With an increasing proportion of the American food dollar going to restaurant fare, no wonder we’re complaining about the high cost of food. Paying someone else to grow, harvest, pack, repackage, ship, distribute, prepare, cook, serve, and clean up adds up to pricey fare. Convenience now ranks the motivator to eat out: I don’t have enough time to cook or eat at home. Talk about a double whammy: We’re paying more and enjoying our meals less, eating on the run.

One way to curb restaurant bills is go back to the perception of a “restaurant meal” from a generation ago: something special, a celebratory occasion, a meal to be savored, a treat. Eating out wasn’t daily fare but an anticipated, relished experience. In our world today, where everything flaunts 24/7 access, sometimes it helps to step back and set some parameters on ourselves. By using less, we appreciate more. And in the case of restaurants, save a bundle in the process.

Some tips on savoring restaurants as treats:

* Replace gifts with celebratory meals. For all of us trying to break the expected “gift in a box” rap during birthdays and other holidays, take that person out for a meal instead. Don’t wrap a restaurant gift certificate, make a date with that person, share the experience and pick up the tab. Consider this a triple win: No more gifty stuff piling up, relationships grow closer from time spent together, and you’ll undoubtedly remember such a restaurant outing much longer.

* Dine unique. One of our cardinal rules of eating out: The food must be something we can’t make at home. This often leads us to ethnic restaurants where the ingredient list alone proves a good value in eating out. There’s a local Indian restaurant, Maharaja, in Madison, Wisconsin, that we frequent when we venture off our farm to the big city. This $7.99 lunch buffet offers over a dozen freshly-cooked Indian dishes, a frugal eating paradise for us and a great way to introduce our six year old son to new tastes and flavors. He dives into the mouth-watering tandori chicken and ends with a bowl of pistachio ice cream and honey balls.

* Eat local. When you do eat out, nix the expected restaurant franchise and seek out the locally-owned, family-run spot. Not only will more of your money stay local, such small business restaurants are more likely to use area-grown, seasonal foods that whatever fell off the distributor truck. For a listing of locally-owned restaurants with a local food flavor, see www.chefscollaborative.org

Restaurant dining can inspire new dishes to try to make at home. This Oven Roasted Garlic recipe from Edible Earth: Savoring the Good Life with Vegetarian Recipes from Inn Serendipity came about after enjoying such flavors at a favorite French bistro café. We have an enclosed terra cotta baking dish we use for roasted garlic, but any shallow casserole dish will work.

Ingredients:
4 medium garlic heads
2 T. olive oil
1 ½ c. water

Directions:
* Using a sharp knife, cut the top of the garlic head to expose the inner cloves.
* Brush heads with olive oil and place in a shallow casserole dish. Fill dish with 1 inch of water and cover.
* Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes until garlic is very soft and light brown. Smell! Check garlic for softness since oven temperatures may vary. Serve with French baguette slices. To eat, remove the garlic from its skin with a knife and spread onto baguette rounds with butter.

Serves: 4.