Mary DeTurris Poust's Blog, page 57

Foodie Friday: a quick quinoa dish perfect for Lent

One day I was looking for something for lunch that was gluten-free and vegan. In other words, free of all food fun. I wasn’t coming up with much until I spotted this recipe for Warm Kale and Quinoa Salad in Kris Carr’s Crazy Sexy Kitchen cookbook. I didn’t have kale on hand, but that kind of thing has never stopped me before. I substituted some mixed spring greens instead and it was perfect. 

This dish is great as a nice lunch, a supper side, or, on fast days in Lent, as a main course for dinner. It can be made in just a few minutes, and quinoa is a protein powerhouse for those who don’t eat meat. Here you go…

Ingredients

2 cups quinoa (make sure you rinse it really well before cooking)

3 cups water

2 cups chopped or shredded kale (or spinach, mixed spring greens)

3 tablespoons pine nuts, raw or toasted, or slivered almonds (I went with toasted pine nuts)

3 tablespoons currants, raisins or dried cranberries (I went with cranberries)

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon olive oil

Sea salt, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preparation

In a small pot on medium heat, add quinoa and water, and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover, and continue to cook for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from heat and fluff with fork.

Add the shredded kale (or greens) on top of the quinoa and cover for a few minutes to allow the kale to steam.

Add pine nuts, dried cranberries, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Mix all ingredients  thoroughly and serve warm or cold.

Serves 4 as a side dish.

The post Foodie Friday: a quick quinoa dish perfect for Lent appeared first on Not Strictly Spiritual.

The Rice Bowl at the center of our Lenten table

Are you using the CRS Rice Bowl this Lent? If not, why not? It’s one of our favorite Lenten traditions, so much so that last year when our parish didn’t make the cardboard “bowls” available at the back of our church at the start of Lent, I contacted Catholic Relief Services directly and ordered one for free. Within days I had my Rice Bowl, and all was right with our Lenten world.

For us the Rice Bowl is a fixture of Lent, a visible reminder of what we’re supposed to be doing these forty days — fasting, praying, giving. That doesn’t mean we’re always successful at saying the provided prayer every night or that we always remember to put spare change and extra money on fast days into the little slot, or that the kids love every Third World recipe we serve out, but we try, and that’s all God asks of us.

This year CRS is making it even easier for folks to participate in the program that helps bring food, clean water, education, health care programs and more to poor men, women, and children around the world. The website offers instructions and printables for making your own Rice Bowl at home, in case you didn’t get one at church. There are also links to meatless recipes from places where CRS is making a difference, complete with stories of real families whose lives are changing for the better thanks to Rice Bowl and CRS. And there are plenty of other links to stories, parish resources, and ways to continue to participate after Lent because, you know, this whole Lent thing is meant to transform us not just for forty days but for a lifetime.

If your Lent is off to a slow start, or even if it’s not, and you need something to jumpstart your plans to fast, pray, and give, click HERE now and get started. My guess is that Rice Bowl will become one of your favorite Lenten traditions too.

If you’d like to donate directly to CRS Rice Bowl, click HERE for the giving page. It’s amazing what even a small donation can do: $10 feeds a family for two weeks; $25 provides health exams for 13 children; $50 provides clean water for 500 families; and $100 provides immunizations for 157 newborns.

If you already use Rice Bowl, please leave comments below and share how you make it work in your home.

The post The Rice Bowl at the center of our Lenten table appeared first on Not Strictly Spiritual.

Foodie Friday: Five meatless recipes for Lent

It’s the first Friday of Lent and right about now you might be thinking, “What’s on the Friday menu besides pizza and fish fry?” I’ve got a combination of vegetarian and vegan recipes to see you through. I’ll start with a few today and add more in the coming weeks.

The meatless thing is easy for me since I’m a vegetarian. However, during Lent, in order to make abstinence count for something, I go vegan on Fridays. That presents more of a challenge, although it’s not as difficult as it seems on the surface. The dish in the photo above, for example, is vegan and totally tasty — certainly delicious not only for meatless days but for any day.

