Appreciate the responses. I could probably have done a better job of explaining, but it sounds like what I'm talking about falls into a bit of a grey area.
The aircraft is not IFR certified, nor does it have IFR equipment. But its also not just a Cub with wet compass and slip skid. It has a Garmin G3X avionics unit in it, but no external NAV source like a Garmin GTN 640 or Nav radios. It has its own internal GPS source which does not have any approaches. The screen presentation is standard Garmin glass cockpit.
The intent wasn't to fly "in the IFR system", or even do approaches for currency. I have another flying partner that I maintain IFR currency with. It was more just spitballin for ideas on a way to split costs and also have both of us log some relatively affordable time.
We fly in a busy area of SoCal, so the hypothetical plan would have been to do a cross country somewhere to get some food. Pick up flight following on the ground, take off, and once a few miles from the airport throw on the foggles and navigate to the destination by tracking the course line or radar vectors by sole reference to the instruments. Then, once within 5-10miles of the destination, take off the foggles and do a standard VFR pattern entry and landing.
I'm thinking that it is technically legal because of how the reg is worded and that student pilots log simulated instrument during their PPL training. But, it's probably too much of a grey area for me to feel comfortable putting it in my log book.
Appreciate the discussion though. If anyone has additional thoughts, feel free to chime in.