Do you think you eat out too often? Too little? Or just about right?

Same here. One thing I found is that many restaurants do not have good selection of vegetable dishes or dishes with a lot of vegetables. I am not a vegetarian, but on average I eat more vegetables than meat – probably between 4:1 to 3:1 on average. It is pretty tough to do that eating out <-- short of eating salad.

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Saturday morning only 9 am . Sitting at the bar with a plate of huevos rancheros , tortillas chips ,and salsa . The best damn view of the bay , A cold Budweiser . Man that starts my weekend . Otherwise I cook my own shit . Most of the restaurants here blow .

My husband and I have dinner out probably 3 times a week. Maybe 4. We tend to stay fairly close to home (we’re in Philadelphia’s western 'burbs) and we have about 6-7 restaurants that we tend to go to over and over. Most of these restaurants are BYO, which we really do appreciate. Although center city Philadelphia has a wonderful restaurant scene, we’re about an hour’s drive from there, so time, distance and the hassle and cost of parking are enough to keep us away from Philly most of the time.

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Lol… my husband tells me the guys on his golf week in SC call Budweiser a “breakfast beer.” :wink:

We eat dinner out about once a week, plus the occasional lunch. It’s about right for us. Eating out is the main hobby we share. It’s a treat, an event, a date - call it what you will - but it’s pure enjoyment (even when the food proves to be not that great, there’s still things to talk about across the table and on the way home. It’s meant we’ve eaten at around 400 different places since 2008 - most of them well within an hour’s drive from home.

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I used to eat out 4-7 times a week, usually with food writer friends at ethnic places, or local places for a quick meal while I was on the road.

Lately I rarely eat out at all. For the past year I have been taking care of my 83 and 90 yr old parents as they are in poor health, starting to have memory problems, and are physically disabled; but aren’t ready to go into assisted living yet. This is practically a full time job of cooking, cleaning, shopping, taking care of meds and doctors visits, etc.

Add in that I am a consultant, so besides my actual work, I also have to seek out clients, negotiate contracts, travel, etc. Which add up to 2-3 jobs in one. I only eat out when I go to food/beverage events, or when clients offer me meals in their restaurants or take me out somewhere.

I cook mostly for my folks, with a special diet for them, and for myself when I have time. I usually spend Sunday or Monday afternoons cooking for the week. I have a freezer full of vacuum sealed portioned meals because when I cook for myself, I always make 10x too much. So I mainly just heat and eat, or else a lot of sous vide and sear. This works out ok, and I have lost 15 lbs. by being on a better diet, and portion control, the past 4 months. I didn’t look overweight, since I am 6’2" and very athletic in build due to 15+ years of working in a highly physical career as a wilderness guide, but carrying more than I needed too.

How come your photo is so familiar? :wink:

Probably too often. Neither me nor my SO cook anything but basic stuff, so we eat out at least 4 or 5 times a week. We both love trying new restaurants so it isn’t an issue for us. Especially since we are in LA and there’s just so much food to try! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

Depending on my schedule I can eat out as many as 3 or 4 nights a week. Nature of my job is meeting with clients generally at night time, which means I tend to eat on the road. Luckily I have several “go-to” places throughout the state that I frequent.

I tend to cook on the weekends…I also tend to make my lunch(s) for the week during the weekends as well.

When my wife & I were working (retired for more than 3 years now), our excuses for not cooking were: no time to shop, our social life revolved around meeting friends for dinner, no interest in cleaning up. Now that we have all the time we need on our hands (well, except for the playing tennis 3-4/week, her studying Italian, traveling….), we have no excuses but still only cook at home at an average of 1x/week. Living in an area where 50 places will deliver to your doorstep in 30 minutes gives us another 1-2 times/week at home. The other 4-5 nights are dining out. The real difference is that we used to be “explorers”. With friends or without, we’d find the little, unheard of places, mostly of inexpensive ethnic origin, and have a great time eating. Then I’d write up the experiences. Well, now we have a local place that we go to for dinner at least once a week, sitting at the bar with other locals, having a great time. At least two other nights/week are spent at places we go to semi-regularly, usually with friends, as social get togethers with tried and true food. And the remainder are with friends who want to try new places or go back to places they like. We get a good variety of whats out there this way, at all points on the cost and ethnic spectrum. What we don’t get much of is home cooked food. Maybe we’ll set aside another night/week to do that & do more than roast a chicken or make pasta. Maybe.