The recipe is from Vegetarian Times and is attributed to Paul McCartney. It’s super simple, and Dennis, who was eating chicken with his veggies at the time, tried the cornmeal-crusted tofu and declared it “restaurant quality.” So there you go. Here’s that recipe in a nutshell:

Recipe # 1: Steamed Veggie Salad with Tofu

2 pints cherry tomatoes

4 cups broccoli, separated into florets

1 red pepper, sliced

2 cups sugar snap peas

2 cups baby carrots

Romaine lettuce, chopped

Scallions, minced

1 block of tofu, cut into rectangular slices

Cornmeal

Salt, pepper, basil

Dressing

4 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tsp maple syrup

2 tsp dijon mustard

Whisk dressing ingredients together and set aside for later.

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 400. Roast tomatoes for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, steam veggies in a steamer basket. (Feel free to use whatever veggies you have on hand. The original recipe called for string beans, but I had snap peas, so I made the substitution and added red peppers since my kids like those.)

Coat the tofu slices in cornmeal mixed with salt, pepper and dried basil. While the veggies steam, sauté the tofu in olive oil for about five minutes per side. Drain on a paper towel.

Put chopped Romaine lettuce and scallions on your plate. Put steamed veggies, roasted tomatoes, and tofu slices on top. Drizzle with dressing. Serves four to six, depending on how much your family loves tofu. Just add another half-block of tofu to get six big portions.

I served this with a side of quinoa. Take 1 cup of quinoa that has been soaked for five minutes and rinsed. Put quinoa and 1 1/2 cups of water in pot with a little salt. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for about 15 minutes or until liquid is gone. Remove from heat and let stand for five minutes. Loosen with fork.

Recipe #2: Pasta and Lentils

I shared this recipe last year after surprising success with it. Here’s what I said about it then:

Before you click by this post because the word “lentils” scares you, especially in relation to pasta, I beg you to stop and just consider it for a moment because it is out-of-this world delicious. This particular recipe is actually a combination of two: a lentil sauce recipe from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and my own addition of roasted butternut squash and garlic that gets added in right before serving. (That change-up happened because I had a squash that needed to be used and, voila, a new recipe was born.) The result is a dinner that is not only vegan (no meat, dairy, eggs, etc.) but incredibly yummy, with a complex texture and taste even though it’s easy to make.

Click HERE for the pasta and lentil recipe.

Recipe #3: Kale Two Ways

Click HERE for a great Beans and Greens recipe using kale and cannellini beans. As a bonus you’ll also get a recipe for Kale Chips, which are a great low-cal salty snack.

Recipe #4: Israeli Couscous with Apples and Dried Cranberries

Click HERE for a great side dish to go with your Lenten fish or tofu. The recipe I have posted suggests chicken broth, but that’s easy. Just swap it for vegetable broth.

Reciped #5: Creamy Polenta with Garlic and Cheese

This can be a main dish or a side dish. It can be vegan or not, with some minor adjustments.

1/2 cup milk, preferably whole, although I used skim with a splash of half and half (Use plain almond milk to make this vegan.)

2 cups water

Salt

1 cup coarse cornmeal

I tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 spring fresh rosemary chopped, or a teaspoon of dried rosemary

1 teaspoon of chopped garlic

1 tablespoon of butter (Earth Balance for vegan version)

Grated Parmesan cheese, optional

Combine milk and water with large pinch of salt in a saucepan over medium heat. When it’s close to a boil, add the polenta in a steady stream, whisking the whole time to keep away the nasty lumps. Add the rosemary.

Turn the heat down to a simmer and keep whisking until the polenta gets thick — about 10 or 15 minutes. If it starts to look too thick too soon, add a little water. (I did this. I was fine.)

Add the butter, cheese (if using), garlic and stir. Grind some pepper into it to taste. Serve immediately as a side dish or main course. I doubled this recipe for my hungry family and used it as a side dish with baked salmon and sauteed broccoli rabe.

