The Cost of Eating Out

Our family resolution for 2011 was to not eat at McDonalds for one whole year, after seeing how much money and calories we had spent there in 2010. I was so proud of my children for rallying around the goal and refusing to eat there, even when mommy wasn't around to enforce it. When 2012 rolled around a couple weeks ago and our resolution was officially over I found myself reluctant to go back there. However when I was grocery shopping this week and was surrounded by three whining, hungry children I got desperate and sent my husband and them off to the golden arches with $15 in hand. Then I enjoyed 45 minutes of blissful solo grocery shopping. Ahhhhh.

When we met back up my husband gave me $5 back. I was thinking to myself that $10 to feed 4 people was pretty good, when my husband asked me how much our dinner the previous night had cost. We had made Roasted Honey-Orange Chicken with roasted potatoes and butternut squash. A whole roaster chicken cost us $4, a bag of potatoes cost us $2 (of which we only used 4 potatoes), and the squash had cost us $2. Other ingredients (honey, cumin, EVOO, salt, and pepper) we had in our pantry. I estimated that the meal had cost us about $6, had fed 5 of us, and then we had leftovers for lunch for me and David for 2 days. All of the sudden the $10 we had given McDonalds wasn't looking so good.

One of the most common excuses for not eating healthy is that was can't afford it (I know, I've used this one myself). I think the real reason is we can't afford to eat healthy AND unhealthy at the same time. We can't afford a bag of apples, if we also buy a $4 bag of chips. We can't afford to buy good lean ground beef if we're also buying $7 frozen pizza. We can't afford to buy whole wheat bread if we're also buying doughnuts. And we can't afford to make Honey Chicken with potatoes and squash if we're giving (insert favorite fast food restaurant name here) $10, $15, $20 for dinner 3 times a week.

My family each got a cheeseburger, a small fry, and an apple pie for dinner. according to McDonald's website that was 780 calories per person and 36 grams of fat. Our chicken dinner the night before was 396 calories per person and 13.2 grams of fat. So now our chicken dinner is not only cheaper but has half of the calories and a third of the fat of eating out! So why don't we cook more? We don't know how to cook? We aren't good a making grocery lists? We don't have the time to cook? Let me tell you what saved the dinner meal at my house. I added dinner prep to my morning routine. Now while the kids are eating breakfast I look at what I have planned for dinner, take meat out of the freezer if necessary, do chopping if the meal has a lot of vegetables, or stick it in the crock pot if that's the way we're going. Now at 5 when it's time to make dinner I not only know what I'm going to make, but the meat is thawed and we're ready to go.

So what's your excuse? After today you won't be able to say you don't know how to cook a good meal, because here comes the recipe for roasted chicken! This was originally a Cooking Light recipe that I've altered to fit my family better. Feel free to do the same.


Roast Chicken with Cumin, Honey, and Orange

1 (3-4 lbs) roasting chicken (this is one of the cheapest ways to buy chicken)
1/2 c honey
3 tbs orange zest
1.5 tbs ground cumin
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 garlic cloves minced

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Clean and rinse chicken, then starting at the neck carefully loosen skin from breast and drumsticks by inserting your fingers between the skin and meat.
3.Combine all the other ingredients. Rub the mixture under the loosened skin over breast meat and drumsticks.
4. Place chicken, breast side up, in a pan or on broiler pan. I use a casserole dish. Rub skin with a small amount of olive or vegetable oil. Cover loosely with foil.
5. Bake for 40 minutes, then uncover it and bake for an additional 30 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting. Discard skin for lower fat option. (Or eat it all before your kids can get there, like me)


Roasted Potatoes

1 small/med potato per person
A Little Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Seasonings like salt, pepper, garlic salt, rosemary, steak seasoning, ect

Chop your potatoes into 1-2 inch cubes (these do not have to be perfect! Just roughly the same size) I like to soak my potatoes for awhile to remove some of the starchiness. I cut them up and let them soak while I'm getting the chicken ready. Then I spread them out on a foil-covered cookie sheet. And drizzle them with a little oil, then toss them to distribute the oil evenly. Then season them with whatever you want. I used Montreal Steak Seasoning and a little garlic salt. These are also really good with fresh rosemary and a little lemon juice, or even just salt and pepper. They're your potatoes, do what you want!

Roast them until a fork goes through one easily and they are golden brown. 20-30 minutes. Keep an eye on them they vary in time. I put mine in with the chicken when I took the foil off.

So how much money do you spend not eating at home each week? How much do you spend on groceries? Next time you hit that take-out window think about what that meal is actually costing you. Now, go drink some water and check in Monday for weigh-in!