March 18, 2025 // Diocese

Food for Thought: Tending to Our Spiritual Gardens

Bethany Beebe

The sun and warmer weather drew my family and me out into the yard to break our winter’s fast of outdoor space management. One person raked leaves, and another brushed the ashes from the grill. Flowerpots were relocated, now in a spot they will not be forgotten; all of us have a terrible weakness for anything that can grow, and everything that comes home will need a home.

While things were accomplished, we are blatantly aware that the work is not yet finished. There were lots of places in the yard that are not just unprepared, they were not even visited yet for an assessment. The labor of love is a process that cannot be rushed; it has to be experienced, one step at a time.

The wonder of the garden is not the day the last pumpkin is picked and the final tomato cage stored away; the wonder unfolds through the growing season. There is wonder in the planting. There is wonder in watering as the sun comes up because it will be a blisteringly hot day. There is wonder in picking the first tomato, and there is wonder in spreading the mulch that will protect the ground through the winter.

Bethany Beebe
Tuna burgers are an interesting alternative to the typical burgers on the grill during Lent.

Lent is like preparing the garden. We have begun, and we are trying hard, but we have not hit the harvest of Easter. The acts of service and penance, the acts of tithing and reconciliation, can begin to get long and tiring. Easter can feel as though it will never come, like watching it snow after you have already planted the green onions and pansies. More predictable than the weather, the forecast of faith is nothing but blue skies ahead. Easter is coming. We can rest assured that Lenten challenges soon pass, and, even more optimistically, the God we serve during Lent and outside this season will offer us spring eternal.

For those days when all the activities of spring keep you on your toes, a fast, simple meal can put some spring in your step. Tuna burgers can be prepared in a variety of ways. This recipe is influenced by a couple in the recipe bank of Safe Catch tuna. Like their burger “cousins,” additions are the discretion of the cook. They can be served on a bun with lettuce and tomato and other side dishes. I like to treat them more like a stand-alone main with warmed vegetables and other sides complimented with a source of whole grain. A side of fruit and yogurt or adding a little cheese to the burger can nicely round a balanced meal.

Tuna Burgers 

Ingredients

2, 5-ounce cans Safe Catch Yellowfin Tuna

2 eggs

1/2 cup chopped red onion (optional)

Approximately half of a 4-ounce can of no-salt-added pieces and stems mushrooms (optional)

Spray oil

Directions

Carefully chop the red onion to desired size. In a pan, add spray oil and sauté the onion to desired tenderness.

While the onions are cooking, in a bowl, add the two cans of tuna (drained). Breaking up the tuna before adding other ingredients makes it easier to have an evenly consistent texture in the end.

Add the two eggs. If you choose to season, to taste, the entire batch of burgers, this would be an ideal point in the process to do that. Since I freeze them and use them one at a time, I like to wait so that I can shake things up each time I use one, changing the flavoring for each use.

Chop the half can of mushrooms into small pieces, then include them in the bowl. (If you wish, the sauteed onion and mushrooms could be separated from the batch and served on top of the burger, even adding a cheese, like Swiss, as a topper.)

Thoroughly mix the ingredients. I made five patties, each with about 17 grams of protein and a little more than 100 calories. One will be for the day’s evening meal when the patties were made; the remainder are individually placed in wax paper and frozen for the future, to be cooked in the oven, in a pan, or, most ideally, on the grill!