lent, meat, eggs, dairy products, animal fats are excluded from the diet. Fish is allowed on Annunciation and Palm Sunday. Fish caviar is allowed on Lazarev Saturday ...
Salads
Cooking salads during strict fasting can greatly diversify the table. During Lent, of course, fresh vegetables are less readily available than during summer fasts, but preparations can be widely used: frozen, dried, pickled vegetables and fruits, tofu, add boiled rice or other cereals.
For dressing salads, sunflower oil, soy mayonnaise, sauces are used, or juicy enough ingredients are selected so that the salad is tasty without additional ingredients.
Salad from different vegetables
100 g kohlrabi, 50 g canned green peas, 2 carrots, 2 fresh apples, cucumbers, 50 g lettuce or green onions, 50 g plums or prunes, 1 tomato or fresh sweet pepper, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 200 g soy mayonnaise, pepper, salt to taste, dill.
Peeled boiled young kohlrabi, cut carrots into thin slices. Rinse the prunes, add hot water to swell, remove the seeds from it and cut into slices. Also chop the pitted plums.
Cut the tomatoes into 5-6 parts, fresh sweet pepper, remove the stalk together with the grains, cut into strips. Peel the apples, remove the seed boxes from them and chop in the same way as vegetables. Cut the washed lettuce leaves into 2-3 pieces, and chop the cucumbers into slices.
Mix the chopped vegetables and fruits, add canned green peas, lightly salt, pepper and season with mayonnaise when serving. You can add sugar (preferably powdered sugar) and lemon juice to the salad. You can also make vegetable salad with other available vegetables.
The vinaigrette
Peel the boiled potatoes and beets, cut into small cubes or thin slices. Dice the pickles and onions. Sort sauerkraut, chop large pieces.
If sauerkraut has a very sour taste, rinse it with cold water or even soak it for some time, squeeze it, chop it. Finely chop the onions. Then mix all the vegetables, season with salt and vegetable oil. Potatoes can be partially or completely replaced with boiled beans.
Lean seaweed salad
Dried seaweed is soaked, boiled, washed thoroughly,. Chopped onions are fried separately, mixed with prepared cabbage, seasoned with soy sauce, ajinomoto, and other spices to taste.
Korean salads
Many Korean salads have lean ingredients and therefore are quite suitable for a fasting meal. They can be bought ready-made or prepared by yourself. To prepare salads, you need a special grater (only an experienced hand can cut it as thinly as necessary).
Here are some classic options: 1) carrots (chopped thinly), 2) carrots and green radish (the second is smaller, chop both products), 3) cabbage (cut into 2x2 cm squares, add either chopped carrots or beets, but very little of the latter, for color only). Prepared vegetables are salted, mixed, crumpled, allowed to stand until juice is obtained, the juice is drained or squeezed.
In a frying pan, they heat odorless sunflower oil. At this time vegetables are seasoned with vinegar, red pepper, ajinomoto, coriander. Finely chop the garlic and place it on top of the vegetables, pour the heated oil directly onto the garlic, mix everything. Allow to stand, cool.
Cabbage, carrot, apple and bell pepper salad
Cut the washed white cabbage into strips, grind with a little salt, drain the juice, mix with peeled chopped apples, carrots, bell peppers, season with sugar and vegetable oil. Sprinkle with finely chopped herbs.
300 g of cabbage, 2 apples, 1 carrot, 100 g of sweet pepper, 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, herbs.
Beetroot caviar
Finely chop the onion, grate the carrots on a coarse grater. Fry everything in vegetable oil until golden brown. Then add the grated fresh beets. Five minutes before cooking, add salt to taste and tomato paste.
1 onion, 1 carrot, 3-4 medium beets, 100 g of vegetable oil, 1/2 cup of tomato paste, diluted with water, salt.
Radish salad with oil
Peel and rinse the radish well, put it in cold water for 15-20 minutes, then let it drain, grind the radish on a grater, season with vegetable oil, salt and vinegar, put in a salad bowl, decorate with herbs. In the grated radish, you can add chopped onions, sautéed in vegetable oil.
Radish 120 g, vegetable oil. 10 g, 3 g vinegar, 15 g onions, herbs.
Vitamin salad
Finely chop fresh cabbage, grate carrots on a coarse grater. Mix everything and salt. Add green peas (canned). Drizzle with vinegar, vegetable oil, sprinkle with black pepper and herbs. You can add fresh cucumbers and green onions.
300 g fresh cabbage, 1 large carrot, 5 tablespoons of peas, salt, 1 tablespoon of vinegar. 10 g of vegetable oil, 2 g of black pepper.
Summer salad
Put the tomatoes in a colander, pour over boiling water, and then immediately with cold water. Peel off the skin. Cut the peeled tomatoes into thin slices. Cut the peeled apple in half and remove the core. Cut the apple into wedges too. Cut the onion and pepper into small strips. Mix everything. Salt, add sugar, add lemon juice and pour over with vegetable oil.
2 ripe tomatoes, 1 apple, 1 small onion, 1 pod of sweet peri, and, 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, salt, sugar, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.
Tomatoes stuffed with vegetable mixture
Wash the tomatoes, cut off the top with a sharp knife, take out the core with a spoon. Finely chop the boiled carrots, finely chop the apple, grate the cucumbers on a coarse grater. Put all vegetables in a bowl, add peas, salt, vegetable oil and stir. Stuff tomatoes with this mince. Sprinkle with dill on top.
5 small tomatoes, 1 carrot, 1 apple, 2 pickles, 100 g canned green peas, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 1/3 teaspoon of salt, dill.
Rice salad
Boil rice in salted water. Chop vegetables, mix with chilled rice, salt, sprinkle with pepper, add sugar and vinegar to taste.
