The Freshman Cook: How to Cook Your Favorite Restaurant Meal at Home~A New Series

I have an exciting new series starting today, “How to Cook Your Favorite Restaurant Meals at Home”! In this monthly series, I will be using a meal from the menu of a different restaurant each month. I will show you how I cooked it, and how much I spent, comparing it to the price on the menu. As much as I enjoy dining out, I don’t always feel that the price I pay is justified. And when I feel like that, it takes all the fun out of it! Throughout my restaurant career, I worked in several restaurants, and owned a couple, so I am more than familiar with the daily stresses and expenses of making it run. It is very expensive! But as a consumer, my money only goes so far, making it important to carefully choose how I spend. The menu item I chose is from Outback Steakhouse. I made the Outback Sirloin, 12 ounce cut, with a side of Fresh Steamed Broccoli, and a Hot Baked Potato. The cost of this meal at Outback is $18.99. $18.99 meal     3.49 soda     1.81 8% tax

    4.00 tip

$ 28.29  Total per meal cost I bought a 2.5 pound Certified Angus Beef from the grocery. It was on sale for $4.99 a pound. It gave me 40 ounces of meat. That’s a little more than I needed for 3-12ounce steaks, so I had a little extra and some gets lost in the cooking. I also bought 3 potatoes, and broccoli. $3.73  Beef     .43  1/4# broccoli     .25  potatoes

    .25  soda

  4.66  Total per meal cost Of course, I know that there are advantages to eating out. You don’t have to clean up and do dishes, you get to get away, enjoy yourself, and have someone wait on you. You also get certain things extra. At Outback, it’s that special, yummy bread they serve you. The purpose of this new series is not to talk you out of eating out, but to show you how you can eat at home like you can eat out, but for a lot less!  

Steak, Baked Potato, and Broccoli 

1 Baked Potato

Garlic Powder 
2.5 pound Boneless Beef Sirloin, Certified Angus Beef
1/2 cup Broccoli, cut apart from stalk
Butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place potato in oven.
Sprinkle meat with garlic powder.
Cut meat into 12 ounce portions.
 Tenderize meat by poking holes in it with forks.

Brown steaks on stove top. Then place on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes. Check potato to see if it is done.
While the steaks are cooking, place the broccoli in a steamer, with a little water in the bottom of the pot. Place a lid on the pot, open just enough to allow steam to escape. Bring the water to a boil. and let cook until it is tender. Make sure there is enough water in the pot so it does not touch the broccoli, but doesn’t run dry while boiling.

Plate your meal and enjoy! 

Thanks for joining me today! I hope you enjoyed this new series and if you would like me to feature a particular restaurant, just send me an email, or leave a comment below and I will try to do it!