Snowflake...eat in all the time except when family/friends are visiting or for an ethnic food I cannot prepare well. With good time management there's plenty of time for cooking plus all the activities you want to do!

Curious.....to those that eat out almost every meal....how is your health? Weight issues? I can't imagine that it can be healthy to eat resturant food EVERY DAY.....yikes!

Gerryann, I don't understand the stigma about restaurant food (other than the expense factor). Isn't restaurant food similar to food purchased at Publix and cooked at home? I almost always have a garden salad with grilled chicken, or perhaps grilled fish with veggies. We eat out for the social aspect and for convenience. I see no reason why people would gain weight, because every menu offers healthy choices.

Barefoot, I think you are right. But I am an amateur restaurant goer. I do not go out often but when I do I over do it. All the really rich stuff soaking in butter/oil/cheese/etc. Sooo good! I think a lot of us fall into this category. I can honestly say I would be very sick if I ate out all the time. But then maybe I would change my eating habits.

Tom

I also don't go out to eat very often but for me it's an opportunity to eat all those things I won't or can't make at home. Frequently it's something terrible for my health. I try to eat healthy most of the time and only go out to eat maybe once a month so it's a splurge. When we have friends over they want to go all the time so I guess if when I get to TV that becomes a more frequent social time for me I will have to change that habit to better choices eating out. However, I did talk my husband into our model of home because of the kitchen so if I give up cooking I may be in BIG trouble!!

Thanks for all of your responses, as a newbie snowflake this is good information.

I honestly think that the less you go out, the more likely you are to splurge and overdo it, because it's a "special occasion". It's easy for me to eat healthy when I eat out, because we do at all the time, so I don't have a choice. I'm lazy and I hate cooking. So at home, I may grab a series of quick snacks. For me, that is not as healthy as sitting down with friends at a restaurant where there are lots of delicious salads and grilled fish options, and lovely grilled veggies. I never go anyplace like Golden Corral, it takes too much will power. We often eat at Crispers which is relatively inexpensive and doesn't offer any fried food at all.

Grilling marinated lamb chops tonight. Our summer kitchen gets used.
1 neighbor never even used their summer kitchen once in the year they owned the home.
They passed on the kitchen when they built another house across the street on the golf course.

99% of our meals are prepared at home. We continue to cook in the same manner we did when we were rearing our family

There have been very few meals out wherein I honestly felt that it was worth the time and effort. I prefer to entertain at home and enjoy planning a meal for a group of friends vis a vis going out with the group. Perhaps it is because everywhere we moved we would join gourmet groups

Home cooked is better
 

My honest impression is that most of the fast food or semi fast food “chain” restaurants use frozen packages of prepared meals which they simply nuke. You could do the same at home, purchasing frozen processed foods. Beware all of the unwanted additives.

There is no way they could be “behind the scenes” preparing 30 different appetizers and entrees “to order”.....

Years ago, we might have been fooled.........but truly “see the light” now re how most restaurants operate......

Obviously, the great New York City or other high end restaurants do have a league of sous chefs onboard preparing “to order” whatever the customer desires.

But most of these other restaurants could never make all of the stuff on the menu..........unless it’s a short order diner with an experienced cook.

Back in the 1990’s we’d frequent an “inn” in our town......lovely place for special occasions and even weddings.............beautiful Victorian home.

The elderly innkeepers were very nice people. They had on hand “one chef”.....the place had a lot of New England ambience. We'd ask for a table in front of one of the big old fireplaces.

However, they really pulled the wool over our eyes.........

We’d RAVE over the French baguettes that they brought to our table “warm out of the oven”........in small slices, with sweet butter in a small crock............envisioning the chef "baking" those French baguettes earlier in the afternoon.

If we were lucky, they might bring us another few slices of that delicious French bread.

After using Schwan’s food service which deliver frozen ice cream and such to the homes up here, I tried their French baguettes which you simply put in your oven for 15 minutes........guess what? We both recognised them as the same as the ones at the inn. They are prebaked and come out of your own oven PERFECT. Hard crusty exterior, soft interior.