100 g rice, 2 bell peppers, 1 tomato, 1 carrot, 1 pickled cucumber, 1 onion.
Leek
Finely chop the green part of the leek into rings (you need four stalks), fry in margarine with garlic and thyme. Add the white part of the stems. Pour all this white wine in half with vegetable broth, before putting the container in the oven, cover with cling paper, put in the oven and keep for 30 minutes.
4 stalks of leeks, 2 cloves of garlic, a bunch of fresh thyme, 115 g butter (vegetable margarine can be used), 2 glasses of chardonnay, 285 ml of vegetable broth, sea salt and black pepper.
Loose buckwheat with mushrooms and onions
3 cups of water, 1.5 cups of buckwheat, 2 onions, some dry porcini mushrooms. Pour the kernel with water, cover with chopped mushrooms and put on high heat, covering with a lid.
When it boils, reduce the heat by half and continue to cook for 10 minutes until thickened, then reduce the heat to low again and cook for about 5-7 minutes more. until the water is completely evaporated. Remove from heat, wrap in warm for 15 minutes. Simultaneously fry the finely chopped onion and season with salt. Add the fried onions to the porridge, stir evenly.
Mushroom pilaf
For pilaf, thick-walled dishes are preferable, evenly warming up and slowly giving off heat. The ratio of the main components: rice \ carrots \ mushrooms (frozen, fresh or soaked dry) is equal, i.e. on a pound of rice exactly the same amount of carrots and mushrooms.
You can partially or completely replace mushrooms with soy meat, but remember that soy meat itself does not have the same taste as mushrooms, and when using it, you should bring the dish with the help of flavoring seasonings and spices.
We heat the cauldron and the oil in it (do not spare the oil on the pilaf: its taste is significantly improved), fry the mushrooms and carrots, add salt and spices, cover the top, without stirring, with a layer of washed rice and pour it gently with water (1.5 volumes of rice), so that the rice turns out to be covered with water with a margin of not a couple of centimeters. close the lid tightly, trying not to open the lid further unnecessarily.
When we hear that the contents of the cauldron are boiling, reduce the heat to a minimum, at this time we will prepare the garlic: we will need several small cloves. They are placed directly into the rice hat (the rice has already swollen all the water above it) whole and slightly pressed down, dipping it into the rice, after which the cauldron turns off, but the pilaf continues to cook due to the residual heat.
After about ten or fifteen minutes it will be possible to mix everything and serve. Homemade pickles or tomatoes or sauerkraut are a good addition to pilaf.
Sweet barley porridge with poppy seeds
Rinse the barley and begin to cook in plenty of water over moderate heat, skimming off the foam. When the cereal begins to secrete mucus, drain the excess water and cook until the cereal is soft and thick, stirring occasionally.
Prepare poppy seeds (less than half a glass of poppy seeds for a glass of cereal): pour boiling water over it, let it steam, after 5 minutes. Drain the water, rinse the poppy seeds, refill with boiling water, immediately drain it as soon as droplets of fat begin to appear on the surface of the water. Then grind the steamed poppy seeds, adding a little boiling water.
Mix the prepared poppy with the thickened, softened barley porridge, add honey, heat over low heat for 5-7 minutes, stirring continuously, remove from heat, season with jam.
Millet porridge with pumpkin
Boil small pieces of pumpkin in water for 10-15 minutes. Rinse the millet thoroughly and add it there, lightly salt and sweeten. While stirring, cook until thickened (min. 15-20). You can put it to “reach” for a short time in the oven. The proportions between pumpkin and millet are chosen according to taste, the amount of water is taken depending on the previous components, and with a larger amount of pumpkin, less water is required.
FIRST MEAL
Adaptation to fasting soup-kharcho
Pour half a glass of rice into two to three liters of boiling water. Fry 3-4 onions, add them to the water with rice, bay leaf, allspice (crush the peas). After 5 minutes, add half a glass of crushed walnuts.
After a short while, add half a glass of tomato paste (in a more classic version: tkemali plums, which we do not find, or half a glass of pomegranate juice): dried herbs (basil, parsley), red pepper, a little cinnamon, suneli hops (key for taste soup seasoning).
After another 5 minutes, you can turn it off completely by adding fresh herbs and chopped garlic, let it brew. In an even more adapted to the Russian environment, a variant of earlier rice can be put in boiling water potatoes.
Rassolnik
Soak a small amount of pearl barley for several hours (no more than half a glass in a standard three-liter saucepan of soup). Boil it lightly. Put the potatoes cut into cubes in boiling water with barley. Fry the onions separately, add the carrots to the rice and potatoes.
Later, close to the readiness of the potatoes, lay chopped pickles and season with brine (it is good to stew a little before these cucumbers in brine). At the end of cooking, add chopped garlic, bay leaves, dried or fresh herbs. Can be served with soy mayonnaise, if available.
Korean soup
For such a soup, you must have a special soy seasoning: chai. It has a very thick texture, dark brown color, specific taste and smell. The Japanese have its analogue, it is called "mizo".
For a lean version of this soup, three or four onion heads are fried with the addition of two or three tablespoons of teya, you can add steamed soy meat here. After that, water is added (up to three liters), after boiling potatoes and a little later the “profile” vegetable.
It can be fresh Korean cabbage or dried cabbage, or chopped zucchini, or a couple of green radishes. The soup is cooked until vegetables are ready. The chai should give salinity and pungency, not if it seems insufficient, you can also add salt and add red pepper. Serve with unleavened rice cooked in a thick-walled bowl, the ratio of rice to water: two to three, gradually reducing the heat.
Lentil stew
Soak lentils for a couple of hours, cook, peel and chop potatoes, carrots and onions fried in oil. Successful additions and spices to this soup: coriander, thyme, garlic, herbs. It goes well with soy meat (fry with onions and carrots), tomatoes, olives (the brine from them is added directly to the soup) and soy mayonnaise when served.
