For the past few years, I have been pregnant or nursing. Because of this, I have not been able to participate in the fasts of the Church in the way I used to. I know this is the case for many women, and for some with health conditions. It can feel isolating and a little sad to not be fully fasting with our Orthodox brothers and sisters, especially during Great Lent. While fasting from food is only one way we participate, it is an important one, and we don’t have to miss out entirely because of our circumstances. 

Talk to your priest to help you establish a healthy spiritual perspective about fasting during these times. There are many different ways to practically approach orthodox fasting as a family, and fasting while pregnant or nursing. After some trial and error, I have found a way to participate in the fast that works for me and my family. Here’s how we do it: 

Prioritize 

My priority is to establish fasting as a family as the norm, and the easiest way for our family to do that is to have a fasting meal together for dinner every night. Because of my husband’s schedule, we often eat breakfast and lunch at different times. For dinner, we are able to sit down as a family together. This works great for me because I feel like I am still participating in the fast, and we are establishing the habit of fasting as a family! 

Your priorities might look different. You might choose to focus more on eating plain foods, or on healthy meals, inexpensive meals, or repeating meals for ease. If you just had a baby, your priority is probably just to survive--there is no better goal! Remember not to compare your fast with anyone else’s! 

Meal Plan 

I print off the liturgical calendar from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America each month. I find the GOA’s calendar prints the best, and it visually indicates what type of fast each day is. Using the liturgical calendar to plan also ensures that I don’t forget to plan for fish on Annunciation or that my husband might want to make buns to commemorate the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste. I cross-reference our family calendar (which we keep on Google Calendar) to note busy evenings or weeks so we can plan easy meals those nights. I simply write what we will have for dinner on each day. I leave two days open toward the end of the week for “scrounging”--in our house, this means having leftovers, making pasta with a jar of sauce, ordering a pizza, or going out. I have learned from experience that we lose steam for cooking as the week goes on and we are busy with church on Saturday and Sunday, so meals that we planned for those days usually don’t get made. Accepting the reality of your family and energy level is important. For us, that also means I always use a pencil for planning because I inevitably move meals around every week because things come up!

Make It Easy 

We have a dedicated fasting binder with copies of our fasting recipes. It’s easy to look through for ideas when planning meals and easy to see what ingredients I need to buy. I also keep a list of all our favorite fasting meals that I update during each major fast. During a fast, we want our 

meals to be fairly quick and easy so that we have more time to dedicate to going to church, being still, and reading Scripture or other edifying spiritual texts. If we try a new meal and it is too time consuming, it probably won’t make the cut for our meal list. 

We batch cook for many of our fasting meals. Most Lenten soups and bean-based dishes freeze well, so I usually double these recipes. After they cool, I freeze them in the portion size we need for a family dinner. I do the same thing with big batches of rice. So tonight, all I had to do for dinner was pull out a bag of rice and a bag of chana masala from the freezer--almost no cleanup and no cooking. If I have time and energy, I also like to make and freeze a batch of muffins or baked oatmeal for breakfast or snacks. I can pull a muffin out of the freezer and defrost it for a snack in 30 seconds. 

We also have some freezer and pantry staples that we like to keep on hand for quick meals. We like tempura shrimp with edamame and rice, falafel, some Trader Joe’s shrimp meals, fried rice (with egg added for me and little ones), and shrimp potstickers. For pantry items, we buy microwaveable bean dishes to serve over rice. 

Be Flexible and Have Grace for Yourself 

While having a plan for eating and cooking during the fasts certainly helps, things often don’t go the way we expect. As in the prayer of St. Philaret of Moscow, we remember: “In unforeseen events, let me not forget that all are sent by Thee.”