Dining in --- A work in Progress

Cooking meals at home can be a time consuming chore, but one that I have made more of an effort to integrate into our day-to-day lives over the past few years.  As with most choices in life, I took to comparing the pros and cons of eating at home versus dining out.  The winner is... well it's a toss-up. 

First, let me review some of the nuggets of wisdom that I have learned in my pursuit of domesticity:

• When using a crock pot, DO NOT put the noodles in and let them cook for 8 hours.  The result is a gelatinous mass.
• When making parmesan roasted potatoes, DO NOT add the parmesan before you cook the potatoes.  Add it at the end before you serve.  The same goes with garlic powder.  Makes your eyes water when cooking and does not come out tasting so good. 
• Put bbq sauce on the chicken at the very end cooking on the grill (this was my husband--- I knew this one).  The result is burnt bbq sauce.
• If you try to soften butter in the microwave, and the wrapper is silver, remove the wrapper.  It will catch on fire.
• Put tin foil on your pan when you bake meat in the oven.  MUCH easier clean up.
• Tin foil doesn't hold heat so you can touch it soon after it comes out of the oven.
• Steam bags work well to bake potatoes in the microwave and it takes far less time.  To crisp the skin, toss them in the oven for a bit after. 
• Eggs on a counter-top griddle... messy.

The main reason that I like to stay home most nights is to control exactly what and how much we eat.  At restaurants, you are never quite sure of added ingredients: salt, butter, oil, etc.  The hamburgers are almost never extra-lean, and portions are almost always much more than one person should consume in one sitting.  It takes self control to limit the amount of food eaten and to be quite frank, neither I nor my husband exhibit such control at all times.  http://www.livestrong.com/article/502520-eating-in-vs-eating-out/ (tips for eating in and out)

We started cooking at home more often as newlyweds in an attempt to spend less money.  The effectiveness of this strategy as a cost saving measure is not always clear - sometimes you can eat for less at a restaurant, especially with the 2 for $20 deals and other such offers that are advertised these days as restaurants try to lure the budget minded consumer in.  Consider also the impact of turning one restaurant meal in to two or three.  http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Media/Slideshow/2011/12/02/Food.aspx (argument for dining out) The trick is avoiding appetizers, alcohol, and dessert which add up the bill and the calorie count exponentially.

PF Changs vs. Home Cooked... PF Changs edged out the home meal by about 25 cents.

The time factor is also a toss up.  Ordering take-out is a time saver and something we do on those evenings that we're both tired and hungry and there isn't something microwave-ready.  Going out to a sit-down meal, however takes just as much time as cooking but you do save time and energy on the clean up. 

So really, it comes down to preference.  These days, I'm a homebody.  Partly because of 10+ years waiting tables, partly because of the fact that I can go to the table in bare feet and my daughter talk as loudly as she wants without disturbing other diners, and partly because I spend close to 10 hours a day out of the house and I just want to go about our evening routine of family dinner, bath, book, and bed.  It's the little things.

Some nights the meal may turn out awful and you have to order in anyway.  Our back up plan is to always have pasta and a jar of sauce at the ready.