oh,they'll always tell you not to make anything special for them, but you end up making extra dishes so they can have plenty to eat...well, so be it....
but as Julia Child always said, you have got to have FAT to give things taste....so not having at least a base of a meat for a meal, can make for a very dreary meal unless you use lots of BUTTER or OIL.....
she was also one to use real cream....Ina Gartner is the same way....you need the basic fats for good favor..
maybe the problem is just that we Americans eat too much meat....
Julia Child also used to say that if you didn’t eat butter, that you would have poor health and flaky skin. She did live into her nineties...