OK, I'm asking just so I can understand this concept, because at first blush, it seems foreign to me.

You're saying that in order to comply with the Vatican, you ate pizza or spaghetti with no meat on/in it on Friday nights?

I'm asking only because I find it hard to imagine feeding hungry kids spaghetti with a meatless red sauce, or pizza without sausage...

Times were different then, I guess. After all back then, when it was corn on the cob season, my mother used to feed us a dinner of just corn on the cob. We'd all eat 2-3 ears of corn slathered with butter, and that was it for dinner.

These days, when I mention that to my husband or friends, no one can imagine having the corn without some sort of accompanying protein.

And many of us report having had our share of pancakes only dinners -- though a dinner of pancakes with sausages is much heartier.