Be steadfast, brothers, and do the little things.

We took a week on the coast after the wedding to decompress, and I was able to bring most of the kids to a resort I used to visit with my family when I was growing up and have long wanted to share with them. It's not quite as fancy and fashionable as it was 40 years ago, but it was still lovely and comfortable and served us well. They had some great winter rates, plus a deal to get people to stay there, so it was quite a bargain, too, and like our rental we took for the wedding, had a full kitchen and washing machine and dryer, so we didn't have to pack as much clothing and we didn't have to rely on restaurants for all our meals. It was like a honeymoon for our family. I strongly recommend this for any parents or family who put on a wedding. This will definitely be part of our planning and budgeting for the other kids' weddings. Also, I can highly recommend Local Ocean in Newport as an exquisite place to eat. Everything we ordered was delightful, well made, delicious, and the staff was wonderful. Poor Amira had to come home the day after the wedding so she could go to work, and had to miss that part of our trip.

On a related note, we are also pulling back from our spending after the expenses of wedding and travel, and are back in the serious part of Lent. We broke the fast so we could feast with the bridegroom and bride, and then did the best we could with the restaurants and the kitchens we had in our rental places, and actually it was alright. It was more like the modern, Western abstinent rules, and it was fine. Now, we are eating out of fridge and freezers and pantries again, and cutting back on our expenses. That is good also. We are blessed with abundance and God looks after our large family in so many ways through the deals at the grocery stores, and the favor we have with the people who work there and farmers in our community.

We try not to eat much in the way of fake meats and dairy and so on during the fasts, though if we have any given to us or if we find it at an amazing price, we will get some things like the vegan butter. The only replacement foods we really get are to purchase almond milk or this fantastic blend by Silk, made of almond, coconut and oat milks that actually tastes like milk enough that I was able to drink it with some graham crackers and it felt and tasted like the real thing. That is getting hard to find, though, and I'm nervous that it has been discontinued. It was great, though. It had the creaminess of coconut milk, the flavor of almond milk, and the smoothness of the oat milk, so I hope to find it again. In the interim, Fred Meyer had a coupon deal that made half gallons of almond milk $1.99, so we bought our limit of that and will use it in cooking and with coffee and such. We do try to avoid soy substitutes entirely, and don't really trust the fake meat. We'd rather rely on legumes and nuts and other sources of protein during the fast, so you will see mostly meals that include those.

Because of wedding events and schedules and our lack of schedule on the coast, we have some repeats this week. After the wedding, we had almost three quarts of the bean liquor and some of the black beans with onions, garlic and tomatoes leftover that we froze. When we got home Saturday, we were able to chop up some more garlic and onion, sauté them in some sunflower oil, add our thawing black beans, and season up some more with ancho chile powder, cumin and oregano, and made a fine soup with a garlic crusted bread we found in the used bread section at the store, and some apples that were given to us, and had a meal for eight, with a little left over, for all of $3.42. Not bad for our re-entry.

Please pray for us, and we will pray for you. Jerome's skin is giving him quite a bit of trouble, and now he has a weird cyst on his ear that is swelling. We will be seeing the NP this week, but he just needs some relief.

• Sunday
  Breakfast: Marinated Chickpeas and Herbs*, Kalamata Olives, Sourdough Toast, Fruit Plate, Coffee and Tea
  Dinner: Vegetarian Ranchero Beans, Garlic Bread, Oranges and Grapes
• Monday - Feast of Saint Alexander of Alexandria
  Breakfast: Peaches and Coconut Cream Overnight Oats, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Vegan Dan Dan Noodles*, Mandarin Oranges
• Tuesday
  Breakfast: Rice Pudding with Coconut Milk, Dried Raisins, Blueberries, Cranberries and Cherries, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Mejeddarah (using sunflower oil), Crisp Onions, Salad/Fruit/Side Dishes brought by Bible study members, Koulourakia
• Wednesday
  Breakfast: Steel Cut Oats with Dried Cherries, Brown Sugar, Cinnamon and Coconut Milk, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Lentil Chimichangas with Cashew Cream, Cabbage Salad, Salsa Rice, Fruit
• Thursday
  Breakfast: Vegetable and Potato Hash, Sliced Oranges, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Thai Coconut Curry Noodles with Vegetables, Fruit Plate
• Friday - Feast of Saint David of Wales
  Breakfast: Almond Butter Toast with Honey, Sliced Apples, Tea with Honey
  Dinner: Pasta Trapanese (using sunflower oil), Salad, Fruit Plate
• Saturday
  Breakfast: Fluffy, Vegan Peanut Butter Pancakes with Raspberry Syrup, Coffee and Tea
  Dinner: Asian Style Chickpea Salad, Mandarin Oranges

What is on your menu this week? If you want a recipe, ask and I will provide it as soon as I can. If there are any starred recipes, I will follow up separately with a weekly recipe round up on Saturday.

Labels: Church Year, Faith and Morality, Family, Fasting as a Family, Homemaking, Lent, Menu Plans, Prayer Requests, Tales from the Kitchen