Introducing...Meat Free Fridays!

I embrace tradition. All types of tradition. One of the things that appeals to me so much about my Catholic faith, is Sacred Tradition. I love everything about it. When in my past I felt that a liturgical service was dry and emotionless, now my soul just longs for it and I have found myself drawn to keeping traditions in my faith that many consider "old-fashioned" and done away with. I don't mean for this to turn into a debate about which things were and were not abrogated by Vatican II, so I am not going to get into the nitty gritty things with this posting.

One of the traditions that I keep as a Catholic is to not eat meat on Fridays. (The tradition allows fish/seafood, but no beef, pork, chicken, etc.) During Lent, we are to not eat meat on Fridays, and that is the "norm" for Catholics everywhere, so it is not unheard of. Many restaurants will have some kind of fish special on Fridays during Lent. However, I don't participate in abstinence of meat only on Fridays during Lent, but on all Fridays. There have been times I have forgotten, or slipped up, used thawed meat that I had, or leftovers, etc. We all stumble, even when we have the best intentions. For the most part though, our family chooses to follow the tradition of abstaining from meat every Friday.

My plan for this blog is to post a "Meat Free Friday" recipe each week. I sometimes get stuck on the fish on Fridays, or pasta, or the easy pizza, but I do have a lot of vegetarian meals in my cooking repertoire that I often forget about. Each week I will post a new one. Even better, if you have one you would like to share, please contact me and let me know. We all have to stick together and I love trying new recipes!

Today though, no recipe for the night's meal. We have the honor of meeting some friends and family of someone Mr. Cat has known since his childhood days. I have "known" them since the early days of our marriage, and I am so excited to finally be able to meet them in person. The girls are very much looking forward to meeting some new friends, and eating out, which is a pretty huge treat since we rarely do it. I will be dining on fish.