Variation: You can make grilled or fried polenta by decreasing the amount of water and making a thicker mixture. Don’t add the butter, cheese. I’d probably skip the garlic and rosemary as well for this version. When it’s done, spread the polenta on a board and let it cool for a while. Then cut it into slices — about 1/2 inch thick. Now you can brush the slices with olive oil, salt and pepper and throw them on the grill or into a frying pan.

Stay tuned for more veggie recipes for Lent…

The post Foodie Friday: Five meatless recipes for Lent appeared first on Not Strictly Spiritual.

A Lenten Valentine: How do I love thee?

I’m not a fan of Valentine’s Day, never have been. Not sure why. I guess it’s mainly due to the commercial craziness of it and the push from retailers to give extravagant gifts as an expression of love. I’ll take flowers for no reason over roses on a forced holiday any time. Can I have two Ash Wednesdays instead? I know, weird, right? That’s why you love me. I’ll be expecting an extravagant gift by lunchtime.

Back when Noah was in preschool he gave me a Valentine that still hangs in our family room. It was a kind of mixed-media painting/collage he’d made in an art class he took each week. I call it Ash Wednesday Valentine. You can see it here. He made me a big heart but put an ashy smudge across the top of it to signify the start of Lent falling at the same time. I love that kid. Not only does that painting say so much about Noah; it says so much about Noah’s understanding of his mother, even from the earliest age.

I wish all of you a Happy Valentine’s Day. Whether you go for the whole nine yards — chocolates, flowers, perfume, diamonds — or prefer something more subtle and less flashy, remember one thing:  You are loved even if you don’t celebrate at all.

From before all time and for all eternity God loves you beyond anything our little human minds can measure with hearts and flowers. Now that’s a Valentine.

 

The post A Lenten Valentine: How do I love thee? appeared first on Not Strictly Spiritual.

Ashes to Ashes: Kicking Lent off with a whimper

We have really outdone ourselves this Ash Wednesday. I mean, it’s usually a day fraught with tension and discord rather than prayer and peace, but, even by our standards, today was one for the record books. First there was the juggling of children and schedules to find a Mass that would work for everyone. We decided on 7 a.m. at our former parish because it’s closest to all the schools. So last night I warned, no, I begged the children to please, please, please have everything packed in their backpacks and ready to go. No last minute searching for homework or forms to sign, no shock and awe over not having time to finish an assignment. Everything was to be signed, sealed, delivered.

As we were preparing to leave for Mass this morning, the teenager proceeds to express the aforementioned forbidden shock and awe over the fact that his science homework did not print to the basement printer last night. And so the yelling began. He tried printing again. Another fail. More yelling. Then the tween comes downstairs and says her stomach doesn’t feel that great. Sigh. Okay, stay home. But as we’re about to go out the door, she’s standing there, wearing not only her coat but the face of absolute misery. More yelling as I send her to bed and announce that I am THIS CLOSE to just skipping Ash Wednesday altogether.

Finally four out of five of us get to Mass, which was not exactly inspiring but at least it wasn’t heretical, which is often the case in this particular parish. So we thanked God for small favors. As I was heading to Communion, I leaned down to tell Chiara that since we were not on line with a deacon or priest she would not be receiving her usual blessing. I received Communion, assuming she was right on my heels. I turned to look behind me — thankfully — and the extraordinary minister was holding a host out to her and she’ was standing there not knowing what to do. Yes, my daughter almost received her First Communion by accident this morning. Told ya it was an Ash Wednesday for the ages. So we headed back to our pew where I proceeded to swallow my host and commence whispered yelling, knowing that we must have looked like those A&P Catholics who don’t know what to do at Mass. Maybe I needed another little dose of humility.

Finally, as we were walking out of church, Chiara dipped her hand into the holy water and proceeded to turn her ash cross into an ashy mudpie on her forehead. I told her to stop or she’d end up wiping the rest away. So what did she do? She wiped the rest away. Do I really need to tell you what happened next? We got in the car and I began to yell and continued yelling until we pulled into our garage. Fortunately for Chiara we live only a mile from the church.

