Everyone has one:

The family favorite restaurant dessert, the special going-out treat, the restaurant everyone loves because there's something there for everyone. Everyone in your family, I'll bet, also has a favorite from a different restaurant, leading to some disagreement about where you're going to go. One great solution to this: learning how to prepare top secret restaurant recipes yourself.

You can find an astounding number of top secret restaurant recipes online, some of them disseminated by the restaurant or ex-employees, others painstakingly pieced together by food lovers who just really wanted to know what went in their Kentucky Fried Chicken or their favorite margaritas. You can find all kinds of things online: the method for making T.G.I. Friday's spinach tip, Cheddar's secret restaurant recipes, even some of your favorite mixed drinks and desserts.

Think about this:

Top secret restaurant recipes can save you a ton of money. If you start making your own dinners with these for half your normal restaurant outings (and have someone else do the dishes, of course), you save money on gas and food. You can have the full-course meal you usually skip on when you go out yourself.

You can make single-serving entrees in bulk and freeze them, so everyone can have their favorite - just like ordering off the menu. And you can make your serving sizes as large or small as you like, instead of the nearly-always-overwhelming dish you're served up at the restaurant, without feeling like you're losing money.

The Best Thing of All:

Best of all, you can modify these top secret restaurant recipes to suit your own diet. Are you diabetic? You can reduce sugar, use sugar substitutes, cut the fat, or use your own whole-wheat flours instead of eating what the restaurant normally gives you. Trying to lose weight?

You can substitute whatever you like for the fatty and processed carb ingredients. You know exactly what goes into your "restaurant" foods because you're putting it there yourself, and you can make sure your family is eating wholesome fresh foods, not something out of a can or freezer bag.

Now, if you're cooking top secret restaurant recipes at home, one other thing is missing: the ambiance. You can provide this yourself: have dinner out on the porch, and string white mini-lights all around.

Or set up dinner in the living room, so you can watch movies together while you linger over your meals. Or just use special table settings for that restaurant evening. Add music, and enjoy having a great conversation over dinner that you can actually hear!

Before You Cook:

Before you cook, make sure you're getting what you want. Because usually top secret restaurant recipes are not put out by the restaurants, quality control can be a bit lacking. To prevent a disaster, always pre-make dishes and test them prior to planning to have them at a meal. You can also take advantage of a few online sites that vet and critique top secret restaurant recipes for you, giving you only the recipes that actually deliver what they promise.

Using top secret restaurant recipes instead of going out, you're saving money and frustrating time in traffic or waiting; you're avoiding the loud conversations and sometimes rude servers; you make your food the way you want it; and you guarantee yourself quality family time in a low-stress environment. You have nothing to lose, and a lot to gain, by giving it a try.