What Are Lent Lunches?

Lent-Friendly Lunches for Work and School :

• Blackened Tilapia Taco Bowls. If you’re looking for a dish that’s light but also filling, this is it. These protein-rich…
• Pan-Fried Tilapia Sandwich. A pan-fried Tilapia sandwich is the perfect go-to work lunch, as you can cook it the night…
• Broiled Tilapia Gyros. We all know how healthy a Mediterranean diet is, so try…

If you’re go-to is a simple lunch meat sandwich, it is hard to think of simple and creative alternatives for your mid-day meal. These Lenten lunch recipes and ideas are tasty, simple, and easy to make-ahead of time. Consider meal prepping the week of Lent by making salads or sandwich toppings you can re-heat when your lunchtime hunger hits.

And if you observe the traditional Friday abstinence, you can use these Lent recipes every Friday of the year! Every Catholic family has its fallback Lenten food—the one you make when you can’t think of anything else to eat. (Spaghetti and macaroni and cheese are pretty common ones.)

Toss in the fact that you are in search of meatless meal ideas during Lent and the task grows harder and harder. Lucky for you, we have scoured the Mr. Food recipe collection for some of our best Lenten dinner ideas. Look out below for some tasty and meat-free ideas and don’t miss our Butternut Squash Lasagna, pictured above!

The recipes we often associate with Lent are primarily popular American dishes from the 1950’s. Catholic culture in Europe and Asia, however, has been coping with Friday abstinence (and not just during Lent) a lot longer.

Is Spanish food good for Lent?

Americans are well acquainted with Mexican food (or at least an Americanized version of it), but relatively few of us know much about Spanish food, to which it is related. As Lisa and Tony Sierra, the About Spanish Food Experts, point out, though, Spanish food is perfect for Lent, because the Spaniards eat quite a bit of seafood. Still, not all of these recipes, which include tapas (appetizers), paella, soup, and dessert, contain seafood, so there’s something here for everyone.

The “Whole Foods” lifestyle has become more common in recent years, as many people have come to question the wisdom of filling ourselves with prepackaged, processed food. If you’ve ever thought of moving your diet in more of a whole-foods direction, there’s no better time than Lent.

Updated April 28, 2019. Lent is not known as a time for haute cuisine. Tuna-noodle casserole; macaroni and cheese; fish sticks: These are the standard Lent recipes of many a Catholic household on Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent—the days when the Church requires us to avoid eating meat. But our Lenten abstinence does not have …

While cheese is a no-go for Eastern Christians, both Catholic and Orthodox, during Great Lent, Latin Rite Catholics can make use of it—and do, as the ubiquitous Lenten macaroni and cheese testifies.

Eastern Orthodox (and many Eastern Catholics) practice a much stricter Lenten fast than Roman Catholics do. They abstain not only from meat but from eggs, dairy products, and even, at points, from oils. That may not seem to leave much that they can eat, but as Nancy Gaifyllia, the About Greek Food Expert, shows in these collections of Lenten recipes, you might eat better when you are fasting than when you’re not!

Yet our Lenten staples are high in carbohydrates: spaghetti and other noodles; potatoes; breaded fish; even just bread. You don’t need to break your low-carb diet, though, just because it’s Lent.

Kosher food may seem an odd source of Lenten recipes, but as Miri Rotkovitz, the About Kosher Food Expert, points out, “since kosher dietary laws prohibit mixing dairy and meat, it’s pretty easy to hone in on Lent-appropriate kosher recipes.