"Nancy Young" > wrote in message
news:AbD0o.416840$_m6.378841@hurricane...
> Ed Pawlowski wrote:
>> "Melba's Jammin'" > wrote
>
>>> It's the last sentence in the paragraph that caught my attention. Do
>>> you believe the statement?
>>>
>>> <http://www.chicagotribune.com/featur...-schools-20100
>>> 717,0,7359675.story>
>>>
>>> "This country cooks. Something like 70 percent of all meals are
>>> going to be prepared in one form or another by someone in the
>>> house," says Harry Balzer, chief industry analyst of the NPD Group,
>>> where he has followed Americans' eating and drinking patterns for 25
>>> years. "The average American gets about 200 meals (a year) from a
>>> restaurant and that's almost unchanged for 10 years."
>>
>> Unchanged in 10 years? I see the lines getting longer at the fast
>> food place drive through and I see much more prepared foods at
>> supermarkets. As for 200 meals a year, that is on the light side if you
>> go out to
>> lunch every day at work. We eat out usually one a week for dinner a
>> couple of times a month for breakfast and I think we are on the
>> lighter side of eating out. I can see where a lot of couples would
>> easily top that 200. I'd also guess that it may be down the past year
>> or so, but unchanged in 10 years seems a stretch.
>
> Not only do I like to eat out, if I count how many times we order
> chinese food or pick up a sub, or stop for breakfast on the way
> to shopping or whatever, I don't have any trouble believing the
> 200 number. Sometimes we go long stretches with never eating
> out, then we have stretches where there isn't much cooking going
> on here.
>
> Forget when we were working, every lunch was a meal out.
>
> nancy

I nearly always took my lunch to work. I'd prepar it at home so it
certainly didn't add to up 200 meals out a year. I did the same thing with
every job. I'd have to say I eat out except maybe 6-8 times a year for
dinner. Rarely for lunch.

Jill