And throughout all of this I kept hearing the words of today’s Gospel: “Go to your inner room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.” Oh what I wouldn’t give for an inner room. And a closed door. Unfortunately at this rate I am much more likely to end up in a rubber room with a locked door.

All of this made me wonder about the depth of my faith. If it doesn’t inform my actions or transform me in some way, is it real or is it just empty words? At some point shouldn’t this lifelong faith of mine manifest itself in some obvious way? Every year I get my hopes up that this Ash Wednesday will be different, that it truly will be a time of new beginnings and inner work and outer growth, but, as is almost always the case, it is just another reminder of my human weakness and my many failings — as a disciple, as a parent, as a person. And maybe that’s exactly what I should be feeling on this first day of Lent. I am not God. I am dust, and to dust I shall return.

The post Ashes to Ashes: Kicking Lent off with a whimper appeared first on Not Strictly Spiritual.

Foodie Friday: A Lenten primer on fasting

Lent is just around the corner. That means our Friday meal posts will go from vegetarian to vegan. (Since I already don’t eat meat, I need to find a different way to up the ante on Fridays of Lent.) But, as we head into this beautiful season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, I thought I’d kick us off not with a recipe but with a post on fasting.

This story originally appeared in Our Sunday Visitor in 2010, which amazes me because it was years before I had even thought about writing “Cravings” and yet I can hear the spark of that book within this story. But I digress. Perhaps you’d like to enjoy this post with a greasy burger or a big piece of chocolate cake while you still can.

By Mary DeTurris Poust

Fasting and abstinence were once staples of Catholic life. There was a time not so long ago when you could spot Catholics in a restaurant simply by looking at what was on their plates on a Wednesday or Friday. But, with changes in Church rules and individual mindsets, fasting slowing began to fall out of fashion. Today, in popular Catholic culture at least, fasting is often considered a quaint practice of days gone by, something that pales in comparison to doing charitable works.

And yet fasting is one of the three pillars of Lent, equal to prayer and almsgiving in the trilogy of practices for the season. In fact, fasting is woven into the fabric of many of the world’s religions – Judaism, Islam, Buddhism – in one fashion or another. Why is fasting so important? Because learning to do without, especially when the sacrifice is made on behalf of another, helps to free our bodies and spirits from the worldly desires that threaten to pull us off our spiritual path. In fasting, we open up a space, both literally and figuratively, and allow God to squeeze in among all the other things that lay claim to our attention.

“Food is an obsession in our culture, and I really think we need wisdom from the Church about eating,” says Msgr. Charles M. Murphy, author of The Spirituality of Fasting: Rediscovering a Christian Practice. “It’s a basic human activity and there is wisdom in this whole tradition of fasting, which is focused on God and not on ourselves.”

Msgr. Murphy says it’s important to distinguish fasting from dieting and medically supervised programs because fasting is not about fitness or “right eating” or ecology. Just as almsgiving without prayer is simply philanthropy, fasting without prayer is simply a strict diet. Prayer must be the undercurrent that supports fasting or it becomes one more self-centered act designed to make us more appealing according to worldly standards, not godly standards. Fasting is first and foremost an act of humility before God.

“It’s creating an empty space for God to fill. It’s also penitential; it’s an expression of our desire to be converted from sin and selfishness and to remove the effects of sin in our life,” says Msgr. Murphy, explaining that there are two forms of fasting: total and partial. A total fast is eating nothing and drinking nothing for a designated period of time. A partial fast involves giving up specific things for a specific period of time “to undo the effects of sinful patterns, habits, and mindlessness that may have inundated our lives.”

We can all probably identify with mindless eating at one point or another in our lives. We grab something at a fast food drive-thru window. We eat dinner standing at the kitchen counter before running to a meeting. Even when we sit down to eat a meal, we are distracted by the whir of electronic gadgets around us – the TV on in another room, the computer buzzing each time an email comes in, the phone ringing as we gather the family around the table. Eating has become a frenzied, haphazard practice, where we consume too much with too little thought to the whole process.