Vegetable soup
Fry the onion, parsley and celery chopped into strips in vegetable oil, add water, put the chopped carrots, rutabagas and shredded cabbage and cook over low heat for 20-30 minutes. Add crushed garlic, seasonings in the middle of cooking; put applesauce or grated apple at the very end. Serving, sprinkle the soup with chopped herbs.
2 onions, 1 parsley root, celery, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 1 liter of water, 2 carrots, 1 slice of turnip, 1 cup of finely shredded cabbage (150 g), a clove of garlic, 1 bay leaf, 1/2 teaspoon of cumin , 1 apple or 2 tablespoons of applesauce, salt, herbs.
Pea soup with pearl barley
Soak peas overnight in cold water and, adding washed barley, put in the same water to cook. Cut the carrots, onions and parsley into small cubes, fry in oil and combine with the peas when they are half cooked. Season with salt and herbs.
1 liter of water, 1 glass of peas, 1 tablespoon of pearl barley, 1/2 carrots, 1/2 onion, 1/2 parsley root, 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil, herbs, salt.
Lean Pea Soup
In the evening, pour cold water over the peas and leave to swell and cook the noodles.
For noodles, half a glass of flour must be mixed well with three tablespoons of vegetable oil, add a spoonful of cold water, salt, leave the dough for an hour to swell. Cut thinly rolled and dried dough into strips, dry in the oven.
Cook the swollen peas, without draining, until half cooked, add the fried onions, diced potatoes, noodles, pepper, salt and cook until the potatoes and noodles are done.
Peas - 50 g, potatoes - 100 g, onions - 20 g, water - 300 g, oil for frying onions - 10 g, parsley, salt, pepper to taste.
Russian lean soup
Boil the pearl barley, add fresh cabbage, cut into small squares, diced potatoes and roots, into the broth and cook until fine. In summer, you can add fresh tomatoes, cut into slices, which are laid along with the potatoes.
When serving, sprinkle with parsley or dill.
Potatoes, cabbage - 100 g each, onion - 20 g, carrots - 20 g, pearl barley - 20 g, dill, salt to taste.
Borscht with mushrooms
Prepared mushrooms are stewed in oil along with chopped roots. Boiled beets are rubbed or cut into cubes. Potatoes, cut into oblong pieces, are boiled in broth until soft, other products are added (flour is mixed with a small amount of cold liquid) and cooked together for 10 minutes. The greens are placed in the soup before serving. If tomato puree is added, then it is stewed along with mushrooms.
200 g fresh or 30 g dried porcini mushrooms, 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, 1 onion, a little celery or parsley, 2 small beets (400 g), 4 potatoes, salt, 1-2 liters of water, 1 teaspoon flour, 2 -3 tablespoons of herbs, 1 tablespoon of tomato puree, vinegar.
SECOND COURSES
Stuffed peppers, eggplants, zucchini
Peppers, eggplants, young zucchini peel off the stalks and seeds (cut off the peel from the zucchini) and stuff with minced vegetables, which includes finely chopped onions, carrots, cabbage, taken in equal shares, and 1/10 of their total volume of parsley and celery.
Fry all vegetables for minced meat in vegetable oil. Fry also the stuffed eggplants, peppers and zucchini. Then put in a deep metal bowl, pour 2 glasses of tomato juice and place in the oven for 30-45 minutes. for baking.
Tikhvin porridge
Rinse the peas, boil them in water without adding salt, and when the water is 1/3 boiled down and the peas are almost ready, add them and cook until tender. Then season with finely chopped onions, fried in butter, and season.
1/2 cup peas, 1.5 L water, 1 cup buckwheat, 2 onions, 4 cm. tablespoons of vegetable oil.
Simple stew
Cut raw potatoes into large cubes and in a wide frying pan, in vegetable oil, as quickly as possible (over high heat) and fry evenly on all sides until golden brown. As soon as the crust is formed, put the still half-baked potatoes in a clay pot, cover with finely chopped herbs, onions, salt, add boiling water, close the lid and put in the oven for 1 minute. The finished stew is eaten with cucumbers (fresh or pickled), sauerkraut.
1 kg potatoes, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon dill, I cm. a spoonful of parsley, 1 onion, 1/2 glass of water, salt.
Braised cabbage
Finely chop the onion, put in a pan with vegetable oil and fry until golden brown. Then add finely chopped cabbage and fry until half cooked. In 10 minutes. until finished, add salt, tomato paste, red or black ground pepper, sweet peas and bay leaf. Close the pan with a lid. Sprinkle herbs on the table before serving.
2 medium onions, 1 small head of cabbage 1/2 cup vegetable oil, salt, pepper, 2-3 allspice peas, 1 bay leaf, 1/2 cup tomato paste diluted with water.
Potatoes in garlic sauce
Rinse peeled potatoes and dry with a towel. Cut each potato in half. Heat the greater half of the vegetable oil in a pan and fry the potatoes until golden brown. Then prepare the garlic sauce. To do this, grind the garlic with salt, add 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil and stir. Pour the garlic sauce over the fried potatoes.
10 small potatoes, half a glass of sunflower oil, 6 slices of chanok, 2 teaspoons of salt.
Loose rice-oatmeal porridge
Rinse rice and oats, stir and pour the mixture into boiling water. Keep on high heat for 12 minutes, then reduce heat to medium and keep for another 5-8 minutes, then remove from heat, wrap warm and only after 15-20 minutes. open the cover. Season the prepared porridge with onion fried in oil and finely chopped garlic and dill. Heat in a skillet over low heat for 3-4 minutes.
