Food Challenge: Eat-in More

Apparently last week was National Eat-In week.  I must have missed it from all my cooking.  I recently purchased the first ever (in the US at least) Parsi cook book.  My MIL and I have been pouring over the pages, she reminiscing about her own childhood in India and me, wondering how foods cooked with practically the same ingredients could taste so different from dish to dish. 

There are many reasons why we don't eat out much.  First of all, it's expensive.  Personally, I'd rather use my extra income to pay for a housekeeper than to eat at a restaurant a couple nights a week.  Second, it's much healthier to eat at home.  You control the portions, the fat, the salt.  In California, it is now law for restaurants to disclose the number of calories and fat in every dish.  It's scary that a BBQ Chopped Salad at CPK has more than my entire day's allotment of calories.  Lastly, it is faster to cook at home than it ever is to eat out.  Making meals from scratch doesn't mean you have to be a slave in your kitchen.  Most nights, dinner is on the table in 45 minutes or less.  There's no way that you can get your brood in the car, drive to your favorite restaurant, decide what to order, and get your meal in that time. 

Menu plan (yes, that really is my menu this week)

If you sit down for 15 minutes on a Sunday to figure out what you are going to make for dinner each night of the week, then you can be smarter about how you grocery shop.  No more throwing away the bag of zucchini that never made it to a meal.  You know exactly what you need and when to use it. For those of you who say you want flexibility, I rarely actually cook the dinner I planned on the night that I planned it.  My weekly menu moves around.  So the spaghetti and meatballs on Tuesday may actually be made and eaten on Friday.  By having all the ingredients for the entire week, I know that I can change it up and move stuff around as our schedule requires.

Double-Up

Whenever you are going to make something that takes extra time, double (or triple) the recipes. 

Spaghetti sauce, soups, curries, stews, even lasagnas all freeze beautifully.  Just let it thaw in your fridge a day or two before you plan on using it for dinner.  If you're already making the mess of preparing it once, you might as well just increase your ingredients to get more meals out of the same time commitment.  Right now in my freezer are two different soups, a lamb curry, and three containers of spaghetti sauce (believe, homemade always tastes better than store-bought). All will get used in the next month when I want a "night off" but don't want the expense of eating out.

Start by cooking one meal a week

If you don't already cook dinner every night, I challenge you to try.  If starting from scratch each evening scares you, then give yourself a simple goal. For every prepackaged box of a dinner you purchase, try to make one meal with fresh ingredients.  Do something simple: grilled chicken breasts, a fresh steamed vegetable, and some brown rice.  It's easy.  It's healthy.  It's homemade. At it will be done before you can get your brood into the car to go to the restaurant.