Special occasion dinners don’t need to happen only at fancy shmancy restaurants! And technically, they can’t really happen now while we’re in quarantine.. haha. Regardless, when you have kids at home, sometimes the last thing you wanna do is dress up to go to a fancy (and maybe a little pretentious) restaurant to overpay for some simple items you’d probably be able to make at home for a small fraction of ‘the experience’ you’re not enjoying that much anyways. Sometimes, a little fancy and pretentious is okay, but most of the times, I’m finding that my savings could better be used elsewhere especially when the food at home is just as good or .. even better 🙂
STEAKS
High end steakhouses are amazing to go when you’re being woo’d by your future forever. It’s got great ambiance, great service, great bread, great cuts of meat, great sides, appetizers, drinks — just not so great prices. My husband and I spent anywhere from at least 150-400 at these places for a full meal. This is absolutely ridiculous. I knew it was ridiculous back then too, but I was single, had no kids, no bills, and I just wanted to indulge! Which is totally cool. But if you’re like me now, with a house, a mortgage, a baby to feed, and trying to be financially responsible, you probably don’t feel like you need this experience often for a good steak. Here are some reasons to skip the fancy steakhouses and turn your house into one instead:
- STEAK QUALITY. Yes, our local 3-4 dollar sign on yelp steakhouses provide AMAZING steaks. But I kid you not when I tell you that the steaks I buy at a local butcher for my grass fed dry aged prime rib-eyes beat the 3-4x’s cost of the rib-eyes at the restaurants! Some people can justify dropping 50-100+ on a steak at a restaurant, for quality. If you take that same justification and take that money to a butcher, your steak can be even higher quality because you’re not also paying upwards for the service charged on your restaurant steak. My 80 dollars and sometimes 100 dollar rib-eyes lack the flavor, marbling, and beef intensity as my 37 dollar steak I get locally. Yes, 37 dollars for one steak at a butcher seems like a lot, but in perspective with a fancy shmancy place, it’s only your two glasses of wine!
- WINE! OMG alcohol with steak is yes..but seriously a glass of wine sometimes cost as much as the bottle at a restaurant. Eating at home means you get to have more wine with your steak without dying a little inside.
- COOK + Seasonings. Great steaks usually only need salt, pepper, and a sear. You’re literally paying someone to put salt and pepper on your steak and searing it for you. I understand splurging on things that take a long ass time and lots of skills/experience to make at home like..soup dumplings or beef wellington..but THEY LITERALLY JUST SALT AND PEPPER YOUR STEAK HOMIE. Some places salt minimally and give you salt on the side. Is it really necessary to pay someone THAT MUCH MORE MONEY? Sure, if you’re rich and this is pocket change. But I am not rich, and my pocket change can’t even buy gumballs. But I guess after choosing not to go to a super fancy steakhouse, I would have a little more pocket change to go around for gumballs…
- Sides. Yes Sides are a reason why I choose not to go out for steaks. I love sides just like any other person would. A good steak/protein needs other things to complement it and balance out the meal. But paying 20+ bucks for a mac and cheese? No thanks. I came for the steak I don’t want to pay another arm and leg for sides. Often times things like mac n cheese or potatoes at high end places are also really simple. For instance, good pasta + cream + cheese goes a long ways for good mac and cheese. There’s also a lot of upcharge here on the sides. Don’t even get me started on the salads… Trust me you can do it for much less on your own. I can also make mac and cheese super decadent and delicious if I used tons of cream and cheese myself.
- Service charge. I believe it’s essential to tip your service people at restaurants. But sometimes that also means paying 1/5 of the cost of your whole dinner for someone who helped you with your experience. 300 x 0.20 = 60. I paid over 60 dollars for someone to service my fancy steak dinner. Oh and don’t forget the valet if your place has one!
- Sweatpants. I can eat my fancy steaks at home in my sweatpants and sweatpants make my experience so much greater. Wearing heels, stockings, a dress..hair makeup…all of those reduce the quality and experience of my meal HAHAHA. 🙂 🙂
If you’re on a budget, and you couldn’t splurge on a nice dinner at a restaurant for your significant other, this post isn’t to exclude you but to tell you that HEY, doing it at home is JUST AS GREAT if not BETTER.
If you’re ready to woo and wow and whoa your loved ones with a great steak, here’s a post I made about some steak pointers!
SEAFOOD
Okay dudes, this one should be OBVIOUS. If it isn’t, please please please for the sake of your wallet read on! Let’s just get to it.
- Dude, I can’t even… Cost. COST IS RIDICULOUS. I went to a fancy place on the water once and got myself a fancy seafood dinner.. I had king crab (one of the most expensive options if not theeee most expensive seafood option), and it cost me just about my leg (or my date’s leg..) but still. RIDICULOUS. I got like 2 x 2 inch segment of king crab leg… I thought it was a frigkin joke, but again when you’re all decked out in your fancy clothes you try to hide your bewilderment at things like that at such establishments because they might smell the poor off you. The environmentally correct reaction for the situation I was in was probably to be like “OMG so much crab, I don’t know if I can eat all of this crab! I already had a salad with fruit in it!” I’m digressing. Anyways COSTCO literally sells you 2 WHOLE FRIGKIN legs (about a POUND) worth of king crab legs for ~35 dollars.Lobster tails and scallops, also on this list homies. The prices of scallops and lobster tails aint that bad.
- Cook, or should I say REHEAT. King crabs are caught, cooked, and flash frozen right away to ensure that the meat maintains integrity. Pretty much all king crab besides the whole king crab live in a tank version comes cooked. YES, the restaurant you splurged on for king crab LITERALLY just reheated cooked king crab legs and charged you a leg for it. Even if it’s not your leg, but your significant others, it’s still too much. Let your homies walk at the end of the meal. All you need to do to prepare king crab at home is to buy it and let it thaw if it’s frozen. Then you steam it for like 10-12 minutes. THAT’S ALL FOLKS! I’m sure that restaurant you ordered from is fancy, but they’re probably steaming with tap water, nothing special homies.Scallops are often just seared and finished off with butter. Or served in ceviche kinda raw. I think you can handle this cook too.Lobster! We all know what that fancy lobster tail looks like. Must take so much preparation to make it look so fancy. No homies, that lobster tail was created and born fancy. It came out that fancy. Taking a sharp scissor and cutting down the middle section of its shell all the way down to the tip of the tail and pulling out the tail meat yields you with exactly what the restaurants serve. The butterflied affect is a natural phenomenon of the beautiful creature. You pull out the lobster tail and lay it on the shell and it looks like that homies, I kid you not.
So ladies and gent. I believe I’ve tried my best to convince you to venture into your local grocery stores and make your own fancy occasion special dinner for your loved ones. Besides all of these reasons, cooking for someone you love can be really rewarding. Setting your heart and time out to go to the grocery store, planning, preparing, executing, demolishing your meal are all things that will be that much more meaningful if you venture into the kitchen yourself.
If you need a pictorial demonstration of anything to help create your special dinner, drop a comment. 🙂