Three women discuss the pleasure and benefits of eating the same meal every day. Anastasia has toast with butter or jam for breakfast each morning, which she enjoys for the quiet time alone. Jane eats rice, green vegetables, and tofu for her daily lunch, finding it satisfying despite its simplicity. Sara starts each day with coffee, milk, and toast with jam, using the routine to wake up slowly without demands on her attention. All three women find comfort, ease, and moments of self-care in their consistent daily meals.

1. ‘There is a pleasure to it’: the simple joy of eating the same meal every day
Level: Elementary
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Warmer
a. Answer these questions.
What did you have for breakfast this morning?
Where did you eat it?
When did you eat it - at what time?
What did / will you have for lunch?
Key words
a. Write the words from the wordpools next to the definitions below.
Then find and highlight them in the article to read them in context.
gently greedy protein self-care wholemeal
1. containing the entire wheat grain
2. when you want to eat or drink more food than you need
3. when you look after yourself by eating well, sleeping and exercising
4. slowly, not suddenly
5. a basic chemical substance in food such as meat, eggs, beans, and milk
autopilot demands ingredients pleasure reset
6. the separate foods that you use in a meal
7. a feeling of happiness or enjoyment
8. when you take a break so you feel fresh and ready for work again
9. things that need to be done
10. when you don’t have to think about what you are doing
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b. Use some of the key words above to complete these sentences.
1. The trees moved in the wind.
2. She gets great from her garden.
3. He is always tired in the evening after the of his work.
4. The boy ate all the chocolate biscuits.
5. Mix all the together and put them in a cake tin.

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Level: Elementary
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‘There is a pleasure to it’: the simple joy of eating the same meal every day
Celina Ribeiro
Thu 29 Apr 2021
Every morning, while it is still dark, Anastasia
Pollard makes herself a coffee and toasts her
home-made wholemeal seeded bread. She
puts butter on her toast. Honey if she feels ill.
Jam if she’s feeling “greedy”. She has done
this every day for years and years and years.
Anastasia is one of many people around the
world who eats the same meal every day.
She bakes her bread every week. Baking your
own bread, she says, feels like self-care.
The coffee has to be Lavazza. Though she’s
been in the UK for a long time now, she says
“it connects me with the time I lived in Italy.”
Anastasia does not have her breakfast with her
young son and her husband. The meal is her
time alone. “I like getting up while it’s still dark.
I like how it gently gets lighter and lighter …
I really love sitting in the kitchen with the quiet
and looking at the garden with my coffee and
my toast. I love having this little time to myself.”
‘Three things in a bowl’
Eight years ago, Jane Newton, who lives in
Sydney, decided to eat a three-part lunch
every day.
“Protein, something green, and some carbs*
to get me through the day,” she says. “I didn’t
think about it much. I just said: ‘I’m going to put
these three things in a bowl.’
Her daily lunch is rice, green vegetables
(broccolini usually), and tofu. She used to add
tinned tuna before she went vegetarian a few
years ago: “Although it’s the same basic three
ingredients every day, there is a pleasure to it.
Although she eats at her desk while working,
the few minutes she takes to put her dish
together – always at midday – is a time when
she can reset, a time without demands
or decisions.
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‘It is good to be on autopilot’
“A lot has changed in my life,” says Sara
Carrillo. She has lived in Spain, the UK,
Sydney and now Melbourne. But her breakfast
is always the same. Every day she has coffee
with milk and two slices of toast with butter and
raspberry jam.
Having the same breakfast each morning is,
for Sara, about waking up slowly.
“It’s like a meditation, really. Not having to
think about anything. “Sometimes it’s good to
be on autopilot.”
*carbs – short for carbohydrates
© Guardian News and Media 2021
First published in The Guardian, 29/04/2021
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Level: Elementary
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‘There is a pleasure to it’: the simple joy of eating the same meal every day
4
3 Find the information
a. Put a cross X in the table to show who does what.
Who … Anastasia Jane Sara
lives in Australia?
lives in the UK?
eats the same things for
one meal every day?
bakes her own bread?
eats toast with jam
every day?
only puts jam on her
toast sometimes?
Changed her meal when
she became a vegetarian
Likes to wake up slowly
Uses the time she saves
to reset
Gets up early so she can eat
on her own
Says that eating the same
meal every day is good
for their mental health
Language – phrases
a. Put these words in the right order to make phrases from the article.
1. bread my bake own
2. up dark while get it’s
3. desk eat my at
4. up slowly wake
5. breakfast alone have
b. Now use the sentence beginnings and the phrases to talk about your life.
I like to / I don’t like to
I never / always / sometimes / often