1.5 cups of rice, 0.75 cups of oats, 0.7 liters of water, 2 teaspoons of salt, 1 onion, 4-5 cloves of garlic. 4-5 tablespoons of sunflower oil, 1 tablespoon of dill.
Pusher
Soak the poppy seeds for 10 hours, drain the water, squeeze and grind in a mortar.
Soak the beans for 10 hours, boil for 2 hours and grind the boiled potatoes in mashed potatoes, to which add hot poppy seeds, mashed potatoes, finely chopped onions, sugar, pepper, parsley and grind.
5 potatoes, 0.5 cups of beans, 2 tablespoons of poppy seeds, 1-2 onions, 2 teaspoons of sugar, 1 tablespoon of parsley, 0.5 tablespoons of ground black pepper.
Potato cutlets with prunes
Make mashed potatoes from 400 grams of boiled potatoes, salt, add half a glass of vegetable oil, half a glass of warm water and enough flour to make a not steep dough.
Let it stand for about twenty minutes so that the flour swells, at this time prepare the prunes - peel it, pour boiling water over it. Roll out the dough, cut into mugs with a glass, put prunes in the middle of each, form cutlets by pinching the dough in the form of pies, roll each cutlet in bread crumbs and fry in a pan in a large amount of vegetable oil.
Potato fritters
Grate some of the potatoes, boil some, drain the water, salt and add finely chopped and fried onions in vegetable oil. Mix the whole potato mass, add flour and soda and bake pancakes from the resulting dough in vegetable oil.
750 g of grated raw potatoes, 500 g of boiled potatoes (mashed potatoes), 3 tablespoons of flour, 0.5 teaspoons of soda.
Rice with vegetables
Heat oil in a frying pan, fry onions, carrots, bell peppers in it. Then add lightly boiled rice, salt, pepper, a little water and simmer for another 15 minutes. Bring to readiness, the rice should absorb all the liquid. Then add green peas, parsley and dill.
2 full glasses of rice, 100 g of vegetable oil, 3 onions, 1 carrot, salt, pepper, 3 sweet peppers, 0.5 liters of water, 5 tablespoons of green peas.
KVASS, COMPOTE
Dried fruit compote
Wash the fruits and then separate the apples and pears, as they take longer to cook.
Rinse the sorted fruits 3-4 times, put them in boiling water. Boil pears and apples for 35-40 minutes, other fruits - 15-20 minutes. Add sugar at the end.
200 g dry fruits, 5 tablespoons of sugar, 1.5 liters of water.
Rhubarb compote
Wash the rhubarb stalks in warm water. Remove the skin from the thickened ends with a knife. Then cut the stems into pieces 2-3 cm long, put in a bowl, cover with cold water and leave in it for 15 minutes. Boil sugar syrup. Remove the prepared rhubarb from cold water and immerse in boiling syrup, add lemon zest and cook for 10-15 minutes.
200 g rhubarb (petioles), 150 g sugar, 4 glasses of water, 8 g lemon zest.
Lingonberry compote with apples
Rinse winter apples, cut into slices, remove the core from them. Then immerse the fruits in sugar syrup made from decoction of apple peel and cores. Bring the syrup to a boil and put the lingonberries in it.
150 g lingonberries, 150 g apples, 150 g granulated sugar, 600 g water.
MUSHROOMS
Mushroom vinaigrette
Mushrooms and onions are chopped, boiled carrots, beets, potatoes and cucumber are cut into cubes and mixed. The oil is seasoned with vinegar and spices, and the salad is poured over them. Sprinkle with herbs on top.
150 g pickled or pickled mushrooms, 1 onion, 1 carrot, 1 small beet, 2-3 potatoes, 1 pickled cucumber, 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 2 cm. tablespoons of vinegar, salt, sugar, mustard, pepper, dill and parsley.
Mushroom caviar
Fresh mushrooms are stewed in their own juice until the juice evaporates. Salted mushrooms are soaked to remove excess salt, dried mushrooms are soaked, boiled and allowed to drain in a colander. Then the mushrooms are finely chopped and mixed with chopped onions, lightly fried in vegetable oil. Season the mixture, sprinkle with finely chopped green onions on top.
400 g fresh, 200 g salted or 500 g dried mushrooms, 1 onion, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, salt, pepper, vinegar or lemon juice, green onions.
Braised mushrooms
The oil is heated, mushrooms cut into thin slices and shredded onions are put in it. Broth is added to the boiled mushrooms, fresh mushrooms are stewed in their own juice for 15-20 minutes. Salt and herbs are added to the end of stewing. Boiled potatoes and raw vegetable salad are served as a side dish.
500 g fresh or 300 g boiled (salted) mushrooms, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 1. onion, salt, 1/2 cup of mushroom broth, parsley and dill.
PIES
Lean Pie Dough
Knead a dough of half a kilogram of flour, two glasses of water and 25-30 g of yeast.
When the dough rises, add salt, sugar, three tablespoons of vegetable oil, another half a kilogram of flour to it and beat the dough until it stops sticking to your hands.
Then put the dough in the same saucepan where the dough was prepared and let it rise again.
After that, the dough is ready for further work.
Apple charlotte with black bread
Apples (better sour varieties, for example Antonovskie) - 3 pieces, granulated sugar - 100 g, cinnamon, cloves and vanillin to taste, almonds (I took hazelnuts, because there were no almonds) -20 g, dry white wine - 20 g, black grated bread - 1 glass (I took 2 glasses, it seemed to me that the glass was not enough), vegetable oil - 20 g, zest of 0.5 lemon, orange peels - 20 g. Peel the apples, cut into slices, remove the grains , put 2 tablespoons of sugar, add cinnamon, crushed nuts, orange peels, white wine.
Buckwheat shangi
Roll out the lean dough cakes, put buckwheat porridge cooked with onions and mushrooms in the middle of each, fold the edges of the cake.
