Lenten Kitchen Cream of Leftover Vegetable Soup

 I'm dieting (95 pounds gone). Husband and daughter are fasting from meat for lent. So the Sachtelebens are exploring vegetarian in a big way. I checked the fridge and found a bunch of veggie scraps. I asked the family how they felt about cream of leftover vegetable soup? It was a hit. Plus, using up leftovers instead of wasting them practices the Lenten virtue of almsgiving, sort of. It means we have more to share. Here's how I made it. Lenten Kitchen Cream of Leftover Vegetable Soup

The Lenten Kitchen Blue Green Algae Superfood Smoothie

I'm not always as health-conscious as I should be, but I've explored nutrition for 35 years (my parents dabbled in Mother Earth News ideas). Now being Catholic I figured lent is a good time to work on healthier vegan and vegetarian eating. One thing I used to hear more of and now don't is blue-green algae (spirulina, cyanobacterium). I've lost 95 pounds and write diet recipes. So I thought I'd reprise spirulina in myBlue Green Smoothie  Diet Recipe Blue Green Algae Superfood Smoothie

Suggestions for Lenten Food Pantry Donations

Do you donate to food banks? It's a great form of lenten almsgiving for Catholic Christians. Food makes good zakat donations for Muslims, too. So what kind of things do you give? I have issues with some items our church food pantry requests: Hamburger Helper, Tuna Helper, boxed macaroni and cheese, boxed potatoes. I don't buy these products and I'm doing people a service not buying it for them. This "food" isn't food at all. It's full of fat and sodium and just convenience junk. If food is going to homeless people, I see why packaged is essential. They have no place to cook. But presumably the recipients of our food pantry do, ergo the Hamburger Helper request. Here's a list of better donations for food pantry donations this lent.   Do You Give to Food Pantries? What Food do You Donate?

Vegetarian Lenten Fast for Health, Weight Loss, Sustainability, Solidarity

For my Lent observances this year, I gave up eating meat. By the time Easter arrived, I was very comfortable with a meatless, vegetarian diet. I decided to become a vegetarian and here's why: health benefits, to fight corporate greed, environmental issues and solidarity with the poor. Health Benefits of Eating a Vegetarian Diet: Eating less meat and more grains and vegetables reduces LDL (low density lipid) cholesterol. Reducing meat, dairy and egg consumption lowers triglyceride levels and improves circulation. Eating a vegetarian diet helps with weight loss. Reducing meat, dairy, eggs and animal by-products in the diet reduces consumption of the steroids, growth hormones and antibiotics with which animals are treated. Eating a vegetarian diet helps prevent spread of blood born and feces transmitted pathogens and disease: trichinosis, e. coli, etc. Read more at Why Am I a Vegetarian? Health Benefits, Weight Loss, Consumerism, Solidarity with the Poor

Catholic Stand-Up Easter Lamb Cake and Centerpiece Recipe

Catholic Stand-Up Easter Lamb Cake and Centerpiece Recipe As a German Catholic homeschool family, Easter is about the Paschal Lamb of God, and His passion, death and Resurrection. Lent takes us to the Easter celebration. Here is an Easter lamb cake and centerpiece recipe. Several years ago, our youngest son's Croatian godmother brought us an Easter Lamb of God cake, made using the Wilton Stand Up Lamb Cake Pan set. This lucious cream cheese pound cake is perfect for Easter morning brunch. I've name it Osterlamm Gottes which is German for "Easter Lamb of God." Read on