As we all know going out to eat is very expensive and if you are trying to pay down debt or increase your retirement savings its probably smart to limit your dining out experiences. My wife and I don’t go out to eat very often, but when we do there are certain places and dishes that we really enjoy. The good news though is that you may not have to give up your favorite dishes just because you are living on a budget.

My wife was watching the Good Morning America show the other day and they had Todd Wilbur on there promoting his book and website Top Secret Recipes. Apparently Todd had dedicated 15 year of his life to duplicating famous name brand products and dishes. I was a little skeptical at first, but apparently on the show he made about 3 or 4 of his cloned products and the show went and brought in the real thing and had people do a blind taste test. With all of the items people couldn’t distinguish which was which and in some instances a majority of people picked his product because they thought it tasted better.

So that night my wife took a recipe that was given on the show for Red Lobster garlic biscuits and decided to make a batch. The recipe’s always include ingredients that you for the most part are going to have around the house and are very easy to make. I think my wife only spent about 5-10 minutes before putting the biscuits in the oven and I am being completely honest with you when I say they tasted exactly like the real thing. We don’t go to Red Lobster that often but when we do about the only thing we care about are the biscuits and now we can make them in the comfort of our home for a fraction of the price of going out to eat at Red Lobster.

Many of the Top Secret Recipes are probably actually healthier than the real thing and are easy to make. The website www.TopSecretRecipes.com has hundreds if not thousands of recipes on their website. Some of them are free and others they just give you a teaser recipe and you can purchase the rest of the recipe for 79 cents. If you plan on trying out quite a few of the recipes you may want to purchase one of his books. Unfortunately I have not purchased any of his books (there are lots of them under the Top Secret Recipes name) so I can’t recommend which is the best. In fact that is part of the reason I have not purchased his book yet, because there are like 7 different versions of the book, all with different recipes, and I want to do my homework and find out which one would suit me best before splurging the $10 for a book.

Anyway just thought I would let you know about this guy and his book and site. I have no affiliation with him or his products and get nothing in return, I just thought the idea was pretty cool, and the one product I have tried so far was spot on. He and his recipes also seem to get pretty good reviews. So stop going out to eat so much and just make the same delicious products at home. Plus once you have the recipes you can have Red Lobster garlic biscuits, Chili’s baby back ribs, Hooters Buffalo wings, an Orange Julius Orange Julius, and a Dairy Queen Blizzard all in one meal. Talk about going out to eat!!