After placing the finished shangi on a greased dish, bake them in the oven.
The same shangi can be prepared with fried onions, potatoes, crushed garlic and fried onions.
Buckwheat pancakes
In the evening, pour three cups of buckwheat flour with three cups of boiling water, stir well and leave for an hour. If you do not have buckwheat flour, you can make it yourself by grinding buckwheat in a coffee grinder.
When the dough has cooled, dilute it with a glass of boiling water. When the dough is lukewarm, add 25 g of yeast dissolved in half a glass of water.
In the morning, add the rest of the flour, salt dissolved in water to the dough and knead the dough until thick sour cream, put it in a warm place and bake in a pan when the dough rises again.
These pancakes are especially good with onion baked goods.
Pancakes with baked goods (with mushrooms, onions)
Prepare a dough of 300 g flour, a glass of water, 20 g yeast and put it in a warm place.
When the dough comes up, pour in another glass of warm water, two tablespoons of vegetable oil, salt, sugar, the rest of the flour and mix everything thoroughly.
Soak the washed dried mushrooms for three hours, boil until tender, cut into small pieces, fry, add chopped and lightly fried green or onions, cut into rings. After spreading the solders in a frying pan, fill them with dough, fry like ordinary pancakes.
Pea pancakes
Boil the peas until soft and, without draining the remaining water, grind, adding 0.5 cups of wheat flour to 750 g of pea puree. Form pancakes from the resulting dough, roll in flour and bake in a frying pan in vegetable oil.
Pies with pea filling
Cook the peas until tender, mash, add the onion, fried in vegetable oil, pepper, salt to taste.
Prepare a simple yeast dough. Divide the dough into walnut-sized balls and roll out into flat cakes 1 mm thick. Put the filling. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes.
Unleavened dough products
What are the characteristics of unleavened dough cooked in fasting? We cannot put an egg in it to strengthen it. Our actions because of this largely depend on the “nature” of the flour, on the strength of its gluten.
If the flour is good and you tried to make a very tight dough (water: flour ratio = 1: 3 by volume, and do not forget to salt - adding salt also strengthens the dough a little), then you will get an excellent dough for dumplings.
But a situation may well arise when the quality of the flour leaves much to be desired, there is not enough strength to knead the dough, there is no male power to pick up. Then you can pour more water (1: 2.5), but be prepared for the dough to "float" during cooking, dumplings or other products will be slippery, falling apart. Treat this with prayer and patience and eat with humility (it is always useful).
Later, when using the same flour, you can “overcome” the weakness of its character by changing the cooking method: steam it (it will be something like mantas), or fry it in oil (like pasties).
For both of these methods, the dough needs to be softer. Interesting versions of the test are obtained by replacing water with brine or other liquid. There are methods that use hot water, the dough is of a special taste, with a little sweetness, and more water is needed for such a dough.
The dough can be used directly, for noodles, dumplings, for a side dish or as a component for a soup, or as a shell for a filling: fried cabbage or other vegetables, mashed potatoes, mushrooms, onions, herbs, fresh or frozen berries with sugar, boiled and twisted dried fruits, bean or pea puree and even porridge: for example, millet or buckwheat.
We prepare the usual unleavened dough, let it rest for about twenty minutes, roll it into small thin circles and fry them on both sides. Serve on the table, where different fillings are prepared: bean pate, fresh vegetable salad, stewed vegetables, and maybe jam, fruit salad. Put the filling directly on the flatbread and eat it right away with the "plate".
Dumplings
Unleavened dough mixed in water, roll out into a cake 1 cm thick, cut into strips 2-3 cm wide, pinch off small pieces from each strip, throw into salted boiling water (or vegetable, mushroom broth). Dough for dumplings can also be made from a mixture of wheat and buckwheat flour. Dumplings boiled in water are strained and seasoned with fried onions. Dumplings boiled in broth are eaten together with liquid.
Dumplings with mushrooms
Soak and boil 150 g of dry mushrooms, finely chop, add 2 onions fried in oil, 2 tablespoons of crumbs with stale rolls, pepper, salt, a little mushroom broth, knead everything and lightly extinguish. The dough is usual for dumplings. Roll out thinly, make small dumplings and cook. Serve with butter.
Lean manti with pumpkin
To prepare mantas, you need special utensils: a double boiler or a saucepan with a removable top, where grates with mantas are inserted (a cascan, a mantle cooker). Dough: for 1 kg of flour, half a liter of hot water, salt, knead well, let sit.
Minced meat: pumpkin cut into small (half a centimeter) cubes, soy meat in proportional pieces in equal proportions with pumpkin, spices: salt, red pepper, ajinomoto. Roll out the dough in thin circles the size of a small saucer. Minced meat is laid out in the middle, a tablespoon with a slide.
The dough is pinched from above: with a bag or curly. The grates are lubricated with vegetable oil. Put the manti on them (not tightly, otherwise they will stick together), insert into a saucepan, where water is already boiling and steam for 45 minutes.
Serve with sauce: dilute soy sauce (classic, Korean, brown) in half with water, add a little vinegar, red pepper (a significant amount), chopped garlic.
Dumplings with cherries
Make a dough from flour in water, not very steep, roll out onto a thin crust. Peel the cherries, sprinkle with sugar. Digest the juice that drains with sugar. Sculpt small dumplings, boil, strain in a colander, pour juice on a platter. Serve cold.
Dumplings with apples
For the filling, take 800 g of apples, 1/2 cup of sugar. Peel the apples, remove the core, cut into strips, sprinkle with sugar, make dumplings from not very thin dough and boil them. When serving, sprinkle the dumplings with sugar or honey.
desserts
I would like to start talking about desserts with the simplest, something that does not need cooking: fresh fruits or washed and steamed dried fruits (dried apricots, raisins, figs, dates, prunes), nuts of various types, halva, kazenaki, marshmallow, various jams consistencies.
