Semi Homemade: How to Combine Quick-Service Foods with Home Cooking

On those super busy days when you just don’t have time to cook at home, but eating out is too expensive,“semi-homemade” — combining quick-service food with home cooking — is a great way to merge the best of both worlds.

Pizza

By purchasing pre-made pizza dough along with my own sauce and toppings, I can have fantastic pizza on the table in no time. I often rely on this option, especially when we have last-minute guests. It’s impressive to quickly produce a high-quality, delicious pizza; it’s my little secret.

Ready-to-Roll

The take-out pizza store in my neighborhood sells ready-to-roll pizza dough. I can buy a large ball of dough for $3.50, which makes a 16-inch pizza. Not all pizza stores sell their dough (the national chains in my area look at me as if I have three eyes when I inquire), but independent shops are typically more than happy for the business — any business. In fact, one store near me even lists this on their menu board.

Ready-to-Go

My local supermarket sells ready-to-bake pizza dough in the deli section for $3.49 (enough to make one 12-inch pizza).

Pizza Crust in a Can

I find Pillsbury Pre-made Classic Refrigerated Pizza Crust Dough in the dairy case ($4.49). All of these options cost more than making pizza dough from scratch, but when time is of the essence, this is a fast, cheap, reliable alternative.

You can freeze fresh pre-made pizza dough to use later to make breadsticks and calzones, too.

Chicken

Just because you don’t have an entrée for dinner doesn’t mean you have to replace the entire meal. You can supplement a big bucket of drive-thru chicken or a supermarket rotisserie chicken at home with your own salad and bread. Or perhaps you have the chicken but no sides. A large coleslaw and corn, along with fresh biscuits from the KFC drive-thru or the deli section of the supermarket, will turn that into a complete meal for far less money than buying the entire meal at a restaurant.

Rice

As easy as it is to make at home, it pains me to suggest buying rice at a quick-service or other restaurant. But this is a great solution to reduce an otherwise expensive meal replacement. Nearly all Asian restaurants, even the quick-service variety, offer plain white rice as a menu option, usually at a low cost. I can pick up a large container of white rice for about $3 in my neighborhood. It’s hot, fluffy, and perfectly cooked. At home, I can serve it plain or enhance it by adding scrambled eggs, soy sauce, leftover chicken, peas, carrots, and so on.

Soup du Jour

The fanciest fish restaurant in my community has a pricey menu. I mean take-your-breath-away expensive, to the point that receiving the check and then adding a gratuity all but ruins an otherwise fabulous meal. However, this restaurant’s to-die-for New England clam chowder is renowned and available for take-out at a reasonable price. I can only imagine they are trying to discourage the annoying customers who come in on a cold winter night, take up space at a lovely linen-covered table, and linger over big steaming bowls of hearty chowder, turning down complete meals and desserts.

That’s fine with me because picking up a quart of steaming hot chowder and sourdough rolls (also a specialty) is a terrific way to avoid a huge restaurant tab when needing a meal replacement.

Many restaurants serve homemade soups that are available for take-out in family-size portions. Check around and then add that to your list of options when you need to fill out or replace a meal [relatively] inexpensively.

Big Salad

Pizza restaurants are notorious for offering large salads on their take-out menus. It might be called a large antipasto salad. Typically, it’s a big bed of lettuce and other greens plus a variety of pizza toppings, such as onions, olives, peppers, tomatoes, pepperoni, and cheese. Fantastic!

Toss it at home with your favorite dressing, and you have a large, satisfying, family-sized salad at a side-dish price. In fact, you could make the salad the dinner entrée by adding your own ingredients at home, such as hard-cooked eggs, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), leftover chicken, beef, and so on.

Now is the time to start planning how to replace a regular meal more economically. You’re smart, so I am confident you will come up with ideas and strategies I haven’t considered.

Your Turn

These are only a few ideas for combining quick-service foods with home cooking to create semi-homemade meals. What are your favorite tricks and tips? We’d love for you to share them in the comments below.

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