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Level: Elementary
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‘There is a pleasure to it’: the simple joy of eating the same meal every day
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Discussion
a. Discuss these questions.
• What is your morning routine?
E.g. I wake up at xxxxx, and then I xxxxx
• When do you find quiet time for yourself?
E.g. After lunch before I start work again.
• How do you do this?
E.g. I sit on my balcony for ten minutes and look at the sky.
In your own words
a. Write the ingredients for these two meals that you could eat every day for a year:
Breakfast
Lunch

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Level: Elementary – Teacher’s notes
‘There is a pleasure to it’: the simple joy of eating the same meal every day
3. Find the information
a. Students read the questions on the left which all start
with Who … ? , find the answers to the questions in
the article, and place a cross X in the table to show
who does what.
1. Warmer
a. Students share their answers to these questions
which serve to introduce the topic of the article.
2. Key words
a. Students write the words from the wordpools next
to the definitions on the lines provided. Then they
should find and highlight them in the article to read
them in context.
Key:
1. wholemeal
2. greedy
3. self-care
4. gently
5. protein
6. ingredients
7. pleasure
8. reset
9. demands
10. autopilot
b. Before reading the article carefully, students
use some of the key words to fill the gaps in the
sentences to ensure that they understand and know
how the words are used in other contexts.
Key:
1. gently
2. pleasure
3. demands
4. greedy
5. ingredients
Article summary: How eating the same
things every day can benefit your life
Time: 90 minutes, plus extra time
for presentations
Skills: Reading, Speaking, Writing
Language focus: Vocabulary
Materials needed: One copy of the
worksheet per student
Who … Anastasia Jane Sara
lives in Australia? x x
lives in the UK? x
eats the same
things for one
meal every day?
x x x
bakes her
own bread?
x
eats toast with
jam every day?
x
only puts jam
on her toast
sometimes?
x
Changed her
meal when
she became
a vegetarian?
x
Likes to wake
up slowly?
(x) x
Uses the time
she saves
to reset?
x
Gets up early so
she can eat on
her own?
x
Says that eating
the same meal
every day is
good for their
mental health?
x x x
4. Language – phrases
a. Students first put the words in each line into the
correct order to make phrases that are used in the
article. They can find them in the article to check
their answers and to see how they were used there.
Key:
1. bake my own bread
2. get up while it’s dark
3. eat at my desk
4. wake up slowly / slowly wake up
5. have breakfast alone.

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b. Then they use each one to talk about their own
life using the sentence beginnings provided to
help them.
E.g. I like to wake up slowly. I often get up while it’s
still dark.
5. Discussion
a. Students discuss the questions that are directly
related to the topic of the article as well as to their
own work or home lives.
6. In your own words
a. Students work either on their own, with a partner or
in small groups.
They should come up with meals that they could imagine
eating every single day for a year.
Have students share and talk about their suggestions and
allow the group to vote for their favourite combinations.
If your class is open to the idea, you could ask them to
eat the same thing for breafast for a week or a month.
Then, follow up with a class discussion on how they felt
about the experience.
Level: Elementary – Teacher’s notes
‘There is a pleasure to it’: the simple joy of eating the same meal every day