Have you wanted to commit to the Daniel fast but don’t know how to plan your dinners? Or Do you need some new ideas for dinners during the fast? I am here to help. Below are our plans for our 21 dinners (with 10 recipes).
Our Daniel Fast rules
No meat or animal products
No alcohol or coffee
No processed foods
No desserts
No gluten
No sugar
That leaves veggies, fruits and grains.
The purpose of a Daniel fast is to take 21 days to focus on your relationship with God through fasting and praying. Along with spiritual benefits, there are many proven health benefits of fasting. Not to mention it is a great way to shed those pounds we gained during the holidays and (double not to mention) our time spent inside during quarantine and baking our feelings.
These meals are light and not designed to make you feel full but give you the nutrients you need and allow us to practice feeling satisfied.
Dinner 1 - Lentil's
Ingredients
1 cup of lentils
2 tablespoons of oil (olive or coconut)
1 cup Celery diced small
2 large Carrots diced small
2 small yellow onion chopped small
3 cloves of garlic minced or chopped small
1 large tomato diced
1 box of vegetable broth
Salt and pepper
Dried cilantro
Instructions:
In a large pot saute the onion, garlic carrots and celery with oil on med-high heat. About 7 minutes.
Add the tomato and saute until soft.
Pour in the box of vegetable broth. Bring to a slow boil. Add the lentils.
Salt, pepper and cilantro to taste.
Reduce heat to low. Cook covered until lentils are soft about 1 hour
*feel free to add additional seasoning such as garlic powder, thyme, or celery salt t taste.
Can serve over brown rice or by itself (see Dinner 8 for brown rice instructions).
Enjoy
Dinner 2 - Simple Butternut squash soup
Ingredients
1 medium butternut squash peeled and cubed
1 yellow onion diced
2 garlic cloves minced or chopped small
2 carrots diced
1 box of vegetable broth
1 tablespoon of dried or fresh thyme
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup of canned coconut milk (optional to make it thicker)
1/2 cup of roasted pumpkin seeds (optional)
Instructions:
In a large pot saute the onions, carrots and garlic about 4 min on medium high heat. Then add the butternut squash. Mix together and saute for 3 more minutes. Add the vegetable broth bring up to a slow boil. Add salt and pepper to taste. If using the coconut milk add here. Mix together. Add the thyme. Cook on low and cover for about 20 min or until all the veggies are soft when forked.
Take the pot off the heat and let sit for about 5 minutes. Carefully use an Immersion blender to blend the soft veggies into a soup. Or you can cup the soup into a regular blender and blend.
Top off with roasted seeds. Serve warm and enjoy.
Dinner 3 - Quinoa salad
Ingredients
2 cups of Quinoa
1 large Tomato diced small
1 large Cucumber diced small
2 Minced garlic
1 Lime
Cilantro fresh or dried
1 Purple onion diced small
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon Olive oil
Black olives (optional)
Instructions:
Prepare the quinoa in a medium pot. Add 2 cups of water for every cup of quinoa you are making or follow cooking instructions on the bag.
Add the quinoa to the water. Bring up to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit in the covered pot for 10 minutes. Then fluff with fork.
Combine the quinoa and all the veggies and cilantro. Pour the olive oil and lime juice over the mixture. Add salt and pepper to taste. Mix to combine all ingredients.
Serve room temperature or cold.
Dinner 4 - Spaghetti squash “pasta” with veggies
Ingredients
1 spaghetti squash
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic minced or chopped small
1 zucchini peeled and diced small
1 yellow squash peeled and diced small
1 large tomato dices small
1 tablespoon of oregano
1 bottle of your favorite pasta sauce
Instructions:
Prepare the spaghetti squash: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven. Slice the squash lengthwise from stem to tail. Be careful doing this.
Scoop out the seeds and stringy parts attached to the seeds.
Place the halves faced down in a pan or baking dish.
Roast the squash for 30-45 minutes. The smaller the quicker.
Remove the squash, the inside should be soft to fork.
Flip the squash right-side-up, use a fork to separate the stringy flesh from the outside of the squash. The idea is for the squash to look like spaghetti. You can transfer to a separate bowl or leave in the squash and wait for serving.
Preparing the sauce:
In a medium pan warm the olive oil. Saute the garlic on medium-high heat for 30 seconds. Add the diced zucchini and yellow squash. Add the tomato and cilantro. When the tomato is soft add the bottle of pasta sauce. Mix ingredients lower temperature and cook for 7 minutes.
Plate the spaghetti squash and top with warm pasta sauce and enjoy.
Dinner 5 - Sweet potato boats
This idea is coming to us from Kirstin Cavallari’s cookbook called True Comfort, I made some adjustments to fit into our fast. This is a fun way to spruce up sweet potatoes into a filling meal.
Ingredients
5 medium sweet potatoes
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 large avocado diced
½ cup of tomato dices small
½ cup of canned black beans drained and rinsed
2 tablespoons of chopped fresh chives or green onions
Lime juice
Any other toppings you have in your fridge
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with foil.
Cut the sweet potato in half, lengthwise. Drizzle them with olive oil and salt and pepper. Place the potatoes cut-side up, on the foil-lined baking sheet and bake for 50 minutes or until tender to fork. Remove potato and let cool on the side.
When the potatoes are a bit cool use a fork to mix the flesh in the potato skin. This will create a mashed sweet potato boat.
Place the topping ingredients in the middle of the table for a fun meal of making your own potato boat or top the potatoes with the toppings and serve. Top with lime juice.
