13 reasons to eat at home

I’m sure I must drive my poor, long suffering husband crazy! He often invites me out for dinner, and my answer is almost invariably no, thank you. Eating in is just so much easier.

1. I plan my meals, so I know how much I can eat come dinner time. I don’t want to pay for an expensive meal – in money and kilojoules – if I need to only eat a light dinner.
2. I know what and how I’m cooking, so no kilojoules / calories are ‘wasted’ or ‘hidden’. Those restaurant sauces are made with cream and butter, and the veg are also likely to be buttered and sweetened.
3. If we eat at home I don’t have to get ‘dressed up’ to go out. Going out involves at least a change of shoes, jacket, handbag etc, plus I’d have to do my hair.
4. We eat healthy sized portions. Restaurant protein portions, as I’ve mentioned before, are more than double what your body needs.
5. We get our recommended fruit and veg intake for the day. Last time we ate out I ordered a steak with vegetables. The vegetables consisted of one very small rocket leaf and chips! And the (lady’s) steak weighed 200gms
6. My meals are freshly prepared. My veg have not been precooked and left sitting in a bain marie for hours.
7. I get to eat dinner before 7:00PM. Much kinder to the digestion and the waist line. Going to bed on a full stomach is likely to cause discomfort and heartburn.
8. We don’t have to wait ages for a waiter to take our order. Admittedly, I’ve chosen our meal beforehand and my husband doesn’t have much of a say… but I gave up asking him what he would like to eat when he kept answering ‘food, please’.
9. Then wait another age while the kitchen prepares the food. There is still a wait while I cook, but I am only cooking one meal and not tending a dozen different orders.
10. I don’t see other plates being delivered that look more interesting than mine. I think all menus should show photographs, so you know what to expect. I have ordered ‘fancy’ – i.e. expensive - salads at several different restaurants and been very disappointed with the actual content, some of them didn’t even contain the ingredients listed on the menu.
11. There is no bill to pay – the food has already been paid for.
12. The wine at home is less than half the restaurant price for the same bottle.
13. There are no parking problems.

 

So I will continue to happily devise new recipes and eat at home.

 

 

Take-aways

Take-aways. Hmmm. How many take-away meals do you eat in a week? Generally, take-aways are heavy on the fats and starches and the portion sizes are out of balance - bad for general healthy and the waistline. And bad for the wallet.

I'll admit that it's very nice to occassionally be relieved of kitchen duty. You don't have to prepare, cook or clean up afterwards. Occassionally. But you can easily prepare and freeze home-made ready meals in bulk. Hamburgers, chicken burgers and bolognaise sauce are all simple to prepare in bulk. Then you can serve those burgers on whole grain rolls, with a healthy serving of salad. And boiling up a pot of pasta takes very little time or effort.

Many recipes can be doubled up, while you're preparing one meal for immediate consumption you're getting the health benefits of a second meal with minimal extra effort. Just make sure you label your extra meal, stuff can become unrecognisable once it's frozen. And put the date on, too.

Invest in some of those rectangular foil boxes, they stack well in the freezer. If you're careful, you can re-use them three or four times.

I have had great success with frozen home-made lazagne (mince, chicken and vegetarian), soups, pizzas, stews and casseroles. I try to keep my freezers organised - one shelf/basket for ready meals, one for breads and muffins, one for vegetables, etc. Even if you only have an 'ice box' at the top of your freezer, you'll be surprised at what you can fit in.

Now all you have to remember is to take something out to thaw in the morning.

Food-centric Saturdays

I cook at least one meal every single day of the year. I would do this anyway, because I have to feed myself, if no-one else. But these days, I'm doing it for you, too. I have to cook every day because what happens if I have a disaster, I burn something, or it just doesn't look good on the plate?

Every meal I cook gets photographed. And what you see on the plate is what you get; one serving.
Some of the pics are not that great, but hey, I cook, I'm not a photographer. And I want to eat while the food is still hot, so five or six shots is the max.

I started menu planning in December 2008, and though I still have copies of those menus and shopping lists I have to check and tweak them each week. My menu planning rules have evolved over the last thirteen months, so very often my original menu had more red meat on it than we now eat, or there are not enough vegetables in or with a recipe. Sometimes what I planned originally didn't turn out so well, or took too long to prepare, or I didn't enjoy eating it. I'm planning three meals a day, and I like to ring the changes to ensure we are still eating healthily.

On a Saturday, I update the menu for the coming week and the shopping list with any changes. Then I check the contents of the fridge, freezer and pantry (how I wish I had an old style pantry!) against the shopping list and cross off what I already have.
Chicken and fish I buy from a wholesaler, so they don't generally feature - only if I'm running very low.
Next I add on to the shopping list any toiletries, cleaning stuff and sundries I need.
Check there are shopping bags in the car, and if the weather is hot a cooler bag and a couple of ice bricks. Then it's off to the shops.

Shopping for the week, with a list and pencil in hand, takes a minimum of one hour - usually a little longer.
Sometimes I find something different, like fennel bulbs or okra, or I might find something on 'special'. I'm always wary of specials. I'm normally expected to buy far in excess of what I can actually use before it spoils - and I also have to allocate precious fridge or cupboard space. I will, however, always buy canned chopped or whole peeled tomatoes when they are cheap; I use them a lot, and they are more economical to use when fresh tomatoes are out of season.

Home again. Unpack, repackage where necessary, and pack away. Anything that came in a plastic bag needs repackaging, otherwise whatever it is sweats and spoils faster - bananas, onions, sweet potatoes.
And those little polystyrene plates wrapped in cling film? They drive me nuts! Repackage into everfresh bags or proper plastic boxes, or the bottom of your veg drawer will quickly become overpopulated with dehydrated sugarsnap peas, courgettes and radishes!
Did I buy anything different? If I did, then the menu will need tweaking. Again.

When do you do your planning, tweaking and shopping? Do you shop once a week, once a month, only when you absolutely have to? Do you shop on-line? I'm very interested to hear whether you are happy with the on-line service - freshness, supply etc. Leave a comment and let me know.

Meal planning

Menu planning takes quite a lot of patience and attention to detail.

I still use recipe books and magazines for inspiration, but I often find that I hone in on one or two key ingredients and then my imagination and experience takes over. Sometimes what I make is a great success. Sometimes a disaster; it's edible, and fills the gap, but it is not something I will make again - or share with you!

So I go about my ten-point planning like this:

1.  In any seven day cycle, I will have 2 chicken dishes, 2 fish dishes, 2 vegetarian dishes and 1 'other'. The 'other' dish may be another chicken, fish or veg dish, but it is usually a red meat meal

2.  Each meal must come with a different starch - bread, potatoes, rice, pasta, couscous etc.

3.  If a starch is repeated in a seven day cycle, then there must be at least two full meals between repetitions.

4.  If there is no animal protein in the meal, then there must be a combination of foods that provide all the necessary amino acids.

5.  There must be at least three vegetables in or with the dish.

6.  There must be a small amount of fat: I seldom cook with added oil, I would certainly never add animal fat, other than that occuring naturally in the animal protein.

7.  There must be fibre.

8. Each recipe must be 'new' - there will obviously be similarities, these will inevitably happen. But not often enough for you to get tired of them - and they are only similarities.

9.  Ingredients must be readily available - I'm not going to make a special trip to buy one item. OK, I do go to the Chinese market occassionally.

10.  Nothing must keep me in the kitchen for more than 45mins. I am basically a lazy cook - recipes have to be simple and quick. And not make too much mess.

It takes time. But I enjoy the challenge of cooking something different every night.

I hope you will, too.