Many years ago I
used to love nothing more than to go out to eat at a restaurant, hit the drive-thru
for some fast food or even order pizza.
As I get older however, I find that to be less and less appealing. Within the past ten years or so I don’t seem
to tolerate the greasiness or saltiness of the food that is prepared. I usually leave a restaurant feeling ill and
like I have a rock sitting in my stomach.
More recently, I find the quality of food offered at restaurants these
days isn’t as good and the prices have gone up substantially. The fun of going out to eat just isn’t there
for me anymore.
In the back I have some fish fillets & chicken patties
What is fun for
me now is to recreate those meals in my kitchen and eat them at home. With company coming throughout the summer and
lots of opportunities to feed people I picked up a few things at the store to
help me prepare meals at home so we could “dine in”. One of my children loves the chicken
sandwiches and seasoned fries at Jack In The Box so I picked up frozen chicken
patties and hamburger buns at the store.
I can easily cut up a potato, season it myself and make fries in my
toaster oven while cooking up a frozen chicken patty. The sandwich goes together with a little
mayonnaise and some iceberg lettuce. It
actually tastes better, is fresher and no one goes away feeling ill. Best of all it costs me pennies on the dollar
to prepare that meal.
Another popular
item is an Egg McMuffin. I recreated
that with a toasted English muffin, fried egg, deli ham and a slice of
cheese. We make all kinds of varieties
of that sandwich. Sometimes I use a
sausage patty, sometimes the egg is scrambled with diced ham and cheese already
in it and sometimes I use pepperjack cheese.
Other times I whip up a pan of scrambled eggs with ham or sausage and we
use that with warm tortillas, grated cheese and salsa to make breakfast
burritos.
I cooked ahead a dozen sausage patties to keep in the freezer 
French toast using markdown bread, homegrown eggs,
milk on sale & homemade pancake syrup
A hearty
breakfast after a morning hike is easy to prepare such as blueberry pancakes or
French toast. I made up a bunch of
sausage patties using two rolls of sausage I got on markdown and cooked them
all up in my electric skillet. Now all I
have to do is reheat what we need in the microwave while the pancakes or French
toast are cooking.
These markdown burger patties came in really handy
We’ve made
grilled burgers using ground beef I bought on sale, cheese on sale, buns on
markdown and fresh produce. Potato salad
from scratch has been a wonderful side dish along with homemade baked beans in
the slow cooker. Grilled steaks, baked
potatoes and salad meals all prepared from items purchased on sale or on
markdown meant a great dinner on the deck and no monstrous bill at the
steakhouse. And it was delicious.
Taco salad 
Homemade pizza night
Over the years I’ve
created many a favorite restaurant dish simply by Googling a recipe. There are so many really good copycat recipes
out there, even for your favorite condiments.
I picked up frozen fish fillets to make a quick fish & chips supper
one evening and made my own tarter sauce from scratch. A can of Progresso clam chowder I had bought
on sale for 99¢ was also used.
This big tub of organic spring mix on markdown proved helpful 
Sandwiches & drinks in the cooler with a bag of chips
We’ve done a lot
of outdoor activities this summer so far and packing the picnic cooler has been
a big part of that. I’ve made a lot of
fresh Cobb salads, chef salads, chicken Caesar salads, Asian salads and taco
salads to pack with dressing and homemade croutons, chow mein noodles or crushed
tortilla chips as toppings. One day I
made sandwiches using markdown deli meat and bread I’d picked up at the
store. Another day we hodge podged
together a bunch of leftovers for a sort of smorgasboard. Sometimes you just need to put out a package
of hotdogs, buns and a bag of chips.
Mushroom pasta alfredo 
Chef salad
I also find that
in the time it takes to drive to a restaurant and place your order you can
easily make your own meal and sit down and enjoy it in the same amount of
time. Yes, you do have to wash the dishes
and clean up the kitchen afterward, but at least you don’t have a big bill and
you don’t have to leave a tip. And with
company you usually have helpers so it isn’t a big job. Many a good laugh or a good conversation has
been had while preparing a meal or loading a dishwasher. Best of all no one is complaining about their
stomach or the dent in their wallet.
Making potstickers can be a fun activity & they're delicious 
Taco night!
Do you have any
great tips for “dining in”? What is your
favorite restaurant meal?
Your meals look and sound amazing! As I've gotten older and had some health issues, I also can't tolerate the fried foods and sodium that restaurants prepare. There are only a handful of places that I consider eating at these days. I hope to be able to follow your example and cook all our meals at home!
ReplyDeleteAnymore I think it is the way to go. :)
DeleteOh, I agree completely! We celebrated Mother's Day at a breakfast place that serves Belgian Waffles. We hadn't been there in years, but we all remembered it fondly. It didn't live up to those memories AT ALL. We had to stand in line and order at a register and pay before we even got the food. Then we had to get our own PLASTIC cutlery, napkins, and serve ourselves our own drinks (tea, water, coffee) in paper cups. We found our own table. Our food came out (I'm shocked we didn't have to pick it up ourselves) on foam plates with tiny cups of syrup--we had to go back to the register for more, and they stingily doled out 1 more for each person. No more, or we had to pay extra. McDonalds provides a better dining experience than what we had! And the bill was ridiculous. That place, like so many others, is crossed off our list forever.
