Daniel Fast, Days 3 & 4: Morning Infusions & Vegetable Spaghetti!

Day 3: Wednesday
Today’s Devotion – “This is the 3rd day of your fast. Three is the number of resurrection. It’s Jubilee & all can be freed to return to their original families.( Lk.4:18-19) The beggar (poor), the brokenhearted, the bound (captive), the blind, & the bruised can now return to their original state. Jesus has paid the redemption price for all to be free. Embrace your new found freedom, the chains are broken & the things that have held you in bondage are removed. Stand up tall & face this day with a new perspective, a bold confidence that says, “If God Be For Me, Who Can Be Against Me?”
Indeed, today was much easier!  No craving for coffee, no hunger pangs when I smelled my coworkers’ cooking their lunch (my office is all of 10 feet from our kitchen).  Perhaps the chains of bondage are removed!  Even with 18 more days ahead, I know we can do this.  This is not a diet, or some “cleanse”…this is a spiritual commitment.  I think that’s hard for some to comprehend.  I’ll mention I’m doing the Daniel Fast and it seems to translate as “you’re trying out a vegan diet”.  When I mention the things I can’t have, they suggest soy cheese or agave nectar or Boca burgers… but that’s not the point.  Yes, I realize that there are replacements out there for everything under the sun, but if all you’re doing is “replacing” the things in your diet with fake versions, it’s not really a fast.  It’s like you’re trying to outwit God, or “bend” the rules to make the fast comfortable for you.  But it’s not supposed to be easy, or comfortable.  It requires a commitment, and sacrifice on your part.  And you really have to enter into the fast with a heart for God and the challenge ahead, otherwise you WILL be tempted to bend the rules.
Our weather is bleak & cold & snowy this week, and not having something hot to drink in the morning really wore on me today.  So I decided to make an apple & cinnamon infused water.  I put ½ apple and a stick of cinnamon into a big insulated mug, and then filled it with hot water before leaving for work.  By the time I got here, the water was nicely infused!  However…the cinnamon is a bit overpowering for my taste.  Next time, maybe only half a stick.

Breakfast: Flatout MultiGrain Flax wrap w/natural peanut butter, banana & strawberry (makes me feel like a kid!)

Lunch: More avocado salad & applesauce

Dinner:  Here’s a challenge.  Wednesdays, as you well know, are Trivia Night, where we typically head down to our favorite watering hole, and enjoy some tasty Irish grub.  However…ehhh….pretty much nothing on the menu is Daniel Fast friendly.  I don’t have time to run home on Wednesdays, so it meant either bringing dinner to work with me, or finding a spot to eat out.  Thankfully, several Pinterest searches recommended Chipotle being Fast-friendly.  And then…there’s Qdoba!  Which, if you’ve never been there, is almost exactly like Chipotle but with a few extra options.  I used the Nutrition Calculators on their websites and determined that if we went to Chipotle, we’d have to get a Burrito Bowl since they don’t have a whole wheat tortilla.  BUT, Qdoba does…and, with the same ingredients, the sugar content at Qdoba was lower than Chipotle, meaning Qdoba was less likely to have added sugar into their salsas and fillings.  So we did Qdoba.

YUM.  But…here’s the thing…I don’t know if you’ve ever eaten at a Chipotle or Qdoba, but the portions are HUGE.  One veggie burrito (wheat tortilla, brown rice, black beans, fajita veggies, lettuce, pico, corn salsa, & salsa verde) = 680 calories.  That’s with NO meat, cheese, or sour cream.  So if you’re gonna go there, PLEASE share with someone (like we did—we just split it) or take half home.  Seriously.  Otherwise you WILL be in pain later.
And then…there’s trivia.  Where our teammates are chowing down on a delicious burger or roast chicken dinner, and sipping on cold brew.  It’s challenging to be around, but we survived with only a few pangs of envy.  And we even won 3^rd place!
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Day 4: Thursday
(Since I got home late on Wednesday, I’m combining these posts.)
Today’s Devotion: “Day 4: A Time to Be Creative” 2 Cor.5:17 ‘Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.’  Four is the number for Creation. The 4 corners of the earth are north, east, west, & south. This gives us the acronym News. News always travels faster when something incredible has happened. Your new life in Christ needs to be proclaimed throughout the earth. Be creative, innovative, & allow a God idea to break forth out of you that will change somebody’s world. It’s a new Day!
Alas…it hasn’t been a very creative day.  It’s been a day of billing clients, actually, which is not terribly creative at all. That does frustrate me at times about my job—it’s a science job, full of data and facts & no real frills.  Some days the artsy side of my brain gets really antsy because of that.  There are days I miss working in the media (TV, newspaper), because it was a creative job.  We “made” the news. I assembled commercials. I took pretty photos and put them in the paper. I wrote articles that used alliteration and got to be subjective, share my opinion. 
BUT…that’s why I have this blog.  Even when we had The Scoop open for the season, I couldn’t let this refuge go fallow.  This is my creative outlet now.  That, and my kitchen!  I love thinking up new recipes, and scouring the interwebz (aka Pinterest) for ideas.  Today, the Hubs emailed me at work and asked that I “please make a big batch of something hearty tonight so we can have leftovers for lunch tomorrow”.  With our restrictions, that means a whole wheat pasta dish or meatless chili….or….OOORRR…. are there other things?  Something with marinated mushrooms!  Ooh, quinoa!  Maybe some pasta e fagioli?  Maybe it’s weird, but I love spending my lunch hour figuring out what I want to make for dinner.
Another cold day today, so this morning I just did hot water with some lemon slices in it.  PERFECT!  So good, I had two more glasses that way.  There’s something about snow on the ground that just DEMANDS a warm cup in your hand!

Breakfast:  Two oat-raisin pancakes with all natural peanut butter, like a sandwich (VERY filling! I highly recommend!)

Lunch: 1 tomato, 1 cup carrots, 2 tbsp garlic hummus (oooh….need to roast some garlic!!!), and a half of a whole wheat flatbread

Afternoon Snack: Applesauce
Dinner:  We decided to go with pasta!  I did my basic spaghetti recipe, but replaced the meat with some dark red kidney beans.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 cups mushrooms, diced
• 1 bell pepper, diced
• 2 tbsp minced garlic, divided
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp dried rosemary, crumbled
• 2 tbsp Italian seasoning
• 2 Dorot cubes basil
• 1 can dark red kidney beans
• 1/2 box whole wheat spaghetti
• 2 cans tomato sauce w/ oregano & basil
• 1 can diced tomatoes w/garlic & onion
• 2 tsp Cajun seasoning
• 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

Directions:
While you’re boiling your pasta, in a separate pot sauté the mushroom, garlic, onion, and bell pepper in the olive oil.   When the pepper & onion are soft, add the beans, tomato sauce & tomatoes and seasonings.   Season to taste.

When the pasta is done, mix it into the pot & serve!

I miss parmesan…but otherwise it was pretty tasty!

NutriFacts:
Calories 286.4
 Total Fat 3.5 g
 Saturated Fat 0.5 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.5 g
Monounsaturated Fat 1.8 g
Cholesterol 0.0 mg
 Sodium 2,326.8 mg
Potassium 294.9 mg
Total Carbohydrate 56.8 g
Dietary Fiber 12.8 g
Sugars 9.0 g
Protein 12.1 g