Enjoy
Dinner 6 - Baked veggie platter with brown rice
Ingredients
2 cups of brown rice
1 cup of cauliflower
1 cup of broccoli
2 large carrots peeled diced
1 cup of Brussel sprouts cut in half
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinaigrette
Salt and pepper
Garlic salt
Olive oil
Instructions:
See Dinner 8 for brown rice instructions.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Cover a large baking pan or sheet with parchment paper
Place the veggies on the baking pan either all mixed up or you can spread them beside each other in categories.
Drizzle olive oil on the veggies, put salt and pepper and garlic salt over the veggies and bake for 15-20 minutes. I like my veggies crunchy, feel free to cook for longer if you want them softer. Drizzle balsamic vinaigrette on veggies.
Plate veggies with a side of brown rice and enjoy
Dinner 7 - Brown rice over kale salad with homemade lime dressing
Ingredients
2 cups of brown rice
1 Cucumber peeled and diced
1 large Tomato, diced
kale
Spinach
1 cup of shredded carrots
2 Avocados diced
1 cup of Red cabbage cut thin
Lime salad dressing
2 limes
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon Garlic powder
1 tablespoon Olive oil
½ tablespoon of Apple cider vinegar
Fresh cilantro (optional)
Instructions:
See Dinner 8 for brown rice instructions.
Make a salad bed with a mixture of kale and spinach. Mix in cucumber, tomato, shredded carrots and red cabbage.
Prepare salad dressing: In a small bowl juice two limes and add the ingredients. Mix well with a spoon. Salt and pepper to taste. This has a very strong delicious taste. A little goes a long way.
Plate the salad and top with dressing, mix salad well so dressing gets on all parts of the salad. Top with avocado and brown rice.
Enjoy
Dinner 8 - Dirty brown rice with black beans and cherry tomatoes
Ingredients
2 cups of brown rice
2 cups of Vegetable broth (replaces the water when cooking the brown rice)
4 cloves of garlic minced or diced small - divided
2 cups of canned black beans – not drained
2 cups of cherry tomato sliced
2 tablespoons of Olive oil, divided
Peppers (red and/or green) diced
½ teaspoon of garlic powder
½ teaspoon of oregano
Salt and pepper
Instructions:
*Prepare the brown rice: in a pot, warm 1 tablespoon of olive oil, saute the garlic for 30 seconds pour in the vegetable broth (this replaces the water). When boiling add the brown rice to the liquid. Stir and let boil for 1 minute. Lower temperature and simmer for 45-50 minutes covered. Then take off the heat and let sit covered for 10 minutes.
Prepare the beans: In a small pot saute garlic, peppers and onions. Add your can of beans (undrained) season with garlic powder, oregano and salt and pepper. Mix well. Cook until hot 10-15 minutes uncovered.
To serve mix together the rice and beans to create your “dirty rice” top with a drizzle of olive oil and sliced cherry tomato.
Enjoy
Dinner 9 - Creme of Vegetable soup (non-dairy)
Ingredients
1 yellow onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 cup Broccoli
1 cup Cauliflower
2 Carrots
1 large tomato
1 cup of Celery
1 cup of eggplant
1 box of Vegetable broth
½ tablespoon of parsley
½ tablespoon of garlic powder
2 tablespoons of olive oil
½ tablespoon of cilantro
Salt and pepper
Instructions:
In a large pot saute the onion and garlic on medium-high heat. When soft and transparent add the vegetables and stir. Cook for about 3 minutes. Add the Vegetable stock. Add all the spices and her. Salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. When boiling lower temperature to low and cook covered for 10-15 minutes or until all vegetables are soft.
Use an immersion blender to blend the veggies into a soup or cup out the ingredients into a blender.
Serve and enjoy.
Dinner 10 - Fajita style veggies with sweet roasted sweet potato cubes
Ingredients
2 bell peppers (of any color) cut into thin strips
1 cup of snow peas
1 large onion cut into thin strips
1 cup of mushrooms (whole or chopped)
1 cup of broccoli
2 carrots peeled and washed – cut into thin strips
3 medium-sized sweet potatoes peeled and cubed
Olive oil
½ tablespoon of Garlic powder- divided
Salt and pepper
Instructions:
In a large pan warm up the olive oil in medium heat. Add the peppers, snow peas, mushroom, broccoli and carrots. Salt, pepper garlic powder to taste. Saute for 5-7 minutes until the veggies begin to get soft. The idea is for them to still be a little crispy and not super soft.
Prepare the roasted sweet potato. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Toss the sweet potato cubes in olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder. and cook 35-40 minutes or until soft.
Serve together and enjoy.
I hope these 10 recipes give you some new ideas for something new. The average American diet is low in vegetables, this is a great time to increase our taste for veggies. We intend to have leftovers on some nights and to mix and match the above recipes to last us the 21 nights of dinners.
I will be making our favorite smoothies for breakfast. I like to make smoothies filling which keeps us full the whole morning. They are packed with nutrition. I will make a blog post with our favorite smoothie recipes that are filling and nutritious. Look out for that.
If you are new to fasting, I encourage you to try. You can do it for any length of time. Even 1 day of fasting has great spiritual and health benefits. I also encourage you to spend some time with God, as our bodies cleanse our minds also become renewed and focused. Let your attention be spent in prayer or reading the bible. You can try a devotional, which are short scriptures you read in the morning and meditate on throughout the day.
Jesus said:
But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast (Mathew 9:15)
Jesus is saying there will times when we need him, and we will fast.
Have a great start to 2021. Blessings to you and your family.
-Angie