The Daniel Fast

When Josh and I moved back to Bellevue this summer we joined a new church, Zeal, which we really love. We've felt more challenged there to really engage, and twice a year the church as a whole focuses on 21 Days of Prayer. In January we fast during the 21 days, andre encouraged to give up something we feel hinders our focus (Instagram, sweets, etc.) We chose to do the Daniel Fast. The Daniel Fast is based on the following verses...

• “Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink." Daniel 1:12
•  In those days, I, Daniel, had been mourning for three entire weeks. I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, for the full three weeks" Daniel 10: 2-3

So basically, we've been eating a vegan, gluten-free, no sugar or sweetener-added foods for the past 11 days. We don't have fried foods either as they're 'rich', but we do have whole grains. We drink 100% juice and water, but no coffee or even flavored drinks. Some people get real intense and say you can't have potatoes, dessert even if it's fruit based, any processed foods, or spices, but with cooking 6 meals a day (the kids don't understand yet so we cook a separate meal for them) I wasn't about to give myself another restriction. Other people are more lax and allow themselves to have fish (but not shellfish). I think it's not really about the 'rules', but more so on focusing your energies on learning to say no to yourself and redirect your attention to Christ.

The first 6 days I felt like I had the flu. I don't know if it was dehydration or lack of caffeine, but there were headaches, joint pain, exhaustion and some nausea as well. Now that we're moving through it I feel a lot better, and thought I would share what our favorite recipes have been halfway through (basically for my own reference next year). Trust me, we went through a lot of stinkers to get to these.

Breakfast: 
Ezekiel Bread with no sugar added peanut butter and sliced bananas
Oatmeal with cinnamon and apples
Shredded wheat with freeze dried strawberries and almond milk

Lunch: (This has been a tough one, I have a lot of breakfast repeats or leftovers)
Moroccan empanadas

Dinner:
Sweet Potato Black Bean Chili
Red Thai Curry Gnocchi (exclude the sugar, we used cauliflower gnocchi from Trader Joe's)
Black Bean Enchiladas
Ranch Mashed Sweet potato with arugula and soy chorizo (based a loosely on this)
   Take 1 Sweet potato-skinned, cubed and boiled until soft; mash
   Mix potato with 1/4 C vegetable broth, 2 tsp fresh chives (chopped to tiny bits), 2 tsp parsley, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp dill. Salt & pepper to taste - I used the mixer to fluff it up some
   Place in bowl and add 1/4 C arugula to side of potato
   Skin & cook 1/2 of the soy chorizo crumbled in pan- add to mix and eat
Butternut Squash Soup I added unsweetened vanilla almond milk in place of the cream and left out the butter, brown sugar, cream cheese, pumpkin and curry powder (the last 2 because we didn't have any- but I did add a dash of cayenne and it was great)

Sides (we served veggies with brown rice for dinner, but I'll probably make these in our daily life as sides)
Magic Broccoli
Roasted Vegetables (The Brussel sprouts and sweet potato were our favorites)
Parsnip chips, baked tortilla chips, or carrots in Aldi's avocado salsa
Pickles (check the labels- some have sugar added)
Boom Chika Pop Sea Salt Popcorn

Desserts:
Lara Lemon Bar
Lara Apple Pie
Banana Bread Cookies ; I added vanilla, cinnamon, and a dash of nutmeg
Fruity Popsicles 

Eating Out
We haven't eaten out yet, but I plan to have...

Chik Fil A Cool wrap- without cheese, chicken, or dressing
Panera Vegan Lentil Quinoa Broth Bowl

Keep on keeping on!

-Shantel