Just Bento

well I don't know how 'deep' your practices are but in Spain the normal use is not to eat meat on fridays while in Lent... so we usually had fish or legumes those days at home (and lots of restaurants follow the rule too). I'm not religious at all but I guess you can substitute meat for soy recipes? Like vegan hamburguers or maybe switch to raw veggies? :)
Maybe salads... mmm... I don't know! Maybe you can make salads with legumes... or have some tuna teriyaki?

I find this topic very interesting as my mum is very religious and she wants to go bento too! ^^

I'm planning on eating more bento lunches as part of my Lenten efforts. Here we are not strict, it is a personal choice, but I am not going to eat meat on Fridays, and have given up (in advance) two message boards I spend far too much time on. I look at bento making as a way of respecting my body, and showing my love for my family, so I think God would be into that.

I grew up sort of Christian (went to Sunday School and all that) but not Catholic, so the idea of using bentos during Lent is quite intriguing! I'm looking forward to how this thread progresses :)

Some basics:

# Lent begins at midnight Ash Wednesday and ends at the beginning of the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday, at which point Triduum begins.

# We are obliged to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

# The law of fast binds everybody from ages 18-59 unless they have a medical condition that would interfere significantly with fasting.

# The law of fast allows the eating of one full meal plus two smaller meals, provided the two smaller- meals are not as large as a regular meal if combined. (NOTE: This law is very confusing as many people tend not to eat similarly-sized meals.)

# We are obliged to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday, the Fridays of Lent, and Good Friday.

# The law of abstinence binds everyone who is fourteen years old and up unless they have a medical condition that would interfere significantly with abstinence from meat.

# The law of abstinence forbids the eating dishes principally or substantially comprised of the flesh of land-dwelling mammals and birds (trace amounts of meat and other parts of the body besides meat do not count). According to the common and contant opinion of learned persons, as found in the older moral and pastoral theologies, the law of abstinence does not affect reptiles, amphibians, insects, or anything that is a water-dwelling animal (even if it is a mammal, so dolphin is okay). It also does not affect gravies or other sauces (even if these are made with meat), and it does not affect anything made from parts of land-dwelling animals other their meat (so milk, cheese, eggs, things made with animal fat, and Jell-O, which comes from hooves, are okay).

Eilish

I'm even less religious than Maki - I'm not baptized and never went to Sunday School or anything like that. Or at least only very rarely, if I was staying with a religious friend.

Lenten fasting, however, is pretty much the same diet as a vegetarian who eats fish (pescetarian?). There are heaps of vegetarians in the forum, any of their recipes would be just fine.

I hope you have a lovely time eating all those pancakes on Shrove Tuesday! And the Simnel cake at Easter - I do love marzipan. I've actually been thinking of making one, even though I'm not religious.

Just a note, orthodox rules are a bit more strict and require not eating milk, cheese, or animal fat. I am by no means religious (I'm an atheist, actually), I just happened to study religion in college. You would not believe how complex the rules used to be in the middle ages, my professors would give us follow charts to explain what could and could not be done on certain days for many, many things besides just what you are eating.

I know this topic is old but I just found this blog recently and thought I would add in my 2 cents.

As a Muslim, what I would put in my bento would always be influenced by my religious beliefs. I say "would" as I wanted to give it a try but there's no point in going out and buying the necessary gear at this very moment as our month of fasting (Ramadan) is starting up next week. We can't eat or drink from sunrise until sunset so dinners, so bento lunches are out of the question. I hope I can maybe decorate some of our dinner dishes with bento accessories thought. I plan on giving bentos a try once the month of fasting is over, I just hope my husband enjoys the surprise!

The only food restrictions I can think of off the top of my head would be that I cannot have any pork products (including gelatin and lard) or anything with alcohol in it (I don't use it in cooking either). My husband and I also try to stick to halal meats (a prayer is said and then the animal is killed and processed according to certain rules) so a trip to a special butcher is necessary on our part. It may sound a bit complicated but it really isn't, especially compared to some of the rules people have told me about concerning kosher foods - I still get thrown for a loop every time!

Happy bento-ing!