Lately, the secular world has started to try to combat the problem by focusing on local food movements, “slow food” movements, farmer’s markets and organic gardens. It’s an attempt to reclaim food’s rightful place in our lives and on our plates: important but not defining, quality over quantity. Fasting, however, takes that noble idea and gives it the direction and meaning it needs to be truly life-changing and, when practiced regularly and communally, potentially world-changing.

Walt Chura, S.F.O., a spiritual director and Secular Franciscan, incorporates fasting into his weekly schedule. Until 5 p.m. every Friday, he eats only one slice of whole wheat bread with peanut butter and jam for breakfast and one slice for lunch. He also continues the old-school Catholic practice of abstaining from meat every Friday of the year, and he does it all as a spiritual practice for peace.

He began the practice following the suggestion of the U.S. bishops in their 1980s pastoral letter “The Challenge of Peace.” During Lent, Chura follows the traditional Catholic fast of not eating between meals and having two small meals, which together are smaller than the one main meal.

“Fasting always raises one’s consciousness of the millions who go hungry every day. It makes one reflect on the geo-politics of poverty and the maldistribution of wealth, which creates enormous resentment, discontent and violent reactions among the oppressed and their allies toward the powerful of the world,” Chura told OSV in an email interview. “Fasting keeps one conscious of one’s obligations toward creating a more just society and world both by personal works of mercy and promoting the common good in the social order. This is peacemaking.”

He says that fasting is a reminder to “go inward for the sake of compassion and to spend time with the source of compassion. This is prayer.”

Fasting can be found throughout Scripture, in the earliest Christian communities, in the lives of the Desert Fathers and the writings of the Church Fathers. It’s got a long history because it’s effective. In a world where we are attached to everything, from our iPods and cell phones to our careers and cars, fasting opens a window on detachment. In learning to do without food, we learn to do without other things as well.

During the season of Lent, Catholics 14 years and older are required to abstain from eating meat on Fridays. “Meat” includes all mammals and fowl. So, yes, chicken is meat. Seafood is allowed, however, as are animal products such as butter. Catholics between the ages of 18 and 60 are also required to reduce the amount of food they eat during Lent on days of fast, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Fasting is defined as eating one regular meal with two smaller meals, which, if added together, would not be more than the main meal.

Eastern Catholics and the Orthodox Church have done a better job of keeping fasting front and center in their practices, says Msgr. Murphy, stressing that eventual reconciliation between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Church would require the Catholic Church to “get more serious about fasting.” In the Orthodox Church, two Sundays before Lent begins members give up meat until Easter. One Sunday before Lent they give up all dairy products and cook without oil until Easter. And, on the Wednesdays and Fridays of Lent, no food is eaten before sunset.

The lackadaisical Catholic fasting practices in the United States were something that Pope John Paul II brought to Msgr. Murphy’s attention years ago. The pope came to visit students at North American College in Rome, where Msgr. Murphy was then rector, during Lent in 1980. The Vatican had called ahead to say that the pope would want nothing more than soup and bread for lunch, something Msgr. Murphy recalls as setting a good example for his seminarians.

“During the meal he turned to me and said, ‘I have just come back from the States and fasting and abstinence have collapsed. What happened to it?’ I really didn’t know what to say. My book is a response to his question,” Msgr. Murphy told me.

“Prayer, fasting and charity are the three great pillars of Jewish and Christian piety, and they’re all indispensable. You can’t say, ‘I’m going to do charity and therefore I don’t have to fast.’ Prayer, fasting and charity are the three pillars, and Jesus incorporated them into his Sermon on the Mount as well as the Beatitudes. And he gave them a new status and a higher motivation, so it’s at the heart of the Christian message,” he explained, quoting St. Augustine, who said that prayer and fasting are the “two wings” of charity. “Charity really can’t take off, we can’t practice the great commandment to love God and neighbor unless we’re praying and fasting.”

The post Foodie Friday: A Lenten primer on fasting appeared first on Not Strictly Spiritual.

What are you craving in 2013?