ReplyDeleteSo, yeah. I also love to recreate my favorite restaurant meals! Like you, I make my own Egg McMuffin with keto buns, 2% cheese, and uncured ham. I also make my own chicken sandwiches, again with the keto buns, pickles, and spicy chicken cutlets. We eat a lot of salads around here, too. I make my own broccoli salad, cole slaw, and egg, pasta, and potato salads instead of paying outrageous deli prices--mine are so much fresher and tastier.
I just whomped up a batch of chicken taquitos for the freezer; they cook in 20 minutes from frozen--just as convenient as the store-bought variety! I found a delicious egg drop soup that I can have ready in 15 minutes from start to finish, using my own homemade chicken stock.
Your meals look superb! There is SO much pleasure to be had from making your own meals instead of buying ready-made.
Oh, how disappointing for you. I wouldn't want to go to that restaurant either. I don't go out to eat so I can work there. ;)
DeleteCooking at home is always the best. We know the quality of the food and what is put into the dish. There are only a couple of places that we will eat at because like you said they were too salty, so expensive and we ended up feeling poorly after eating.
ReplyDeleteThat is so true. I like to know what I am eating.
DeleteFood looks fantastic. We too cook/eat most all of our meals at home.
ReplyDeleteIt really is better for us. Healthwise as well as for our wallets. ;)
DeleteI have a few favorite restaurants that I dearly love but I agree that I’ve been disappointed in the meals at so many places.
ReplyDeleteYep. Sad, but true.
DeleteI have found us doing this much more, too! In fact, the restaurant meals we've been to in recent months, usually because we're meeting up with our kids, have been 'okay,' but very expensive. This bugs me, especially when the food is 'meh,' as my girlies would say.
ReplyDeleteWe do have a twist on it, though. If we do go out to eat, nothing is left -- we take a doggie bag home. And that becomes the basis for another meal. Right now, I'm heating up a bowl of Olive Garden soup ('to go,' thanks to an especially kind waiter) that will be stretched into two bowls, thanks to some added potatoes. (We already had what was left of our spaghetti, mixed together, fried -- and served as another meal.) Even the smallest piece of steak can be minced and fried up with hashbrown potatoes for breakfast. (I'll add any green garnish, too -- or even leftover appetizers.) So yes, we spend extra for a restaurant meal sometimes. But at least we get one or two more meals out of it.
My favorite restaurant: Red Robin. Fill up on fries, then save at least half the burger to go with a salad or bowl of soup next meal!
Having leftovers to bring home does take the sting out of the overall price.
DeleteI print out menus from restaurants with interesting offerings. I then search for recipes to make anything that sounds good. I keep these in a binder. I just type in what food I'm interested in and click on images and bunches of menues appear! Lol. So fun.
ReplyDeleteYears ago after a long day we came home from kid's activities past our usual dinner time. I was tired. I asked the kids "shall we get carryout or should I make something? " and my oldest looked at me and asked "would you mind cooking? I'd rather have your food."
When I first was married and as we had kids I didn't like to cook at all. But once I discovered the creativity involved and the fun of making good food I came to enjoy it. Now I love taking bargains and turning them into meals better than most restaurants!!
~margaret
Great idea Margaret. I might have to try that. Sounds like fun to me too.
DeleteFor many years our go to social outing with friends has been breakfast out but it is just not the same now and so expensive. Yesterday we had eggs, hash browns, bacon and homemade bread toast, today it was Belgium waffles, sausage patties and strawberries. With coffee either one of those breakfasts out for the two of us is now nearly $30 with tip! Then the portions started to get smaller and smaller and we found ourselves starving by the time we got home and then eating something else!
ReplyDeleteWe have salvage grocery stores here and they get in a lot of restaurant frozen foods. It is very inexpensive to recreate the same tastes with the same foods at home. We have a huge bag of frozen McDonald's FF that still taste like them cooked in the air fryer. We buy bags of precooked sausage patties with 35 in the bag for 3.99. Again a familiar restaurant taste and for so little. The hash browns for yesterday's breakfast are a restaurant product, possibly Bob Evans, and they were 60 cents a bag. Just the fact that so many of these foods are being sold salvage indicates that America is eating at home and enjoying it!
Gee, Lana -- where do you live? I'd like to go to those grocery salvage stores!
DeleteWe are in SC but you can go to buysalvagefood.com to find stores near you.
DeleteWe like: tacos, chicken shawarma, steak, PF Changs lettuce wraps, & my husband cooks incredible Persian food. Sooo delicious. He regularly makes beef kebabs (koobideh) & tadiq (rice), or grilled chicken.
ReplyDelete