A few weeks back my sister and I decided to do the Daniel Fast, a 21-day vegan-with-restrictions fast. If you’re wondering why I’m talking about the fast I did, you’re not alone. Several other people mentioned too that usually when we’re fasting we don’t talk much about it. But if your on a very restricted diet for 21 days, the only way you won’t talk about it is if you don’t have any guests at mealtime, never eat anyone else’s home or never meet anyone at a restraurant.

In a nut shell, only plant-based foods are allowed. Any processed foods that contain only plant-based foods are allowed, but may not contain any chemicals/preservatives. Salt is allowed and many seasonings and of course all herbs, dried or fresh will add a lot of flavor to the food.

We did cheat several meals. Two birthday meals and 2 family meals. There are times when it is okay.

One of our favorite meals is rice and black beans, covered with a colorful veggie salad. On the fast you’re supposed to eat brown rice instead of white but said to say, neither of us like brown rice much. In these pictures I have white rice.

Cook white rice until done. Drain a can of black beans. Throw half the beans into a bowl with canned whole kernel corn, diced green peppers, purple onion & tomato. Chop some cilantro real fine and add it to the veggies. Add some rice vinegar and a little olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste.

Rice Vinegar:

Fill a bowl with rice. Top with some heated up black beans. Top that with the veggie mixture and add a little salsa (not a sweetened kind like some homemade recipes are – if I don’t used my homemade restaurant salsa, I use a bought salsa casera) on top. And then top that with some avocado, cut into little chunks. Yum. Some grilled or sauteed chicken would be really good with this if you didn’t want to go vegetarian with this.

Last night I took one of my homemade tortillas, fried it on both sides in a little olive oil until it was a little crispy. I used that as the base for the above ingredients. Sort of a veggie tostado. Delicious!!! The only problem was I put too much on top and half of it fell off as I was eating, causing veggies to go flying with each bite I took.

This fast is fairly radical and it’s best to do it if you really want to. If you go into it half-hearted you probably won’t last 21 days. There are just so many things you can’t have. The second day was the worst for me. I had such cravings for what, I wasn’t sure. I just wanted to EAT something. After that I was fine. By the last few days, we were getting anxious to be finished and those weren’t as fun either.

I think I missed milk products more than meat or sugar. I really like cheeses of various kinds, milk, sour cream, cream cheese … but it didn’t hurt me to do without. In fact, the scale was quite happy about it!

I’ll probably post a few more recipes late, including a veggie burger.

Here’s to healthier eating (some of the time – I don’t suppose that Ben & Jerry’s Cheesecake Brownie ice cream I just had would be considered healthy)!