Creating Your Favorites at Home Saves Money and Calories

Posted by Mindy on May 5th, 2009 at 01:21pm

Everyone loves to eat out, order take-out or have pizza delivered to their door. Even though I significantly cut down my dinners out, I would find myself making the excuse that it is sometimes necessary to eat out to get my favorite rendition of a popular dish like pizza or pad thai. And even though this is occasionally true, I have found that homemade versions of the same dishes can satisfy my cravings and help me stay healthy as well. Cooking at home allows you to the control what goes in your food and how much of each ingredient. It’s easy to cut back on calories and fat when you can control how much and what kind of cheese goes on your pizza, for example.

One of my favorite lunch spots, a Mediterranean restaurant, is a place where I spend a considerable amount of money and consume a lot of calories. So a week ago, my boyfriend and I decided to recreate my favorite sandwich at home. We roasted a whole chicken that was prepped with olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano and lemon juice (and stuffed with the lemon rinds). We then shredded the cooked chicken on warm pita and topped with chopped tomatoes, cucumbers and feta cheese. Lastly, we topped it with a dill yogurt sauce that we created with plain greek yogurt. It was so easy and tasted just like it was from the restaurant. Try making one of your restaurant favorites this week at home and do your best to amp up the healthy factor. Add some veggies to your pizza, opt for a low fat mac and cheese or grill your meats instead of frying them.

What are your favorite restaurant dishes to create at home?

Tags: healthy eating, Healthy Recipes, home cooking

Under healthy eating+ Healthy Recipes Tags: healthy eating, Healthy Recipes, home cooking