“Mutton yesterday, mutton today, and if don’t look like more mutton tomorrow.”
“Quite your griping”
(One of the trolls sneezes) “That’s lovely that is, a floater!”
“Might improve the flavor”
“Everything tastes the same, everything tastes like chicken.”
“I’m just saying, a little appreciation would be nice.”
(The hobbit is spotted) “Can we eat it?”
“We can try!”
-The three trolls in The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey
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We’re supposed to be thankful for our food, right? It’s a gift from God, a sign of his provision, and he even lets it be something flavorful, to add taste and delight to our life. Not to mention how much work our mothers put into it and how other people don’t have any food. It’s pretty clear-cut, right?
Food = Thankfulness
…but it’s really hard, isn’t it? When you have had the same meal about five times in a row, with maybe a break for one other things before the repeat of it for several days all over again. I mean, it’s not there’s a lot of variation you can do with three ingredients you are able to eat.
There are two truths here. The first is, that our joy should not depend on food, that we should be thankful for it, for the few things we can eat.
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 (NIV)
That is the truth, and with God, we can rejoice. We will at least be sure that we will never take his gift of food and variation for granted again! It doesn’t change the fact that it is really depressing to eat the same thing all day everyday. It wears on you, and you begin to lack hope that you will ever eat other things again. Your thoughts are filled with toast… or cottage cheese… or even tomato… Obviously this is very unhealthy mentally. And so we must return to the Scripture above.
Returning to logic is beneficial as well: healing can come, and very likely will come if you treat your gut nicely by removing it from the environment that made it not able to handle all those foods, and if you give it gentle, nice foods so that it can heal. A scab on your knee doesn’t heal if you repeatedly introduce it to the pavement where it got injured. That environment is clearly not where it should be. It doesn’t heal either if you pick at it… it just hurts more! Rather, you clean it and put a band-aid on it, right?
There are a few practical things however, that you can do to add delight and variation to your food.
- Add herbs- both fresh and dried. Most people have herbs go as one of the last things, so hopefully you can use this idea. It adds different flavors, and fresh herbs in particular make it look prettier and more appetizing as well. Plus, it’s so easy to add! Chives, cilantro, rosemary, dill, oregano…. Make a chimichurri sauce out of ground up herbs, avocado or olive oil, and you can even add avocado if you can tolerate it, though it isn’t crucial.
- Add little things if you can, things like olives, capers, or onion if you can. Pressed garlic also makes it interesting. Sauteed onion in particular is delicious!
- If you can tolerate it, experiment with having vegetables both raw and cooked. Spinach changes into an almost entire different food cooked vs raw.
- Add chicken broth to things and turn it into a soup.
- Try cooking vegetables for desserts- apples, pears, berries, peaches…. as warning though, it does change the sugars, so it may be something to do slowly.
- Use lemon or lime juice a a salad dressing.
- Discover vegetables that you didn’t even know existed! I had never had parsnips, or brussels sprouts, before this! You can do the same thing with meat: try buffalo, venison, sheep, etc.
Do you have other ideas? Share them below so others can try them too!
What is your ‘mutton’? For me it is canned salmon cooked with spinach, salt, and garlic… ugh! For several months it was a very boring staple. I took a few months off though, and began to enjoy it again. Now it is my breakfast everyday. So what is your ‘mutton’? Comment below!