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Thursday, April 12, 2007
A novel idea: Cooking and eating at home!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
My old eating-out buddies (including my very own family) think I’ve become a boring fuddy-duddy because I never want to go out anymore. I used to love eating out. The food in any restaurant tasted better than anything from my own kitchen. So why do I suddenly want to stay home and cook? I’ts just too difficult to make a healthy balanced meal out of restaurant food.
First, restaurants typically don’t serve whole grains. You don’t see brown rice, whole wheat pasta or whole grain bread on many restaurant tables. Second, have you noticed how much stuff that you wouldn’t put on your food at home is on restaurant food?
I just had fish at a business luncheon (at a very expensive, white-tablecloth restaurant that specializes in seafood). It was coated in sauce, and piled on top were some sort of buttered bread crumbs. Yes, it was quite tasty, but as I let the sauce puddle up on the side of my plate, I noticed it glistening with grease (as were the steamed green beans).
To be honest, a lot of restaurant food seems to be coated in some sort of greasy goodness - I’m not really even sure what it is. But I do know that it makes the food somehow tastier and I believe it’s actually what makes eating out so addictive. What do you think it is about restaurant food that seems to make it taste better than things we cook at home?
l’ll admit that some well-known restaurant chains have healthy choices like a baked chicken breast with broccoli, and maybe even brown rice. I can cook this at home!! What’s the sense in going out just to have something I eat twice a week at my own table? Plus, get me into a restaurant and I immediately want a piece of bread from the basket, a glass of wine, a few french fries off my kid’s plate … well, you get the picture.
I’ve been making some wonderful fresh seafood, serving delicious whole grains, trying new vegetables, and making more salads at home. No wonder my new mantra is “No, let’s just stay home to eat tonight.”
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