My blog sis Bou has posed an interesting question.

I’m taking an informal poll. Feel free to leave your answers in my comments. There’s no right or wrong answer.

How many times a week do you cook and how many times do you eat out?

The media makes it sound like Americans eat out whether it be fast food or something, nearly every night and I want to know if that’s true.

Things change over the years. Unlike Bou I no longer have young kids at home... but for the most part I cook every night.

When the kids were young...

we didn't have the money to go out. So, once a week I would order pizza... that was my night off from cooking. I did lots of "easy" stuff to cook as it became available... like precooked roasts so all I had to really cook was the side dishes.

When the kids got older...

I still cooked most of the time - the hard part was deciding how much to cook since I could be feeding 1 to 4 people depending on last minute schedule changes.

About 5 or 6 years ago I figured out that additives and preservatives gave me extra terrible migraines... up to 5 per week. I was living on pain medication... not so good. Then I really went on a rampage - got rid of everything that wasn't fresh in my diet. Now I cook from fresh food only in my house. I don't do pizza or carryout anymore unless it's a special occasion and I'm eating at someone else's place. (BTW - the headaches have mostly disappeared).

Also, now that my husband and I have finally settled down - gotten all moved and everything... we will go out to eat about every other week. Call it date night. I'm careful about the restaurants we go to and I usually try for fish and veggies without sauces - this generally works very well and it's one night that I don't have to clean up dishes (the only thing I really dislike about cooking).

When we were in the middle of moving - we were eating (by necessity) restaurant food every night for about a week. We both felt terrible at the end of that time - and couldn't wait to get moved in to the new place so we could have "real food"... even though the restaurants we patronized were of the very nice variety (not McDonald's! or even TGI Fridays)

Now I'm off to read the comments at her place and see what they are all saying. Interesting poll!

*** UPDATE... after reading the comments at Bou's - I should add that while I was at home alone in Chicago... while my husband was working out here on the east coast - I STILL cooked and ate at home - for that matter I only went out to eat when I was out here on the east coast with him. I am far less likely to go out and eat alone - I'll just stay home and cook.

Posted by: Teresa in Food and Drink at 06:19 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 My cooking's so good, why would we go out?

Posted by: Sissy Willis at December 14, 2005 09:53 AM (mrcD4)

2 I'm with you Teresa. I might eat out once a week but usually it's every other week. I can't remember the last time I ate at a fast food place. I even brought a bag of raw almonds with me on my trip to NY. The only thing that saved me from gaining 5 lbs in NY was all the walking. But my type of snack food is raw almonds or fruit. OMG - nuts and fruits! I sound like a left wing nut. haha

Posted by: Toni at December 14, 2005 05:33 PM (D0QdZ)

3 Yep, we eat out only about twice a month, and like you, when hubby is out of town I STILL cook for myself! LOL!

By contrast, when I was single I ate out about 50% of the time...

Posted by: pam at December 15, 2005 06:10 AM (l6NIn)

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