Lean include many lollipop and jelly candies, marshmallows (technologically, it can be lean). Among the prepared desserts, we note jelly, jelly, fruit salads. The latter are either prepared with predominantly juicy fruits or seasoned with syrup, prepared from canned fruits or prepared on their own. We will consider baked goods, flour desserts separately.
Apple dessert
Mix chopped baked apples with boiled rice and add ginger and curry. Baked apples can also be served without rice, with powdered sugar and cinnamon.
Cereal dessert with dried fruits
Cook the usual compote from dried apricots, raisins or other pitted dried fruits. When the fruit is ready, semolina (or other small cereals) is poured in a thin stream with stirring evenly, in a small amount.
Citrus jelly
4 oranges, lemon, 100 g of sugar, 15 g of agar-agar, half a glass of water. Dissolve agar-agar and sugar in warm water, add the zest of half an orange, orange and lemon juice, mix, strain, pour into molds and into the refrigerator. When serving, the molds are lowered briefly under water to easily separate the jelly.
Fruit salad
Boil the pasta until tender, put it in a colander and pour over with cold water, fill with the grows. butter and stir. Cut the grapes in half and remove the seeds. Cut the bananas into slices.
Peel the apple from the core and cut into thin slices. Add tangerines or oranges in slices or half slices. Sprinkle the fruits with sugar and cinnamon, drizzle with lemon juice. Finely chop the figs and dates, chop the nuts.
Drain the canned fruits in a colander, mix with the pasta and the rest of the ingredients and add a little canned fruit syrup. Mix everything, sprinkle with coconut and / or chocolate chips.
Jellied pumpkin
Put the peeled pumpkin in the oven until transparent with a little water. Pour raisins, peeled walnuts (slightly chopped), dried apricots (also cut into 3-4 parts) in a flat bowl on the bottom half a finger thick.
Top it all off with a pumpkin. Do not pour out the juice remaining from cooking the pumpkin, but use it instead of water for making jelly (see the instructions on the gelatin bags). Pour the workpiece with ready-made warm jelly, then put in the refrigerator, serve cold.
- Why are there so many restrictions on pleasures, food, sexual relations in Orthodoxy? It seems that no harm is done to others, the commandment of love for one's neighbor is not violated. Why is it necessary to “kill your body”, your desires? Why such lack of freedom?- Our body is killed not by restrictions on food and other pleasures, but by the excess in them. And besides, even if we do not harm others and do not break the commandment to love our neighbor, we still need to love God. Hence, there are some limitations in pleasures, since love, when it is, manifests itself in action, in our actions.
For example, it’s easy to say, “I don’t love myself,” but at the same time our deeds show that we love ourselves exactly as we ought to love God. And you can say with the same ease: “I love God”, but nothing is easier than words - love is learned from deeds. And if we want to love God, then we will limit ourselves in that which removes us from Him. There is no goal - neither in worldly life, nor in spiritual life - for the sake of which we would not sacrifice something else. Those who do not want to sacrifice anything are left with nothing. They do not gain anything worthwhile, and at the same time they lose what they had.
Priest Mikhail Nemnonov
answers the priest Alexy Chumakov (Los Angeles)
- How is it different from usual time? I already try to lead a strict spiritual life ... how and what to change during the fast? Ksenia
- Hello, Ksenia!
May God grant you to create a strong and happy family!
Best regards, Priest Alexander Ilyashenko
HOW TO FAST PREGNANT AND CHILDREN?
Archpriest Alexander Ilyashenko, rector of the Church of the All-Merciful Savior in Moscow,father of 12 children, chairman of the editorial board of the portal "Orthodoxy and the World
- Father Alexander, one of the questions that readers have asked us is this: it is often said that a mother's fast can have a beneficial effect on the spiritual life of a child. Does a child get better from a piece of uneaten meat?
The point is that fasting is a sacrifice to God. If mommy is fasting, wanting her feasible if fasting is done as a sacrifice to God, then it is pleasing to Him and the baby will feel the grace of God, just like when visiting a church, like when parents pray.
“Mother made a vow to God: if I stay alive, she will go with me on a thanksgiving pilgrimage to St. Mitrofan Voronezh. And, thank God, she recovered ... ... By the way, she "went on Monday" for the children (she was fasting on Monday), but she always hid it from us. Actually, she raised and educated all six children (three in higher educational institutions, and three in secondary). Save her Lord! " Metropolitan Veniamin Fedchenkov. Providence of God in my life
- Did you fast in the old days?
Of course, but then there was a different ecology and different food. In one work of the tsarist era, an unbelieving nephew said to his aunt: "What difference does it make - whether I eat ham or sturgeon balyk during fasting?" Or there is another known case when a foreigner was advised to come to Russia during Great Lent when the table is the most exquisite. After all, lean food can be tasty and nutritious and healthy.
But we are very different from our ancestors in physical and spiritual health, we have a different ecology, pace of life, overload. We are different. Therefore, one cannot literally adopt those traditions that were natural even not so long ago, even at the beginning of the twentieth century. There has been a migration from the countryside to the cities, our peasantry has been destroyed, in our modern language there is no word that can be called a farmer. Life has changed dramatically. That is why the question of the forms of physical fasting is so acute now: before, people had a greater margin of safety. People ate differently: milk was not from a bag, but from under a cow, bread from the oven, spring water, clean air. The peasant actively owned 10,000 operations. Imagine - we will be offered to harness a horse. Fix the plow, fold the hut. How amazing they wielded the ax!
