Breaking the Rules: Rethinking Food, Mealtimes, and Entertaining

+ my recent game night eats

Happy Monday! If you’re here for the Sheet Pan Sumac-Lime Chicken and Vegetables recipe, that is the bonus content for paid subscribers (thank you!) Scroll to the bottom.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the so-called "rules" we follow when it comes to food, mealtimes, and entertaining. Some of them make sense, but others? They seem to exist simply because someone, somewhere, decided they should.

This has been on my mind because a few of my students recently mentioned that their spouses don’t consider soup a “meal” or they were conditioned to believe that any meal without animal protein is incomplete. Another example: my daughter was home recently, and after having a late breakfast, she was back in the kitchen at 12:30 p.m. for lunch. I asked if she was hungry, and after a moment’s thought, she replied, “No, but isn’t it lunchtime?”

Who says we have to stick to the rules our parents followed, the ones our culture has adopted, or those that food manufacturers push on us?

I was reminded of this again when I posted about a recent game night I hosted for my girlfriends. I kept it simple—just a main meal, no appetizers, no alcohol, and no dessert (aside from a little piece of date bark from the freezer). The response? “Really? How did you get away with that? I don’t know if I could do that, but I’m so over the excessive amounts of food!”

So, can we rewrite the script to better fit our own lives? I think so. Let’s start here.

Take meals, for instance. Do we really need to eat three square meals a day? If you’re not hungry in the morning, do you have to force yourself to eat breakfast? Or if you’ve eaten enough during the day, who says you need dinner? And that magic number of 64 ounces of water a day—does it truly apply to everyone? What about 10,000 steps? Who decided that was the gold standard?

Then there’s entertaining. Somewhere along the way, it became an unspoken rule that heavy appetizers are a must when having people over. More is more. But why? If you’re serving a hearty meal, aren’t a bowl of olives and nuts enough? And who says dinner parties need a perfectly set table and a full-course menu? What if a potluck or a simple one-dish meal made hosting more enjoyable?

Even our grocery shopping habits seem to be dictated by outdated ideas. We’re told to do one big shop a week, but what if smaller, more frequent trips actually save money and reduce waste?

Some other rules worth questioning:

• Salads should always be a starter. Why not have one as the main dish—or even at the end of a meal, like the French do?

• Dinner must be a well-balanced plate. Some nights, you just want a big bowl of roasted veggies or a hunk of good bread with cheese. That’s okay!

• Only red wine goes with red meat, white wine with fish. Why not drink what you actually enjoy?

• No eating after 8 PM. In general, that is a good rule, but if you’re starving at 9:30, eat something light and move on!

• Meal prep has to be done on Sundays. If that doesn’t work for you, prep in small bits throughout the week instead.

• Bread should always be served with dinner. If the meal doesn’t need it, why force it?

• Salad needs a separate fork. One fork works just fine!

So many of these “rules” feel ingrained in our habits, but the truth is, they can be rewritten—or ignored entirely. What are some food or entertaining rules you’ve broken? I’d love to hear how you’ve made them work for you!

As for two recent game nights that I hosted, I’m happy to share the details, although some of the recipes I am testing for my online classes. But you get the idea!

1st Night: DIY Greek Meatball Bowl Night (great idea when you have different eating preferences)

Greek Turkey Meatballs (Testing for June online cooking class)

Three types of salad greens (arugula, iceberg, baby gems)

Lemon rice (basmati rice cooked with a little butter, salt and a smashed garlic clove.  Before serving, fluff with zest of 1 lemon)

Accompaniments: feta, hearts of palm, sliced pepperoncini, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, quick pickled onions, creamy feta dressing (recipe coming to the website soon), creamy dill dressing (Testing for June online cooking class)

Chunky Monkey Date Bark recipe in the caption of this Instagram reel

2nd Night

Sheet Pan Sumac-Lime Chicken and Vegetables (recipe below for paid subscribers)

Same Lemon rice (doubled and reheated)

Simple salad with Herby Parmesan “Ranch” Dressing (recipe coming to the website soon)

Chunky Monkey Date Bark recipe in the caption of this Instagram reel

Even More Musings is an extension of my weekly newsletter, Monday Musings. My newsletter is a sponsor-free zone and is fully supported by readers like you. Consider becoming a paid subscriber to get Even More Musings! Each week, I share my tips and tricks along with a new recipe. For only $5/month or $50/year (less than $1 a newsletter), you'll also gain access to the entire archive, featuring favorites like My New Hyper-fixation High-Protein Fluffy Breakfast Bowl and the Hillstone Copycat Emerald Kale Salad. This week I am sharing a sheet pan chicken and veggies recipe that my girlfriends loved and it was SO EASY.