It’s 6:30pm. You’ve just come home from work and you’re famished. Delivery or carry out it is… again! You need some easy weeknight meals to keep you from calling for takeout again.

Sound familiar? Getting takeout or delivery will do the trick, but there are drawbacks to this supposed Plan B turned typical Plan A.

First, you have no idea what the ingredients are in restaurant food. Are they using that good quality olive oil you have in your pantry? Most likely no. Chances are that even if you’re choosing the best options, your salad is ladled in highly processed soybean or canola oil, your chicken is NOT free range and high-fructose corn syrup has made its way into something somewhere in your take-out container. When you prepare your own meals, you have full control over what’s going into your food. Sure, restaurant dining will do, but is it really intended to be an everyday thing?

Second, cost. For what you pay for one takeout meal, you can make the same thing at home for the same cost and have delicious leftovers for lunch or dinner the following day. If you have a family, leftovers are a great way feed your whole crew and save money. If its just you, leftovers may be hard to consume before they’re gone, so I highly recommend tossing leftovers between day 2 and 3 into a freezer baggie, (labeled with its contents) and in the freezer. Keep a running list on your freezer of what’s inside and several weeks later, you’ll have a homecooked meal that you made months ago!

Third, overall satisfaction. Who doesn’t love a delicious homecooked meal? When it’s a tasty one, cooking at home is clearly healthier and more cost-effective, but it also just feels good. It’s a wonderful thing to have a plan and follow through with a beautiful end result that is filling and delicious.

Don’t think you have time to tackle this task? I’m willing to bet you just haven’t found the right recipes.

Here are a few easy weeknight meals to get you started, from my table to yours.

Bambi Frazier is the self-published cookbook author of the “Better Bites” series available on Amazon. You’ll also find many of her recipes, lifestyle tips and vlogs on her YouTube channel “Creatively Bambi” and on her website creativelybambi.com