- And if fasting is perceived even by a believer not as a sacrifice to God, but simply as a restriction established by the Church - November 28 came and that's it, now it's a month of neither meat nor milk.
- Of course, even if a person treats fasting without the proper depth, but fasting out of obedience to the Mother Church, then he shows obedience, and obedience is already virtue itself. And if you are fasting unconsciously, then the Lord replenishes and grants a deep understanding of fasting.
- Father, is it right for pregnant women to limit themselves to their favorite food, and eat less tasty, albeit speedy food? In particular, readers remember the 8th rule of St. Timothy of Alexandria: “the wife, who gave birth to Easter at the fourtieth day, commands not to observe the legalized fast, but to strengthen herself as much as possible by drinking wine and moderate food, for fasting is invented to curb the body, and when it is weak, it does not need to be curbed, but help to heal and collect the old strength. "
This rule says everything in accordance with the high Greek scholarship: reinforce yourself in food, limitedly... If you need to eat food as medicine - eat it, or maybe it’s fasting and you don’t need to be treated? Moreover, this rule does not cancel fasting, here is also the reason why we fast: we fast in order to be able to limit our desires. But illness itself is a limitation.
Of course, with toxicosis - a painful condition, with poor health, you need to eat what the body requires. But I would like to rely on an authority that is quite far from pregnancy: Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov: “a soldier who does not want to be a general is bad. Every soldier must understand his own maneuver. "
Why are you fasting? If you are a mommy, your task is to give birth to a healthy baby: you need to eat right, and your state should be peaceful, joyful and it should be passed on to your child. If you feel bad, then eat what the body requires. And we begin to be small - otherwise it is possible, but this? So either you set yourself the task of giving birth to a child and more than one, or you turn fasting into pharisaic literalism. If your heart is peaceful, joyful, then the feat is correct, but if you treat God as an accountant who considers what you have eaten for you, then you are mistaken. But at the same time, it is very easy for a person to relax and give himself unnecessary indulgences. This requires self-control, and church life, and reliance on the advice of a confessor and people in this area who already have experience.
- That is, the fasting person needs to pass between Scylla and Charybdis in order not to lose strength and offer a sacrifice to God?
- Fasting is not a referral to the hospital! One should fast as strictly as possible.
Often believers begin to fast excessively: jealousy beyond reason, in my opinion, is associated with the loss of traditions. After all, questions of fasting, in fact, should be decided not so much by the priest as by the traditions of the family. In a large patriarchal family where grandmothers, grandfathers, uncles, aunts used to fast, a child saw all kinds of fasting in front of him from childhood, how adults fasted, how the pregnant wives of older brothers fasted, whether the sick fasted.
Limiting yourself, especially pregnant women, should be reasonable. For example, to limit from negative external impressions, the main source of which is the TV, from the habit of condemning, washing each other's bones. The apostle Paul says, “Rejoice always. Pray incessantly. For everything give thanks ”(1 Thess. 5: 16-18) .. If your condition is such, your fast is pleasing to God. If you are incapable of keeping such joy, then you are not fulfilling the main task of fasting. But even if you somehow limit yourself, the Lord will reward it, He kisses the intention.
Fast not for your glory, but for the glory of God
Archpriest Igor Pchelintsev , clergyman of the Nizhny Novgorod diocese.
It seems to me that fasting depends on the spiritual and physical strength of the woman herself. For a woman who is churchly, carrying, perhaps, not her first child, living in an Orthodox family during the normal course of pregnancy, it is probably possible to fast according to the charter (but with the prudence that is assumed in a normally churchly person).
People with little church life, who do not have sufficient experience of the Christian life, probably should have another measure of fasting. First, you need to think about the basics - about faith in Christ and knowledge of the Gospel. Otherwise, many want to fast (or not fast) for their glory, and not for the glory of God, as the Apostle Paul says - "I eat, I eat for the glory of God, I don't eat - I don't eat for the glory of God." Do not indulge your desires in general, but also do not sew your mouth up - feel yourself and the baby.
There is no need to ask for a blessing as a sanction or permission for fasting. Before fasting, ask for a blessing from your spiritual father or parish priest. Just a blessing. There is no need for a confessor to approve a list of what is and what is not (and in what quantity) - this is simply unworthy of our church life.
From the questions asked, we see that often the problem of fasting is, first of all, a problem of nutrition, but (as you know) fasting is not only abstinence in food. The mind fasts, the human heart fasts, the tongue fasts. Patristic teaching calls on fasting to perform deeds of mercy and goodness, to learn from Holy Scripture, to repent of sins, to pray harder than usual, to attend services (if possible), to partake of the Holy Mysteries. And vice versa - to move away from unnecessary entertainment, vanity of mind, idle conversations and other evil. All this is more important than gastronomy and much more important in general for the mother and her unborn baby.
Always rejoice!
Mother Inna Viktorovna Asmus , mother of 9 children, wife of Archpriest Valentin Asmus
As Venerable Seraphim of Sarov said, eat what you want, just do not eat each other. This is our main problem. I think that pregnant women should eat according to science and there is nothing shameful if a pregnant woman is drawn to some product and she eats it. Fasting is a purely personal affair of every person. One should not only forget about the words of the holy Apostle Paul: “Always rejoice, thank God for everything,” one should not try to turn Christianity into something sorrowful.
The measure of fasting is individual
Olga Dmitrievna Getmanova, brought up 9 children. In 2006 she was awarded the “Patriarchal Sign of Motherhood” by His Holiness Patriarch Alexy. The wife of Roman Nikolayevich Getmanov, a famous obstetrician-gynecologist.
Fasting during pregnancy is undoubtedly individual: if you want - eat meat, if you don't want - don't eat. If you do not eat meat for a month and a half, nothing will happen to you or to the child. You won't fast all year. I myself love potatoes - I feel good with it in Lent. If you can't live without barbecue - well, eat them. And dairy if necessary - eat. Just don't overeat.
