the horror of eating out...right before my very eyes!

On Sunday, when I asked John what he wanted for his Father's Day dinner, he told me that he just wanted to go out to eat. He had been manning the grill all weekend, and wanted to have someone else cook and (more importantly) clean for us. So we piled in the car and headed across the street to the local Teppan Yaki place.

If you've never taken your child to Teppan Yaki, I highly recommend it. It's loud, which is always a plus with kids. And, since they cook at your table, there is built-in entertainment. Both A and E were mezmerized by the "show"...and E kept yelling "More fire! More fire!"

In the back of my mind, I was glad we were eating there since I thought it was reasonably healthy. You get a broth-based soup to start out with...a little salad (Iceberg lettuce, but whatev)...a shrimp appetizer...and then an entree with rice (I chose steamed over fried) and vegetables. How bad could it be...right?

Well, obviously there has to be some oil put on the grill to keep the food from sticking. But the BUTTER. Dear lord....there was a lot of butter thrown around! On the veggies...on the shirmp...on my Terrayaki Chicken (even though there was a sauce on it!). The strange part is, I wouldn't have known there was that much butter on the food unless I had seen it with my own eyes. It didn't taste particularly butter-y. It really confirmed what you hear all the time...that cooking at home is far healthier because you control what goes into your food.

We used to eat out a lot more than we do now. "We were busy and it's easier," we told ourselves. However, with two (active) kids and two working parents, we now know that it's a lot easier/enjoyable/faster/less expensive to cook at home. I'm now adding healthier.