Fast Food without the Restaurant

     Does your family love fast food?  Do you not love to feed it to them?  I have the same problem in my house.  So much of the food arrives at fast food restaurants pre-made, pre-packaged, par-cooked, and flash-frozen.  Those are the problems to list before we consider the questions of cleanliness of the facility, how often they change the oil in the fryer, what kind of oil are they using, and exactly who is that guy cooking your meal anyway?  Hmmmm… I haven’t even mentioned the price of taking the entire family out for what used to be a cheap meal, but seems to be an expense many of us can’t afford anymore.

     Never fear!  I have a solution!  We DIY everything imaginable anymore, so why not fast food?  That’s what I did for dinner tonight and it was positively delicious!  We were in the mood for Long John Silver’s.  An additional problem to the ones I listed above is that there isn’t a Long John Silver’s anywhere near my house.  So, I made my own.  Turns out that it’s easier and cheaper than you might imagine. 

     We’ve already talked about homemade french fries, so I’m not going to beat that dead horse again.  I had Tilapia filets in the freezer that came from Sam’s.  It took me about 5 minutes to search on the internet for copycat recipes – they are absolutely everywhere.  Faster than you can say “Long John Silver’s” I was in the kitchen getting to work.  

     The menu in my house tonight was batter fried fish filets, french fries, hush puppies, and coleslaw.  My hubby and son said it was better than the “real thing”.  And I estimate that the entire meal cost us roughly $12.  We had a lot more food than we would have at the restaurant and it cost less.  Try searching up some copycat recipes for your favorite restaurant dishes and see what you can come up with for your family.