I do not ask my confessor exactly how I should fast during pregnancy, but I know that he allows his parishioners during pregnancy to fast for milk.
In fact, protein consumption is no longer during pregnancy, but during feeding - that's when it's tight without milk. You will fast for a week and you will feel that milk has become noticeably less.
Another well-known fact: during the blockade of Leningrad, fat children were born to completely exhausted women. This means that whatever they need, they themselves take from the mother's body. It’s the mother’s teeth that can break and her hair can fall out ... (Smiling) “
Refrain from what you are addicted to
Mother Elena Karpenko , mother of three children, wife of priest Dimitri Karpenko.
For a woman, pregnancy is her feat, that small sacrifice to God that she can make. You need to fast according to your strength, because, unfortunately, modern women are not so strong physically, and spiritually, I think, too. If there was a short break between pregnancies, fasting is very difficult, I know from my own experience.
You need to eat whatever you want and limit yourself only to what is not really necessary. Every woman must determine her diet for herself, find a "golden mean". For me, let's say, such a limitation has become abstinence from sweets - to admit, this is my weakness. I know of cases when women fasted throughout their pregnancy, strictly observed the fast and gave birth to strong men. That is, if you feel strong and healthy, you can fast.
Fasting is a purely personal matter ... The most important thing is not to get angry with others. Abstaining during pregnancy is not necessary from meat and yogurt, but from what you have addictions. You can limit yourself from watching TV, idle talk. In the end, trying not to judge, and this is much more difficult than not eating a piece of meat.
It is more appropriate to ask questions about nutrition during pregnancy to the doctor you are seeing. It is still worth going to confession to a confessor not with questions about food, but with spiritual problems and experiences.
Orthodox Christians observe Great Lent to express their love for Christ. Forty-eight days of bodily and spiritual humility expresses the humility and repentance of the laity.
The entire period is divided into Forty days and Holy Week. The first forty days are devoted to the parable of the Savior's vigil on a lonely mountain near Jericho. The last Passion Week is intended to remind believers of his last seven days. It precedes the holiday of the Bright Resurrection of Christ (Easter).
Humility of the flesh is the first step to humility of the spirit. When starting a limited diet, you need to limit yourself and spiritually. During abstinence, Christians are cleansed of bad emotions, do not experience envy, anger and other negative emotions. Without maintaining spiritual purity, the entire rite becomes just a diet. In addition, nutritional rules may be relaxed for health reasons.
Recently, it has become fashionable to fast; true believers know that there are many fasts and fast days throughout the year. However, many people prefer to fast during Lent, the longest and therefore the most difficult. Many who have fasted rejoice at their victory and completely ignore how they begin to eat after fasting. An abundance of fatty, protein-rich foods can be detrimental to your health. Therefore, it is extremely important to know how to get out of fasting without harming the body.
In almost a month and a half, your body gets used to working in an economical mode and, naturally, on day 49, it is not ready to immediately start assimilating kebabs, eggs, salads with mayonnaise and often alcohol. With such a celebration of the end of the fast, you enter your body into shock. During fasting, your metabolic processes slow down, the synthesis of enzymes slows down and the body consumes internal reserves. It often happens that people lose weight while fasting.
Orthodox believers are now preparing to observe the Nativity Fast. This is one of the most serious and long fasts leading us to the great feast of the Nativity of the Savior. It lasts from November 28 to January 6 (on the night of Christmas), that is, only 40 days. He is also called Filippov Lent or Lent (as well as Great Lent). It is the last multi-day fast of the year.
Christmas fast rules
During the period of fasting, the following rules are prescribed for the Orthodox:
It is forbidden to eat meat, eggs, dairy products (including cheese, butter); fish is allowed on Saturdays, Sundays, and also on Tuesdays, Thursdays on the days of the great saints, temple holidays, on the day of the Entry of the Mother of God into the Temple (December 4); fish is also allowed on Monday, Wednesday, Friday only on condition of the upcoming all-night vigil (on the feast day); you can cook food in vegetable oil on Tuesday, Thursday, and without it on Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
Dry eating in fasting
What is dry eating in fasting? Unknowing people, based on the phrase, will decide that this is nothing more than the use of dry food. But no. I mean something else under the concept of "dry eating". In this case, food should not be cooked in water, should not be greased with other liquids, for example, vegetable oil, vinegar. Food baked in the oven, microwave or multicooker can be consumed during this fasting period.
What foods are eaten on dry days during fasting? Fasting people should focus on foods such as:
Bread (rye, bran);
vegetables;
fruits;
berries;
dried fruits;
any greens;
honey;
nuts.
Answers from priests to questions about fasting
Why are there so many restrictions on pleasures, food, sexual relations in Orthodoxy? It seems that no harm is done to others, the commandment of love for one's neighbor is not violated. Why is it necessary to “kill your body”, your desires? Why such lack of freedom?
Our body is killed not by restrictions on food and other pleasures, but by the excess in them. And besides, even if we do not harm others and do not break the commandment to love our neighbor, we still need to love God. Hence, there are some limitations in pleasures, since love, when it is, manifests itself in action, in our actions.
Some fasting people are not averse to a quick bite of the so-called teenage food - chips, crackers, soda. Can I use them every day?
Of course not. There is also a lot of salt. Somehow they conducted an experiment: they soaked these croutons in water, and then boiled them off. Try it yourself and see what remains there? And the chips fried in rancid oil? Goodbye liver, goodbye stomach, hello gastritis and pancreatitis. In general, in everything you need to know when to stop. If you drink one bottle of soda a week, then, probably, nothing terrible will happen, and if a day - anything can develop, because it also contains very aggressive components.
