Do Restaurants Fit in your Meal Plan?

One of the benefits of having a plan for what you’re eating and spending on food is understanding how dining out fits into your family’s meal plan. Dining out can be a great treat and there are some fabulous restaurants (Daniel’s anyone?) out there with some really tasty food.  And let’s be honest, there’s also the added bonus of not having to clean up after the meal.  But is it worth it? 

Only you can determine how restaurants fit into your nutrition and food budget goals, but here’s a little something to consider:  your kitchen is the one place where you have complete control over what goes into your meals and how they are prepared.  When you’re planning and preparing meals at home, you:

• Have access to nutrition facts.  Restaurants don’t always post the nutrition profiles of their dishes.  Yet.  And even if they do, the accuracy of the information is dependent on, among other things, how closely the cook follows the standardized recipe on which the analysis was based.  On the other hand, when you’re the one shopping for the groceries, you have an opportunity to examine each of the ingredients to see how they stack up. 
• Can guarantee safe food handling practices. Restaurants have strict (hopefully) food safety programs in place and provide training to (hopefully) all of their staff.  However, the workers behind the scenes are human and when times get tight and kitchens get busy, some things get overlooked.  (Sometimes it’s better to just not think about it.)  You can ensure you’re feeding your family safe foods by following basic food safety practices in your kitchen.  And then confidently enjoy your work.
• Avoid high retail markups.  Restaurants are looking to make a buck.  The prices of their meals—especially at higher end, sit-down restaurants—reflect that.  The cost of a meal at home is made up of the cost of your groceries and, I suppose if you want to get technical here, the energy (yours & your appliances) used to prepare it.  More often than not, your home-cooked meal will cost less.
• Control the amounts of each ingredient.  Some restaurants are more accommodating when it comes to special requests (Burger King makes it YOUR way, after all) than others.  But in any case, like the nutrition profile concern, you’re at the mercy of the individuals taking your order and preparing the food. At home, it’s all you, baby.  If you want to hold off on added fat, you can reduce the amount of butter in a recipe.  If your family likes food with a kick (and no feeling in your tongues) you can double the jalapenos in a dish.  No questions asked.  Or chefs insulted.

Remember, there is no right or wrong way to incorporate restaurants into your meal plans.  But keep these eating-at-home perks in mind the next time you’re dreading washing the dishes after a delicious meal.  It might just change your tune.

What do you think?  How do you incorporate restaurants into your meal plan?  Have you considered these points?