- I'm literally producing this video where you're not
supposed to eat out for a month.
(laughter)
- Megan! - What is in your hand?
- [Megan] I was hungry!
I don't care, I'm not gonna starve.
You can't starve me!
(upbeat music)
In one month I spend around $250 on groceries.
Eating out...
(giggles)
(record scratch)
I spend around $400 a month on eating out.
(ka-ching)
- So, same thing, groceries is around 200 bucks.
But then we do like to eat out,
so we'll get Domino's pizza.
That's like $10, right?
It's probably like $200.
(ka-ching)
- In total, I spend around $650 on food.
- In total I spend $400 to $500,
depending on whether we went to Costco or not,
'cause that really just...
We'll just throw fun stuff in there.
- I'm not good at cooking, it's overwhelming,
by the time I'm off work I just want to sit on my couch
and have someone deliver my dinner to me.
- I decided I wanted to do this for a couple reasons.
One, obviously save money and then on top of that
I've been trying to stick to eating foods
where I know what the nutrition facts are.
- I wanted to save money, I knew it would be healthier,
I wanna challenge myself to cook more
and cook more healthily.
If I'm forced into doing it for the internet,
I know I'll follow though.
- I feel like the hardest part of this challenge
will be not eating the Domino's pizza.
- Each week we're gonna be given one challenge
and we are about to find out what they are.
Instead of going to a restaurant for your date night,
cook dinner with your significant other at home.
I'm not worried about that one.
- Well I guess we can get to it.
- So it's the first day of the challenge.
And I'm eating this pizza from Domino's,
but we bought it two days ago.
Technically I'm not eating out, right?
- No you ate out and then you brought it home.
- It's day two.
It's not been that challenging yet.
I haven't had time to miss eating out.
I know when the weekend comes I'm gonna want
to eat Domino's, and I know one of my coworkers
is leaving this week so we're having a goodbye lunch.
But for right now it's not too bad,
I have my leftover groceries and I'm planning
out what to make with Ten for dinner.
- I'm on a shoot today which means Buzzfeed pays for lunch.
I went out but it's not my money.
- She's cheating.
- I don't know if I am.
- It's day three, it's still okay.
I'm not complaining.
This week I was really thinking about
getting some Daphne's, I love the fries there.
Still okay, still going strong.
- Alright, it's our first time grocery shopping
since the challenge began.
I'm ready to cook.
And I'm gonna have to be ready to cook
because that's all I'm allowed to do.
I guess I'm not allowed to eat out
even when it's not on my dime, which I don't think
is cheating but everyone else says it's cheating.
- It's cheating.
- So after much deliberation, I decided that Ten and I
are gonna have stuffed french toast for dinner today.
- You know it.
- So I'm getting all the ingredients.
- Breakfast for dinner, that's how the champions do it.
- I decided to go out to lunch with my friends
and I can't eat.
I'm here to hang out.
- I feel bad.
- You should feel bad.
- Alright so this is the end of week one
of not eating out at all.
We've been having like cool different stuff every night
like she gets really creative with the recipes
and she finds cool stuff online and then modifies
it in her own way.
- Who needs to go out when you have meals like this?
(romantic music)
- [Megan] Date night.
Yay.
- Date night.
- This is in place of our usual pizza dinner from Domino's.
- That's true, we do like pizza a lot.
- Dare I say I think this is done.
Look at this beautiful finished product.
- Delicious. - See that?
- I really want pizza and boba and froyo.
(sighing)
The weekends are hard.
- Pack your own snack or meal for gathering events
our outing you would normally buy food for.
I used to do this when I ate clean.
I would literally bring my tupperware of food
to a restaurant and people would be like...
It was always awkward.
- Great. - The judgment was real.
- Every Thursday I go and get Thai food
with some friends from work.
I just get to look forward to going with them
and watching them eat.
- I'm at a team lunch with lovely team.
You can see some of them here.
I brought my protein shake since that
was part of my grocery stipend.
- I brought some leftover pasta.
I would have liked to have bought food
but I saved money.
- Okay so I'm heading to work.
It is one of my really good friend's last days
and I'm really sad because I can't eat Thai food
for lunch with her.
I'm gonna be taking a protein shake
because I have so many of those.
- I'm over it dude.
How am I gonna do this for another three weeks?
I came out with my friends.
- Hi again.
- I think I'm just gonna have
to take this with me to dinner since I can't eat out.
It's a panettone.
Y'all I'm having a (beep) day
and all I want is to walk over to Yogurtland.
But I'm not allowed to.
I've been made to suffer.
Recreate a meal or restaurant dish
you wouldn't normally make at home.
I'm excited about that.
If I can find a way to make something at home
that I like to eat out, it's a win.
- I think I'm gonna go with my favorite pizza
which is the Pacific Veggie pizza,
thin crust from Domino's.
- We often go to Cheesecake Factory
and get the Impossible Burger.
They sell the Beyond Burger though in stores,
which is a different kind of meatless burger.
We've created our own.
Even better than the Cheesecake Factory.
- [Megan's Boyfriend] That's (beep) right.
- I'm gonna recreate our favorite pizza
on this Ezekiel tortilla, so it's a little bit healthier.
And in the pizzas go.
They look pretty good.
- [Megan] You said it doesn't count if you don't pay for it
and I didn't pay for it.
- Let's check it out, it smells amazing.
Fire.
- Hmm, that's pretty good.
Meal prep a weeks worth of lunches or dinners.
This is my least favorite because I hate bulk cooking.
- I've never done the whole meal prepping thing
but I was thinking I was gonna have
to meal prep every single week,
so I'm emotionally prepared for that.
I'm in the car on my way to a concert
with some friends.
Hello!
- Hi! - [Woman] Hello.
- We all stopped at the gas station.
Everyone was getting snacks and I straight up forgot
and I bought some M&Ms.
Oops.
- I'm in New York for work and I'm gonna try
and get some more leafy greens into my diet
so I'm going to be meal prepping salads.
- So I was supposed to meal prep this week.
I didn't.
- I've got my salad ingredients for lunch
and I'm gonna meal prep this into several tupperwares
and take it to work to go.
- My version of meal prepping is like I'll make
an extra salmon for tomorrow.
I'm not a meal prepper guys.
- I got my salad.
Let's give it a try.
- Meal prepping though is just for another,
more adult version of Megan that is still growing.
- This is the final day of my meal prepped salad.
I'm not gonna lie, I'm getting bored.
I don't think I could eat salad more than like twice a week.
This is just not who I am.
- It is the final week of the no eating out month.
We've learned a lot of good cooking things.
You've made some of the best meals I've ever had.
- In your life? - Yep.
- What's really tough about being in New York
and not eating out for a week,
is that all I wanna eat is pizza.
There's pizza around every corner.
I'm here just like wanting pizza and eating salad.
- This challenge was honestly way harder
than I expected it to be.
So much of socializing and gathering is around food.
- It forced me to eat at home more.
This gave me the chance to really experiment
with what I was eating.
I'd say the most difficult part was traveling
and having to meal prep.
- I don't think this challenge got easier
or more fun as it went on,
but I will say that I gained sort of more pride
in how much money I was saving.
- I found that I was spending less money
and then I also ate healthier,
like I literally meal prepped salads.
I felt so much better.
I didn't have to rely on probiotics like
I usually do to feel good and I was able
to really stick to my nutrition.
- Moving forward I'm definitely gonna have
a better balance of eating out and eating in.
But I've definitely missed going out with my friends.
So, I'm gonna be doing that too.
- Time for me to enjoy this pizza.
Mm-hmm.
I'll be eating a lot more of this
in the next couple of days.
(upbeat music)