Eating out or cooking at home?

[skyrimkillmod]

Alot of people tell me to eat at home to save money and that its signifcantly cheaper but I think they are asumeing that i can cook very well and make everything from scratch.  I useally prefer just to order off the dollar menu and such, I find it benificial because im not waisting any food, ex. cooking a spegeti dinner witch some will be tossed in the trash and also the half used jar of spegeti sauce will eventually get put down the drain.  

[Captain Cobra]

Why not keep the extra spaghetti as leftovers?

[maybenexttime]

eating from the dollar menu is so bad for your health. I mean I wouldn't mind eating dollar menu every day but i force myself not to. 

 

And yeah why can't you keep the leftovers?

[Advint]

When it comes to preparing food verses going out to eat, I stand behind doing it yourself. Even if your not the greatest cook, you have the capacity to learn. Coinciding with that there are plenty of resources available to you as a beginner. As far as saving you money, well that depends on what you make. You can save money by making certain types of meals, but when it comes to food you only get out what you put in. Where in the quality of your food is directly linked to the quality of your ingredients (especially with bread). Joy of Cooking is a pretty common cookbook full of all sorts of meals, and is sort of intermediate in skill.

As far as putting left over food in the garbage and putting sauce down the drain, I agree with the former post as to why you could not save them. I understand if you are having that go from the plate to said locations. In which case you merely need to practice Omniscience in knowing how much you are capable of eating and will eat. Having eyes bigger than your stomach too often can be telling, or at least I believe so.

Short answer, make the food yourself, you'll thank yourself later. Especially when you don't have a debilitating disease caused by too much fast food.

[CoxcombCornking]

You do not have to be a gourmet chef to prepare extremely edible meals.

Thousands of professionals have made billions of dollars showing the rest of us how to cook simple affordable dinners.

Most of my adult life had been spent as a bachelor who DID use his kitchen; but not cooking every single night.

One answer from experience: Casseroles and Stews.

Cook up a nice big pot of something that will last you for the week, or at least a few days.

Don't make so much that you get sick of it, and try to mix up the recipes a little bit.

Pots of chili are a good starter, as is tuna casserole.

 

http://www.bettycrocker.com/homepage/

[skyrimkillmod]

lol i got served

[gvman3670]

I really prefer to cook myself. I get control of what I eat and the quality is always higher if you're spending the same amount of money as you would eating out. I've been cooking since I was quite young so at this point in time I am really capable in the kitchen.

 

Tonight will be chicken cordon bleu, tossed salad (mind out of the gutter, guys! ) and whatever else I feel like throwing in there. Probably baked potatoes. And the chicken breast is already deboned and pounded flat, ready to go and sitting in the fridge.

 

Buying a whole chicken breast and skinning/deboning it yourself lets you get almost 4X as much for the same price as buying it already skinless and boneless. Plus it's just a matter of ripping the skin off and making a couple quick cuts. I can do this in less than 2 minutes. MONEY SAVED!

[Guest endgameaddiction]

eating from the dollar menu is so bad for your health. I mean I wouldn't mind eating dollar menu every day but i force myself not to. 

 

And yeah why can't you keep the leftovers?

 

Home style cooking is the best. Left overs are good up to 2 days after. I don't like freezing food either. I'm more of the type that likes to just go and buy the products and make it that same day so frozen foods don't lose taste and texture.

[Coopervane]

Eating out... yes, this is for me.

[Dallas-Arbiter]

As someone who works in the food service industry, my advice is to eat at home, always. No restaurant or fast food joint serves anything healthy. Back when I first started working at this restaurant, I did try everything, now you couldn't pay me to eat anything from there.

 

[Mord Sif]

Sorry. Someone had to say it:

 

 

There's no reason you can't "eat out" and cook at home. You just need a willing partner! 

 

 

Seriously, I cook maybe 95% of the time, and go out every now and then as a treat. I love cooking, though. I find it really therapeutic and calming. And the fact I tend to drink a lot of wine when I cook helps too! I'm no expert. I pretty much make it up as I go along and throw ingredients in together. Sometimes it doesn't work, but you live and learn.

