You can have a favorite takeout - but made healthier at home

You're tired, you're cranky, you "feel like Chinese," or maybe pizza. You reach for the phone - but wait! There's a better way. It will be healthier, tastier and quite possibly cheaper. It will fill your home with delicious smells and not generate the waste of takeout containers and pizza boxes. It does, however, involve some effort: cooking.

Yes, it takes a bit of planning, but you can do this. And you can impress your family and friends with your skill. As you get comfortable, you'll want to branch out and make the other dishes your takeout life has taught you to love: pad Thai and falafel, tandoori chicken and souvlakia. Even barbecue.

The term "takeout" is an Americanism from the late 1940s, according to food historian John Mariani. In "The Dictionary of American Food and Drink" (Hearst Books, 1994), he writes that the phrase appears in a 1949 photo of the sign of the "Tail o' the Pup" hot-dog stand - the now-closed Los Angeles, Calif., landmark diner built to look like a hot dog. The growth of takeout has paralleled the growth of the automobile industry and of innovations in packaging. The practice of takeout, however, is ancient, if you count the street-food vendors of classical Rome and Greece to be among the first sources.

Break the takeout cycle with homemade food that is every bit as tasty. Here is a recipe that may stave off another phone call. This one is for a Chinese chicken-and-cashew dish from the handy and accurately titled little book "Easy Chinese Stir-Fries" by Helen Chen (Wiley, 2009).

• Marialisa Calta is the author of "Barbarians at the Plate: Taming and Feeding the American Family" (Perigee, 2005). For more information, go to marialisacalta.com.

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>Recipes</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> </div> <div class="recipeLink"> <ul class="moreLinks"> <li><a href="/story/?id=300644" class="mediaItem">Chicken with Cashews</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=300645" class="mediaItem">South-of-the-Border Pizza</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>