Here is the YouTube recording of “What Are You Craving in 2013? Five Ways to Restore Sanity and Serenity to Your Relationship With Food,” a webinar I gave on Feb. 5, 2013, for Ave Maria Press. If you don’t want to listen to the webinar, you can read an abbreviated version of my talk below the YouTube recording, which also features a Powerpoint presentation. 

By Mary DeTurris Poust

We’re at the front end of a new year and on the cusp of Lent, two times of year when we tend to focus on personal change, improvement, and transformation. Probably the most common resolution, goal, or hope people set or have has to do with physical appearance. We want to drop ten pounds or add more muscle, run farther, eat less, become some image of perfection. But often times dropping weight and transforming ourselves has less to do with the food we eat and more to do with the messages in our heads and the empty spaces in our hearts. We think we’re hungry for food, but often our hunger is for something much deeper, a craving for the kind of fullness that only God can provide.

Believe it or not, the shift in your relationship with food starts not with what’s on your plate, but what’s inside your head. Here are five steps to restoring sanity and serenity to your relationship with food:

 1. See yourself as beloved by God exactly as you are at this very moment.

What do you see when you look in the mirror? Most of us don’t see our true selves. We see our flaws magnified. So our self-image is often not based on reality. We allow a number on a scale to determine our self-worth, and wend up starving ourselves or stuffing ourselves in an attempt to become an imaginary person or to comfort ourselves for NOT being that person. So this process begins by our embracing “what is” not what we think should be. That doesn’t mean you don’t want to improve. Maybe you’d like to lose a few pounds or need to lose weight for health reasons, but you begin from a place of knowing that you are wonderfully made even before you start. You begin with self-acceptance and the knowledge of God’s unconditional love.

2. Trading multi-tasking for mindfulness.

In our culture today, multi-tasking is looked upon as a badge of honor. We don’t feel we’re working hard enough if we’re not doing at least three things at once. Becoming more mindful is absolutely necessary on this path. Here’s how you can start:

 When you eat, just eat. Do one thing at a time. So when you’re going to eat breakfast or lunch or dinner or even a snack, stop everything else. No driving, no talking on phone, no working at desk, no crossword puzzle on the table. When you strip away all the externals distractions, it’s just you and your food. Suddenly you’re very much aware of everything you’re eating, that you’re eating at all.
 Begin every meal with prayer. Whether you start with a spontaneous blessing, a traditional prayer, intentions for family and friends, or simply the Sign of the Cross, prayer can set the tone for your meals. Taking even just a minute to stop and quiet your heart and mind before eating shifts the landscape and tends to make you much more aware of your blessings, your food, and your journey. And just as important as prayer is keeping a positive energy at the kitchen table or office cafeteria table. Mealtime is not the time to argue or discuss problems or get angry or upset. It’s almost like you’re ingesting the tension, and that certainly isn’t good for your physically, mentally, or spiritually.
 Start a food journal. This isn’t to count calories or fat grams but to continue to build awareness. Jot down what you eat but also when and if there’s anything in particular that’s bothering you or upsetting you. Start to notice if and when you grab for food when you’re not hungry. Make these notes without judgment. This isn’t about making yourself feed bad, but about becoming aware of the deeper hungers you may have.

 3. Develop some new food rituals.

Create some new rituals to change your relationship with food. For me this started with what I call my “mindful oatmeal,” breakfast eaten in silence, with a lighted candle, no distractions, and deep prayer. The idea is not to always feel like you’re sacrificing, but to come up with new and different ways to enjoy food while giving it its rightful and healthy place in your life. Try to build in some sacred moments and daily doses of joy.

Is there a particular food you love but always avoid because it’s on the forbidden list? Create a ritual around this food. Maybe it’s chocolate. Rather than depriving yourself over and over and then, when you just can’t stand it anymore, scarfing down an entire bar of chocolate, develop a nightly ritual. Perhaps one square of dark chocolate eaten slowly off a nice dish in front of the fire or shared with a family member on the living room couch and savored slowly. Start to see that learning to get beyond your cravings doesn’t mean denying yourself but filling yourself up with more than just food.

