I checked the calendar to see when The Great Lent begins, and it just sneaked up on me this year….as it’s almost here for the Byzantine Rite Catholics, at least at the church that my family and I attend.

For Roman Catholics it does not start until Ash Wednesday, so they have two more days to enjoy meat meals, even though they already celebrated Fat Thursday.

During The Great Lent one needs to reflect on their spiritual life, their role in the society, as well as some food restrictions, such as excluding consumption of meat on Fridays,  and especially on Good Friday, as well as very strict fast on Holy Saturday.

I personally like to prepare meatless meals on Wednesdays and Fridays for the duration of the Great Lent, as well the whole Holy Week, which is the week before Easter Sunday.

It actually is healthy to give our system a break from all that meat we eat daily, and introduce some vegetarian or seafood dishes.

In another post I prepared a list of 25 meatless meals  (click here to view this link) for your convenience, and linked them to my recipes, to help you out with meatless meal planning.

Today I will include additional ones, which I prepared this year, and you can add to your list.

• Avocado Egg Salad
• 
• Gluten Free Dumplings (Varenyky, Pierogy)
• 
• Rice Flour Dumplings (these would be great with fruit filling)
• 
• Zucchini and Goat Cheese Fritters
  
  
• Several different Filling recipes for Dumplings, if you are into Varenyky (Pierogi) making.

• Mini Quiches (these don’t have to be just for breakfast)

• Irish Potato Pancakes

Wow, now you have over 30 meatless meals, which is more than you need to cover at least Fridays, for the duration of lent. Actually you have a full month of meatless meals.  Who would have thought it could be so easy!

Cream of Broccoli soup                                                            Corn Potato Chowder

Falafel

You may also click on “Meatless” in the category section of my blog for additional recipes I have tried.

I would really love to hear from all of you, about the meatless dishes you enjoy to prepare. Thank you.