What we ate and learned during our Daniel Fast, as a family of six

Every January, The Summit Church (Vilonia Arkansas) walks through 21 day fasting and prayer. For the past two years of being a part of this church, we've participated as a family. In the past we've done challenges or sabbaticals as a family but it's been great learning to fast together.

Last year, we fasted from snacks/desserts. It was a nice way to ease into fasting. This year, our church encouraged everyone to try the Daniel Fast. I was hesitant because we homeschool and eat 90% of our meals at home. That means, I would need to come up with an entirely new menu. Typically I try not to incorporate new recipes more than once a week- that's a lot of brain power, so this was a big under taking.

Things we learned:

The new way of preparing for meals was actually more distracting during the fast than I expected. I tended to focus more on food, recipes, prep, grocery shopping, etc than normal AND way more than bible study and prayer if I'm being honest.

Thankfully, our church put our a focused devotional from participating local church every day for the 21 days. We weren't good at watching them daily but it was helpful it was in the form of a video.

For me, it was hard to use the word "sacrifice" that's synonymous with fasting. It felt silly calling, basically eating healthy as a "sacrifice". God taught me the truth about the meaning of “sacrifice". I seemed to be consumed by false humility about having nothing to offer. while in reality, that's crap. We've been given So.Much. by God. Just like Abraham had nothing to do with the blessing of his long awaited son God gave him but it was still considered a "sacrifice".

Opening our hands in surrender, trust and faith with the things God has given us is a sacrifice. We are just giving it back. Confessing who gave us any and all good things but able to hand it back, believing God will protect us, provide for us, and often give us something better because of our willingness to surrender something He's already given to us.

While focusing on the food we were eating, I realized I needed to eat way more often. I was full after every meal but then super hongry after just a few hours. I feel like the food we were eating echos our need for continual, often, frequent throughout the day, quality nourishment in Christ; not just once a week gorging on sweet stuff.

THEN...
We all six tested positive for Rona 9 days into our 21 day fast. Took us a while to realize it bc we had birthday cheap days and thought our body was mad about it. I wholeheartedly believe continuing the fast helped out bodies recover way faster. It wasn’t easy, all we/I wanted were the comfort foods of the world. But each of us had 24-maybe 48 hours of sickness including headache, fever, upset stomach, and runny nose. We al had a lingering gunk in our throats but it came with productive coughs and was helped with musinex.

On the last night of hte fast, we were tucking the kids into ed and we ask two things. What their favorite meals were that we could continue eating AND if there was anything they learned, something new God taught them, a habit that was formed, or anything else God showed them during the 21 days.

My youngest pipped up first to say,
"Fasting is when we give up something that distracts us from God and we replace it with spending more time with God." WHAaaaaaat?!?! She nailed it. I was so proud she was able to verbalize that in such a concise way. s

My son and middle daughter said,
"We can survive without sugar." lol Yes, yes we can. We all learned how much sugar we had gotten used to eating AND what new healthier options we surprisingly learned we liked.

My oldest daughter said,
" It felt more like a challenge than a fast." I loved all their honesty! I agreed with this sentiment as well. We talked through each choosing our own, meaningful things we would fast from next year that are more applicable for growing in our faith and relationship with god.

That night, Matt and I stayed up until midnight and woke the kids up to eat fun desserts we hadn't been "allowed" to eat. We thought it would be funny but also fun to celebrate. The next day, one kids ask if we really at snacks a midnight because she thought maybe she dreamed it. Another child asked why, if fasting was supposed to help us spend more time with God, would we "celebrate" the fast being over, at midnight and as a Church with the potluck. I was impressed at his insight. I paused for a minutes and then was about to explain, we weren't necessarily celebrating it being over but rather, hopefully, celebrating what God had done during that time. AND showing our gratefulness for the plethora for yummies we are allowed to eat through the freedom Christ has given us.

I pray that if you and your family decided to do the Daniel Fast, this compilation of ideas, recipes, and thoughts help your meal prep easier so you can focus on the actual purpose of the fast. *The kids favorite meals are the ones I shared pictures of in the following menu for the 21 days.

Breakfast:

• smoothies
• oatmeal
• cereal
• hash browns with veggies

Lunch:

Salads

• Mediterranean
• southwest
• house
• DIY (my kids loved making up their own with all the lettuce, veggies, olives, etc)

Sandwiches

• Peanut butter & Honey on whole wheat bread

Wraps

• bell pepper
• guacamole

Snacks:

• nuts
• seeds
• popcorn
• fruit and veggies; fresh, canned or frozen
• olives

Dinner:

W- Quinoa stuffed peppers

Th- Daniel approved Rice bowls @ Chipotle

F- Veggie stir fry & brown rice

S- Brown Rice & beans

S- Black bean burritos 

M- Birthday ihop 

T- birthday crockpot roast, carrots, and potatoes

W- corn chowder (minus the meatless sausage)

Th- snacked—> The Rona  

F- salad 

S- veggie soup 

S- twice baked humus potatoes 

M- leftovers 

T- black bean burritos 

W- potato soup (subbed almond butter, and no yeast, soy sauce, or butter)

Th- make up birthday dinner 

F- three bean chili 

S- doubled recipe of veggie soup for after church lunch meeting
- veggie stir fry 

S- shepherd pies (basically mashed potatoes, season all, & mixed veggies)

M- tostadas beans (tostadas, refried beans, homemade guac)

T- leftover veggie soup for women's event
- and brown beans and rice for those at home

W- lot luck with church to break fast

Grace our family lived in: cheap peanut butter, healthy cereals that had sugar in it (didn’t know), canned (in juice) or frozen fruits and veggies, store bought salad dressing (olive garden Italian and vinaigrette)

Thanks for reading through our family's journey on the Daniel Fast!