Fasting Question

I notice that a lot of my fellow Orthodox bloggers post various vegan or otherwise appropriate recipes and recommendations during the Lenten seasons. Why? Is it really appropriate for us to continue to eat relatively normal foods during Lent, with the only exception being that they're technically meat or dairy free?

I've seen recipes for things like Lenten chili and muffins. The instinct behind such cooking strikes me as odd. The peasants who have fasted for centuries didn't resort to food substitutes like bean chili or soy milk. Take my grandmother. During Lent her cooking revolves around three basic things: rice, potatoes, and various green things (like spinach). It's generally bland, dull food. The absence of her normal cheese pies and roasted lamb is quite obvious.

That's not to say that fasting should be difficult. Lent should be joyous in its own way, as I've previously tried to explain. Nothing is difficult when Christ's name is on our lips. But I think it is appropriate for us to forego things that even appear to be normal food during Lent. We should develop the ability to realize that fasting is quite easy, no matter how extreme. Just as tons of saints did before us, we too can subsist on little more than Grace; the laws of biology and digestion crumble before a God that can send food down from Heaven for his prophets or encourage men to live prayerful lives in barren wastelands with nothing but the occasional locust to much on.

Am I right, or totally of base?