In this study, we use a unique dataset designed by researchers at the University of Chicago and collected by Mathematica Policy Research to investigate whether there is a significant correlation between diet quality and time spent preparing food. Overall, our results indicate that, when controlling for unobserved factors that may affect both preparation time and diet quality, time spent in food preparation influences diet quality only for obese persons. However, the improvements in diet quality are minimal. Our results also indicate that foods eaten away from home play an important role in understanding the effects of time spent in food preparation on food away from home.