In my younger married days , while raising the kids, I actually made my own French bread........it’s not hard and it is delicious......but not something I want to do now.........so Schwan’s is pretty good....and exactly the same as what that inn provided. (Schwans and Sysco Foods deliver to restaurants.)

Then they’d bring out a teeny tiny round of goat cheese on one little cracker. Following that was a teeny tiny cup of “mustard soup” which I would wager to guess was some chicken broth with a teaspoon of mustard stirred in and some herbs on top.

A nice fresh green salad was next. Yes, that would be natural.

But then came the main course and that was to die for................
BEEF WELLINGTON.

We would all rave (as we’d go with friends) about all the labor that went into that Beef Wellington........in small individual portions , one on each plate.

Tender filet mignon layered with a savory mushroom duxelles and then wrapped in a light flaky puff pastry and baked to perfection.....the filet mignon perfect.

YEARS LATER...........for a special occasion dinner at home, I purchased the same exact thing from KANSAS CITY STEAKS..........delivered to my door, frozen.

Follow the instructions and they came out perfectly and they do impress the guests. No bloody steak to contend with. Foolproof. Expensive but perfect.

So, if a small inn can fool us as well as others.........just think what the big chains can do. All of those MSG and glutamate and flavor enhansors can pass by simply known as “natural flavorings”..............I’ve done the research. (Ditto for big name frozen foods such as Stauffers....I’ve talked to them on the phone).

I’m even beginning to wonder about Chinese restaurants which I always assumed was stir fried to order..........for the longest time I’ve asked for no MSG and no soy sauce........last week I requested “no oyster sauce” and “no fish sauce” and he kept saying that it was already in it, etc., etc. and that’s how it comes..............????

That made me wonder if they don’t get some of their stuff frozen????
I know they must get their egg rolls frozen.

It’s always been mind boggling to understand how they can do a BIG ORDER for 8 different entrees in just 20 minutes??? Even with pre chopped veggies, etc.

Anyway...........all of what I ordered came with the unwanted oyster and fish sauce and the unwanted soy sauce and I’m sure unwanted MSG.

Anyone who is food sensitive.......will realize when they’ve had MSG. So, although basically healthy, my favorite Chinese foods are laden with MSG....

When traveling, we sometimes have had Applebee's and I can tell that their stuff is definitely FROZEN FOOD. Loaded with unwanted stuff.
I used to think Bob Evans was "home made" but the last time we had it, it was OVERLY SALTY and did not taste home made at all.

Again, the great restaurants of the world.........yes, they would make your food from scratch. But not the run of the mill restaurants we all go to today.

Not going to quote your post - too long.

But if you think your meal is being made at order time by almost any restaurant you are sadly mistaken. The vast majority of food is prepared ahead of time and heated up under the salamander (broiler). How do you think you get your meal in 10-15 minutes with a plate that is piping hot? Many of the things we order at restaurants take 30-40 minutes to prepare and cook from 'scratch' - just watch any cooking show. That doesn't mean that the original food isn't prepared from scratch and then refrigerated.

I wonder how a Schwanns would do in The Villages? We use to buy from the them when we lived in the desert southwest and enjoyed their products.

I do believe someone told me that there is a Schwanns delivery route in TV.

Just the other day I was saying to my husband, "I really feel sorry for the
drivers as they would go nuts trying to find the streets " but he seems to believe that their navigational systems would lead them directly to the customer's home.

He LOVES their ice cream. That's how we got started.
Everyone up here loves their ice cream.

I have some friends that order a lot from Schwans.

P.S.
 

YES! We provide both Home Delivery Service and Mail Order service to ZIP Code 32159 (not 32159?)

I typed in “Schwans Food Service” and I came up with their website from which you order on......or just browse their products and “reviews” of what people say, whether they like an item or not.

“”””Yes, we provide both Home Delivery and Mail Order service to zip code 32159 (which is Lady Lake, Florida).””””””

I think they have a warehouse in Ocala, Florida.........so they probably also deliver to Marion County and Sumter County........as well as Lady Lake.

Besides home delivery, whereby they will stock your freezer for you......and take away the boxes........if you are NOT HOME.....they will leave it outdoors in a freezer container.....not so good in hot Florida.......but o.k in the frozen north. Our guy just comes into our garage and stocks the freezer.