Hosted by Biblical Womanhood

We all know it. We all tell ourselves we should cut down on it….. IT being take-away or fast food. Our experience coming home from my in-laws just rammed it home once again.

While we were in the Middle East we ate out a lot. Sometimes it was social - after being isolated all day we just wanted to get out with other people and be “normal”. Often it was because the Turkish food we could get there was just plain YUMMY and cheap to boot! And there were those times where I just couldn’t be bothered cooking. Yes, that does happen with me! But most of the food over there was cheap, which in my mind justified it a bit more (rightly or wrongly!).

Back in Australia it was a different matter. I told my friends who were picking me up from the airport that the first thing I wanted to do was go to McDonalds and have a Bacon and Egg McMuffin! (No pork allowed where we lived in the Middle East.) So after they picked us up from the airport we dropped in at a McDonald’s on the way home. I made my order and it came to about $16. I said to the girl behind the counter,… “Are you sure?” She immediately thought she had overcharged me, while I was trying to tell her it sounded too cheap! My friend was at my side saying, “That’s dollars, Joy, not ****!” Ooops! Yes, I quickly converted it and realized that it wasn’t cheap, it was… expensive compared to where we had been!!! Needless to say, after two years of converting the local currency back into Australian dollars for comparison (oh, that is sooo cheap, only x dollars!), I needed to do the opposite.

So on to our weekend away. My father-in-law kindly gave us two sheep - dead ones for the freezer. He paid $52 for each one. A friend killed it and we helped him cut it up. I was so pleased! There is heaps and heaps of meat there and will last us quite a while. What a blessing!

Anyway, we were planning to get away just after lunch, but things happened and we weren’t ready until about 5pm. (It is just over a three hour drive home.) I had planned to take out some chops and whack them on the BBQ when we got home, that is, if we left as planned. But we didn’t, so dh said, “Don’t worry, we’ll just grab something on the way home…………….”

McDonald’s was way too busy, which was my choice, so we went to KFC, which I really don’t like much but anyway… choices were limited! We ordered and dh paid, and the bill for a family of 5 came to……… $50!!!!!! That is the same price as one sheep!!! And that one sheep will give us….well, at least 20 meals!!!!!

I think the comparison between the sheep and the one meal really hit me. In the past I might have said, “Oh well,…” but this was just such a classic (and timely) example of how much fast food really costs.

Our actual weekend with the inlaws was also a great example to me of homemade cooking vs take-away. My dmil cooks simple meals, but she never buys take-away. I guess as farmers they just didn’t have the money, and for many years they didn’t have the take-away shops in their small town. They used what they had on the farm, which was a lot of lamb that they grew themselves. I am always reminded when I eat my dmil’s meals, that even though they are simple, they are yummy and quick to make. So often the recipes in the magazines and recipe books these days are so complicated, with so many ingredients. No wonder we want to go and get fast food!

I have strengthened my resolve to cut down on take-away. Whenever I am tempted, I will think of our lamb vs KFC experience, and I hope I will head for the pantry and freezer real quick!