 

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger... though it can sometimes give you stomach cramps 

[Rayblue]

No restaurant or fast food joint serves anything healthy. 

 

Better consult the restaurant guide as to which one serves a better variety (I prefer fish and stewed vegetables, had them for cheap but filling).

[AKM]

Understandable about proportions when cooking.  So learn some math and scale to what you need!  I regularly double one of my favorite recipes so that there's enough extra for a few days.  Also, if I'm going to have to clean all that cooking ware anyway, I am not going to do so more than absolutely necessary.  Leftovers are a fact of life, and often a good one.  Yes, spaghetti can get rubbery if reheated.  The trick is to put it in a mostly enclosed container with a little water at the bottom.  The water gets absorbed as it gets microwaved, and takes the rubberiness away. 

 

Find some new recipes!  Old staples are good, but gotta try something new every once in a while.  Mom has discovered allrecipes.com.  Some a keepers, some get tossed after a single trial, but it's new stuff.  I've tossed some she's kept, it all depends on taste.

 

"Out" food is hideously expensive, remember, they're in it to make a living.  "In" food is by far more economical, as the overhead is the same, roughly, but the proportions (for raw ingredients) are far, far bigger, so you end up with mostly cost of the food rather than the money going to the provider. 

 

An additional advantage: if you prepare it, you know exactly what's in it.  That alone is worth the trouble.

[Lobzpooatu]

Ha thanks for the water tip AKM!

 

Leftovers rule,  but mine usually only last until midnight.  I've always got some stuff that I can eat cold in there.  Chicken,  pizza stuff like that.  Anyway there are tons of easy cheap things to cook that are pretty dang good.  Also if you know how to use a grill OMG you're so much better off.  Here's a few examples what we eat on regular basis that's cheap and easy to cook and some of it's actually good for you.

 

-Chicken,  fish and pork!  You can buy this stuff so cheap.  Like five or six bucks can get you a lot and it's all pretty easy and fast to grill.  Wait for the thermostat to reach 350 and let each piece set for about ten minutes on each side.  Throw some sauce on it if you like and spice them bitches up!  That's assuming you have a grill.  Otherwise the stove will do just fine as well,  but can take way longer.

 

-Boxed meals like

 

 

are easy to cook and only take about ten or fifteen minutes.  We've feed three people off just one of these.  Taste pretty good too and for three bucks for as much as you get?  Awesome!

 

-Fajitas!!!!  Seriously if you're going to go to Taco Bell and pay a buck  for a craptacular auto shit inducing burrito then check this out.  You can get a ten stack of tortillas for a buck fiddy and two bags of shredded chicken,  beef or steak for two fiddy and a head of lettuce for a buck that will make ten amazing wraps of love.

 

 

Alls you gotta do is empty the bag of meat in a bowl throw it in the microwave for 2 minutes and BAM!

 

 

[fejeena]

Eatiing out pussy at home ! ?

[Guest Mogie56]

I very seldom eat out and even then it is NOT fast food. If people only knew what goes into fast food they'd soon go out of business. anything processed has chems. btw. before you go out and get thet decaf coffee lookup how it's done. a ladies fingernail polish remover? has acetone in it, that's what is used to take the caffeine out. the beans are soaked in acetone then rinsed with water (as if that does much good since acetone is an oil based solvent). they used to use chloroform but that was outlawed (linked to cancer). I don't remember what the other solvent was but it was outlawed as well having been linked to cancers.

all the chems in chicken and beef have been linked to early onset of puberty(way to early). among a crap ton of other things. Organic fed is the best but also a bit more expensive. The FDA is a joke, selling there endorsement to the highest bidder. USDA isn't much better.

 

[Loogie]

Sorry. Someone had to say it:

 

 

There's no reason you can't "eat out" and cook at home. You just need a willing partner! 

 

 

I came here to make this joke. Good work.

[mojodajojo]

 

Sorry. Someone had to say it:

 

 

There's no reason you can't "eat out" and cook at home. You just need a willing partner! 

 

 

I came here to make this joke. Good work.

 

 

I don't like seafood.

