The Perils of Monday Meatloaf: A Recipe for Disaster

Dec 15, 2008 by Anna Migeon

Janet makes meatloaf every Monday. Every Tuesday it’s spaghetti. And so on and so forth. Ad nauseum. It’s no wonder she doesn’t enjoy grocery shopping, making dinner, or eating it, either, truth be told. It’s just a job. Just think how her children feel.

“The wise mother does not say, ‘I always give my children so and so,’” wrote educational reformer Charlotte Mason. “They should not have anything ‘always’; every meal should have some little surprise.”

Too little variety in the diet week after week makes for a child who is “inadequately nourished, simply because he is tired of it,” according to Mason. 

One study indicates that at least to some degree, food is only good for you if you enjoy it. (https://www.thehappydinnertable.com/2008/12/06/it-doesnt-matter-if-she-likes-brocoli-as-long-as-she-eats-it-or-does-it/).

Enjoyment of food is actually essential to good digestion. Just as with genuine learning, which Mason declared only takes place when the mind processes material voluntarily and with delight, children need a wide variety of the best quality food we can give them.

“Gastronomic boredom leads to lots of unhealthy eating,” agrees the author of French Women Don’t Get Fat, Mireille Guiliano.

It’s a shame to eat the same few things over and over when we are so blessed a vast variety of good, quality, delectable foods, with flavors, textures and colors in the thousands. It’s an insult to God. How would you feel if you created ten wonderful gifts for someone you love, who was willing to accept only one or two of them, refusing to even open the others?

Like with the oxygen masks on an airplane, feel no guilt in taking care of yourself first, before you try to please your family. It’s one of the privileges of the head chef. I flip through my recipes and ask myself, “What do I feel like eating? What do I feel like making?” https://www.thehappydinnertable.com/2009/02/27/having-trouble-getting-kids-to-eat-feed-them-but-cook-for-yourself/

As you go, you will build an ever-growing list of great finds worth making again. Dinner, instead of being a necessary drag, can be an endless flow of novelty and discovery.

 © Sacred Appetite / Anna Migeon / 15 December 2008  / All rights reserved