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Good Friday Meal, An Easter Tradition


When Charly was just a baby we started a fun yet very simple Easter week tradition. We start on Palm Sunday and talk/read about what happened each day the last week of Christ's life. We also enjoy finding videos about those same stories. And there is this Because of Him Easter site that was started this year that we have already been using.

Then on the evening of Good Friday we like to have a meal that may have been similar to what Jesus may have had for passover. We even sit on the floor to eat it. The kids love this simple little tradition.



Our meal typically consists of a lentil dish, dried fruit and nut mix, flat bread, hummus and grape juice. So simple but the kids look forward to it every year and always ask if we are going to do it again!

On Saturday the kids get a few fun small healthy "treats" in their Easter baskets. Usually there is something very practical like socks or flip flops and books. And then sometimes a very small toy like a yo-yo or lawn darts or something fun like that.

We hunt eggs and spend the day together and try to spend as much time together with family as we can. On Easter Sunday we go to church some of us sing in the choir as part of the Easter program. Then more often then not we have a spring type picnic meal with extended family and just enjoy being together and being grateful for our Savior.



Curried Lentils Over Rice
1 large onion, chopped
4 medium carrots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons Olive oil
4 Tablespoons Curry Powder
3 cups brown or green lentils
6-8 cups water, divided
1 1/2 cups hummus
1 heaping teaspoon Vegetable Broth Powder
1 teaspoon Real Salt or to taste
pepper to taste
3-4 green onions, sliced
1 lemon cut into 8 wedges
cooked brown rice

Crock pot instructions:
In a warm crock pot, place the first 5 ingredients stir well and let warm up while preparing the rest of ingredients. Add lentils and 6 cups of water. Let cook on high for 3 hours or until lentils are tender. Add hummus, broth powder, salt and pepper and add more water to get desired consistency. Season to taste turn down crock pot and keep warm until ready to serve. Top with green onion just before serving. Serve over bowls of cooked brown rice, squeeze a wedge of lemon over each serving.

Stove Top instructions:
In a large pot heat olive oil then saute onion, carrots and garlic together. Add Curry powder and stir just until fragrant. Add lentils and 6 cups of water. Cover and let simmer for about 20-30 minutes or until lentils are done. Add hummus, broth powder, salt and pepper. Add more water if needed for desired consistency. Turn down to low and let heat through, stirring frequently. Season to taste. Top with green onion just before serving. Serve over  bowls of cooked brown rice, squeeze a wedge of lemon over each serving.
recipe adapted from Curried Lentil Soup

You will find my Totally Homemade Hummus recipe here.


Dried Fruit and Nut Mix
50% dried fruit
50% nuts

I just make a mix of about 50/50 dried fruit to nuts. I like to use what maybe would be maybe more traditional foods and that we don't very often eat in our other nut mixes. For fruit I will do figs, dates, raisins, apricots. Sometimes I will do dried cherries and cranberries. Usually I try to work with what I've already got. For the nuts I like to use walnuts, pecans, almonds and sometimes hazelnuts and pistachios.


Flat Bread

You can take about any dough and roll it into the flat shape you want and cook it like a pancake in a hot oiled pan or griddle. I have used My Best Yet Whole Wheat Bread recipe for this (I know not very traditional with the yeast and all;) or even this tortilla recipe just not rolled so thin would work.

This year though, since I have a sourdough start I am going to try a sourdough flat bread recipe. I have tried a few and they have all been eaten up but I haven't been super excited about any of them. So instead of posting an actual recipe I found this very cool sourdough flat bread link up that looks like it has lots of fun options. I'm going to choose one of those or a mixture of a few of them. ;) Hopefully I'll find something we love.

Rejoice for He is Risen and have a very Happy Easter!


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Tammie,

I was so surprised and thrilled how much my children enjoyed this meal. We ended up doing it on Good Friday too, and told the children it was a meal like Christ may have eaten. I was thankful you posted it early so that while I was planning what we would do for Easter this year and making my shopping list, I could plan this in. We didn't add the hummus but kept it on the side to eat with flat bread, I used your hummus recipe and loved it too. We had such a wonderful Easter week and I loved being inspired by your example you mention in your post, before we went forward with our plans. We used Easter all Week from Chocolate on my Cranium and last year we put together a booklet she shares with names of Christ study. We did only two names this year and a handful last year and we will do some more next year, but that really added to our celebration. Two neat things we added, was on Wednesday we did a SIMPLIFIED passover meal to prepare the children for understanding more fully how Jesus' last supper fulfilled this Christ centered tradition of remembering Christ our Deliverer. Then on Thursday, and we had scouts so we had to make it brief, we had each child come in individually, and we had beautiful hymns playing, and my husband used a basin of water to wash each child's feet, while I showed them the picture of Christ washing his disciples feet. Then I rubbed some nice oils on their feet after drying them and we talked about foot washing service. Usually I am unable to pull off so many wonderful things because Easter sneaks right up on me, but I caught it this year and really prayed and prayed the Lord would help me make it really meaningful and to be capable of doing more, and He abundantly blessed!! I thank you for posting this and being a loving source and example for healthy food, and strong family Christ centered tradition.

Also I wanted to share with you that this weekend I finally made your Full Vitamin Sprout mix. I am so thankful for that free ebook you made!!! It takes me years on some changes but I do hope to incorporate that into our lives, especially through the winter months when there isn't fresh garden food to eat. I also made the salad sprout mix, I know we'll love that! I forgot to order mung beans from Azure is all its missing and now I need to look and see if they sale the diato....earth stuff as well. :) Thanks again!!! I'm also going to share on FB the ebook as a way of saying thank you!

Tammie said...

Emily: Thank you so much for sharing! I totally understand some things taking years to implement I am right there with you. Progress by perfection...right!