[AKM]

Had a friend take a certain fast food chain's hamburger in to work and set it on a shelf one time.  A year later, it looked just about the same.  Think this is real food?  Think again.  I've heard that the process they use is a single small step away from being deadly.  Not surprising.  In all seriousness, $1 for a hamburger?  And making money for them to boot?  Since when?!

[Loogie]

 

 

Sorry. Someone had to say it:

 

 

There's no reason you can't "eat out" and cook at home. You just need a willing partner! 

 

 

I came here to make this joke. Good work.

 

 

I don't like seafood.

 

 

More for me, then.

[ChancellorKremlin]

Had a friend take a certain fast food chain's hamburger in to work and set it on a shelf one time.  A year later, it looked just about the same.  Think this is real food?  Think again.  I've heard that the process they use is a single small step away from being deadly.  Not surprising.  In all seriousness, $1 for a hamburger?  And making money for them to boot?  Since when?!

 

You'd be surprised how cheap things are when you buy in bulk and make it yourself. The only reason you think a loaf of bread with a slice of lettuce and cheese and some beef in it should be more than $1 is because highstreet retailers say that's as cheap as they can make it. That doesn't mean its true.

 

Buy the stuff yourself, you could probably make twice as much for a fraction of the price, if profit is no problem, which for self consumption, it obviously isn't. Or, go to a developing country and see the same meal sold for a 5th of the price.

 

Capitalism, lying and cheating you of your money, food and resources since time immemorial 

 

More for me, then.

I love me some seafood! Hmmn hmmmn!

[AKM]

 

You'd be surprised...

 

Okay, I'll give the advantage of bulk rates.  But I raise you "chicken nuggets".  Surely you have seen chickens before.  Would you point out to me where the nuggets are?  Didn't think so, as they don't have any.  The stuff in its pre-colored pre-formed state is absolutely astounding.  People eat this stuff?  Yeah, apparently.

 

Got told of some eastern European farm raised chicken.  It was red meat.  Apparently all the hormones and other additives make ours white?  Could be wrong about that.

[mojodajojo]

 

 

You'd be surprised...

 

Okay, I'll give the advantage of bulk rates.  But I raise you "chicken nuggets".  Surely you have seen chickens before.  Would you point out to me where the nuggets are?  Didn't think so, as they don't have any.  The stuff in its pre-colored pre-formed state is absolutely astounding.  People eat this stuff?  Yeah, apparently.

 

Got told of some eastern European farm raised chicken.  It was red meat.  Apparently all the hormones and other additives make ours white?  Could be wrong about that.

 

 

 Mexico: Chickens abound.   You can buy chicken cheap and it's not all full of hormones and mutated into an abomination from the fallout universe.  Yes, you can buy a lot of nuggets cheap, premade? Sure! , but making your own isn't hard either.  Not sure where you were going with what you said, but keep in mind  that the world doesn't end at the borders of western and/or caucasian european states.  Some of us darkies eat food too.

 

[gvman3670]

I was lucky to grow up on a large dairy farm. We grew or raised damned near everything we ate. The only thing I remember getting from a store was flour, sugar, salt, spices and the occasional box of cereal. We made our own bread, churned our own butter, had large gardens, had berry bushes and fruit trees, and the meat and milk was all organic with no added hormones.

 

I also grew up big and strong and have never had a broken bone or even a toothache at 43 years old. But I am starting to grow some gray hairs in my beard.

 

Chicken McNuggets....a frankensteinian creation if there ever was.

[AKM]

Well, you could always do it the Vietnamese way, and just toss the whole chicken in the pot, gizzards and all.  Or the GI way: "Be real careful with the coffee, Joe, we got a chicken stewing in the bottom" (to paraphrase a Bill Mauldin cartoon).  Yes, I've been out of the country several times, and yes I'm aware that there's a world beyond "the border" such as it isn't.  Try having fish and chips three meals in a row!  (Breakfast?  Really, British people?)

 

Where was I leading?  Not in a politico-centric direction, that's for sure (is that even a word?).  Just pointing out that things end up differently in different areas of the world (uh, yes.  Of course they do), sometimes dependent on the local customs, or probably whatever junk is in the water in some places.