Menu ideas for Daniel Fast

Welcome to the "Daniel Fast"! For those of you who do not attend South Bay Church, our church is embarking on a 21 day journey of fasting a prayer. Our goal is to seek God more intently and to ready ourselves for an awesome movement of His Spirit in our midst. We are praying that 2010 will be a year of lives changed, miracles witnessed, power unleashed, and a movement unfolding! None of that will take place without God's blessing.

The idea of a Daniel Fast is taken from the Bible in Daniel 1 and 10. The Bible does not specifically outline what foods Daniel does and does not eat, so there are lots of different interpretations as to what types of food are acceptable. For me, I am choosing to abstain from all meat and animal products, sugar, caffiene, and food with additives.

We have to be careful not to begin focusing on the "food" element of the fast so much that we miss the most important thing: prayer and seeking God. Each person participating in the fast should clearly define the boundaries that they will set for themselves regarding food and then stick to it. Another thing to consider when planning out what to eat is the fact that this is a fast. It's okay if you have to feel hungry sometimes or if you don't really like everything you're eating. All of those feelings should be reminders of WHY we are doing this fast and draw us to prayer.

With that in mind, I'd like to use my blog over the next 3 weeks to provide encouragement and ideas for food for those who are participating with me in this fast.

Here's what I ate Day 1 of the Daniel Fast:

Breakfast: Oatmeal with soymilk and raisins

Lunch: 2 rice cakes (with no-salt) covered with organic peanut butter and sliced banana on top. Then I drizzled a little honey over them.
I also drank a smoothie:
1/2 cup soy milk,
1/2 cup 100% juice,
1/2 cup frozen strawberries,
1/2 cup frozen peaches,
1/2 cup of ice

Dinner: Black bean soup and fruit salad (sliced strawberries and blueberries)

Black bean soup recipe:
3 cans of organic black beans
2 cans of organic diced tomatoes
chopped onion
chopped cilantro
small amount of chopped jalepeno
enough vegetable stock to make it the consistency you want
a dash of sea salt

Saute the onion and garlic in a little bit of olive oil. Then add the rest of the ingredients and heat until warm. It was really good by itself. I think I may try it over a baked potato as well.

After dinner I enjoyed a cup of herbal tea with a little honey.

Hope this helps!! Happy fasting!