Front Burner: Creating school menus during Lent
Peter Radjou prepares vegetarian quesadillas in the Roanoke Catholic School kitchen. Photo by Rebecca Barnett | The Roanoke Times.
Factors such as nutrition and cost can make planning school menus challenging enough, but this time of year brings additional considerations for Peter Radjou, cafeteria manager at Roanoke Catholic School.
Although some Catholic families abstain from eating meat every Friday of the year, Lent is a time when all Catholics are supposed to skip meat on Fridays in favor of vegetarian dishes, fish or shellfish. Furthermore, quite a few give up meat for the entire 40-day period, which also includes fasting on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
But Radjou, who has been working at the school for about a year, is up to the task. As the owner of Taaza Indian Restaurant and The Elephant Walk Restaurant & Lounge, both in Roanoke, he has lots of experience catering to the needs of individuals. He is also Catholic himself and both of his daughters attend the school.
Radjou does more than accommodate the dietary requirements of staff and students, said campus minister Beth Derringer. “He spoils us,” she said. “We are very blessed to have him.”
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Does your diet change during Lent? If so, what are some of your favorite fish or meatless recipes to have during this time?
February 27, 2013 - 9:44 AM
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We do observe meatless Fridays, but it is not the sacrifice that it should be. A bowl of home made Pasta Fagioli with some crusty Italian bread is a treat!
I commend the chef at Roanoke Catholic, Jamie Oliver would be proud.
We do something that I would encourage everyone to do, if for no other reason than to open your minds to alternative dishes.
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We have Meatless Mondays and Meatless Thursdays. No alliteration necessary, but we eat beans seven days a week, for the vegetable protein, and we avoid meat on Mondays & Thursdays, just to help our bodies enjoy variety. We also have ‘only’ fish as our animal protein on Fridays.
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This might sound restrictive, but once you try it, you find it is not really restrictive. So you give up ground beef and/or chicken on Monday & Thursday, if you’re a typical American. No big deal. Eat plenty of beans and rice/pasta those two days. Beans & Rice on Mondays, and Beans & Pasta on Thursdays. Big deal… Pretend it is Cajun Monday & Italian Thursday if you must, to get by. Then, on Fridays, you substitute fish for beef or chicken. Pretend it is a religious thing (it often is) and you can cope. You still eat virtually the same thing, except use fish instead of beef or chicken.
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That results in 3 healthy days eating out of 7, and that is a HUGE difference, with VERY little difference felt in your daily schedules. Eat like a crazy person on Saturdays, but sensibly on only three days of the week. You’d be surprised how little it takes to make a difference. Before you know it, you’ll be eating sensibly six days a week, with one ‘cheat day’ and you’ll be in great shape while not missing anything in the food buffet.