Italian Pasta & Bean Soup: Day Two of the Daniel Fast

It is day two of the Daniel Fast and since I always enjoy trying new recipes I tried a soup posted on Veg Kitchen, Italian Pasta & Bean Soup. A definite success for the whole family; Sammy loved it so much that it is going in his lunch for school tomorrow.  The combination of the soft buttery cannellini beans and the chewiness of whole wheat macaroni noodles make this a hearty, satisfying winter soup.  I used fire-roasted tomatoes and substituted dried herbs for fresh.  Veg Kitchen has an awesome photo but I have such fun pretending to be an official foodie photographer with my iPhone 5 that I had to insert my own soup pose.  Lol.  We had Mary’s Organic Crackers (herb flavor) as an accompaniment to the soup.

Also I decided to play around with the oat milk because although I really liked it, the taste was a little too bland for my husband and I needed to make another batch anyway.  Since the Daniel Fast does not permit any sweeteners but does allow all fruits, I decided to try adding dates to the oat milk tonight.  As I said, I doubled the batch of milk, so I pitted and chopped 4 medjool dates, then added them to a small saucepan with just enough boiling water to cover the bottom. Then I simmered the dates, stirring and mashing them frequently with a spoon until they broke down and most of the liquid was absorbed.  Then I added the date mixture to the oat milk after it had been strained once, blended and then strained one last time.  The milk is definitely enhanced by the subtle sweetness of the dates and my husband enjoyed it so I will do this again.  A double recipe yields about 1-3/4 litres of milk so hopefully it will last us the week.

Oh!  I almost forgot!  I used the milk tonight to make a delicious chocolate peanut butter nice cream with frozen spinach and ground flaxseed (I did post a recipe for that, right?  If not, let me know and I will most definitely get right on that because this chocolatey treat will become your staple go-to dessert.  Seriously!).  How can something so healthy, so whole-foods, and so environmentally friendly not break the fast rules???  Come on people!!  This is the food God made for us to eat!  Sacrifice?  Restrictions?  Deprived??  Not at all.  I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised to experience more freedom on a fast – even if the freedom is in the realm of food.  Huh.  And to think I started this post focused purely about the food portion of the fast and then “pop” I thought of a neat spiritual aspect.  God is cool like that.

Pray, press and step into your God-ordained destiny in 2014.  See you there.