 4. Begin to bring balance to your life.

We can look to our faith to see that balance is key when it comes to celebrations and even everyday food. Throughout the Church year we feast and fast. We can’t feast all the time. And so it is in daily life. There has to be balance. Lent is a perfect reminder of how the spirituality of food can work. Prayer and fasting work together. Try to find five minutes of silence every day. It doesn’t sound like much, but if you’re not spending any time in silent solitude, you will be amazed by what just five minutes a day will do for you. Slowly increase to 10, 15, even 20 minutes, if you can. Use this time to rest in God, just listening for the whisper of the Spirit. This prayer time will be an important part of keeping that balance we’re talking about, and you’re likely to find that it’s not only helping you with your food issues but with so many other things as well.

 5. Celebrate food

This last step really encompasses all the others and then takes them to the next level. If you are someone who is constantly hoping to lose weight or improve your diet and deal with your food issues, you probably love food and eat lots of good food but you may not CELEBRATE food because it’s too tied to guilt and bad feelings and regret. This last step is a huge one because the end goal is to finally break those food-Is-the-enemy feelings and find the place where you and food happily coexist in such a way that brings peace to your life and, eventually, the healthy weight and diet you crave but without all the angst.

 Look at the big picture. This is not just about eating food. This whole mentality and perspective on diet and self and God is really about taking a healthier approach to ALL aspects of food and eating – from what you buy, to how you prepare it, to how you serve it, to how you eat it, even to how you clean up. The Mass offers us a model. We don’t drive up to a window, grab the host, and eat Communion in our car as we drive home and talk on the phone. We go into church and ready our hearts and minds for what we’re going to receive. The parts of the meal are brought to the altar with love, the priest prepares the gifts with reverence and prayer, and then we approach quietly and take Communion and then return to our seats to reflect on what we’ve just received. How can you bring some of those sacred elements into your meals at home?
 Community. Another important element of Mass that directly connects to our food life outside church is the importance of community. We share in our sacred meal at Mass by joining our brothers and sisters for the feast. Do we experience that at home or at parties? We don’t need buffet tables piled to overflowing with every kind of fried food or heavy dessert to enjoy a party or a meal. What we need is community, which provides us with opportunities to be fed and satisfied on a deeper level. It’s just a matter of taking a new view of what a party or feast should be.
 Lessons from the monastics. We can learn a lot about food and its place in our life and its connection to the sacred can be learned from the monastics. Eating in season, eating in moderation, eating locally and organic, eating slowly – all of these things have been part of monastic life for centuries. We can follow their lead and begin to choose more carefully the food we make and serve and how we approach the preparations, the serving, the clean-up. Of course, I’ve had multiple people remind me that lots of monks are overweight and so they can’t be a model. And to that I say, “You’re missing the point!” The whole focus of Cravings is not on becoming an ideal weight or size but on accepting who you are right now. I think monastics, whether thin or overweight, offer us a pathway that’s healthy in that it strips food of its power to make us afraid or guilty or unhappy and reminds us that food is meant to nourish our bodies, but only God can nourish our souls. When we combine the two, we have a powerful way to put food in its rightful place. We can celebrate food without being ruled by food.

So what are you craving today? The next time you’re about to reach for something to eat, stop for a moment. Breathe, become aware. If you’re really hungry or if it’s mealtime, put away everything else and say a blessing. Sit down to eat. Slow down to eat. Smell your food. Look at your food. Chew your food with attention and INtention. Enjoy the people around you if you’re not eating alone. Savor not just the taste of what you’re eating but the atmosphere, the beauty of the world – even if it’s just your own kitchen. There is beauty there. After all, God moves among the pots and pans.

For a more thorough exploration of this topic, including practical exercises, meditations, discussion questions, and many personal stories, order a copy of Cravings: A Catholic Wrestles with Food, Self-Image, and God.

The post What are you craving in 2013? appeared first on Not Strictly Spiritual.