The Next Best Thing...Sort Of

I like to eat out. I like to go to a real restaurant - as opposed to a pizza or burger joint - preferably without the kids, and order a real meal cooked by someone else. However, I have two problems that impede my ability to eat out: 1) lack of funds, and 2) limited calories.

The lack of cash flow is a problem, but fortunately, I'm good at squeezing the most out of our budget. Unfortunately, that still doesn't translate into enough $$$ to go to a real restaurant. The Costco food court has gotten a lot of our business. Being on a weight loss program is also an issue. Fortunately, many restaurants post their menus online and list the calories of each dish. Unfortunately, many of these dishes are the same as or exceed my daily caloric intake. What to do, what to do.

While it may not be sheer genius or über frugal, the solution we've come up with works for us and we don't feel completely deprived. We figured that if we wanted to eat something besides burgers and hot dogs then we could always buy prepared food. For example, last week, hubs and I were totally jonesin' for sushi. A real sushi restaurant was out of the question as it would run us $40 easy. So, we went to Costco (yeah, I know) and got a prepared sushi tray for $12.99. It wasn't restaurant quality, but the California rolls were pretty good and it was better than the "kid-friendly" food we normally get. We brought it home for lunch (he has Wednesdays and Thursdays off) and had a quiet, relaxing sushi lunch at home. I think this week would be a perfect time to head on over to Whole Foods to check out their prepared food offerings.