Not Ready For Lent

I just realized today that Lent starts next week. I am so not ready for it. Around here we essentially do a meatless Lent. I say essentially because we do eat meat on Sundays and on St. Patrick's Day. You'd think that after years of doing this (at least a decade at this point), I'd have the system down. You'd be wrong. I go into Lent with some ideas, but by the end of the second week, either I'm sick of what I'm making or everyone else is. I'd be perfectly happy to do some sort of meatless soup several times a week, but the males in the family don't consider soup and bread adequate for dinner. Since my son does the traditional fasting of limited meals all through Lent (not just Good Friday and Ash Wednesday), I can understand why he wants his one regular meal to be more substantial. However, my grocery budget simply won't stretch for fresh or frozen fish every night. So I'm back to looking again at recipes that aren't soup, that aren't tuna wiggle (which I'd happily eat), which aren't quiche (which apparently real Vermont men don't eat for dinner), and which aren't too spicy.

Most years I at least go into it with a bit of enthusiasm, but somehow this year my enthusiasm is at about the lowest ebb ever. I've got other things planned for Lent (some saints' biographies to read for one thing), but this meal thing is simply hanging over me like a pall at this point. Perhaps that's a good thing. It truly isn't the going without meat that's a problem for me, it's coming up with meals that actually please the rest of the family. Making them cheerfully may be my greatest Lenten penance.

So how about you? Are you ready for Lent? Do you have any marvelous meatless recipes to recommend that aren't heavy on beans or spice? At the moment I'm trying to figure out things to do with various types of canned seafood which seem to be lots less expensive than fresh or frozen.