We both think it is incredibly important to make time for us as a couple. This is why our kids are in bed by 7:30 every night (with some exceptions) because it guarantees us several hours of time to ourselves without interruption. There is some sacrifice in this, as they are all usually up by 7:00 am, but it is worth it. The other way we make time for ourselves is date night. I know you are thinking that I just said we hadn't been out in a long time, and that is true, but we still make date night happen even if we can't get out. It had been awhile since we had a date night in so I was glad my husband suggested it this week because it was enjoyable as always and much neede. In fact, we are reinstating a weekly date night in and hopefully once in awhile we will even make it out of the house together!
Here is what our date looked like this week (the PG parts anyway!). We fed the kids and put them to bed and then spent time in the kitchen making our dinner together. Cooking with your spouse can be so much fun and we don't get to do it often because he is either at work when I am making dinner or he is keeping the kids occupied. Now this is where we spiced things up....remember, I said PG so I am only talking about the food here! We decided to make Cajun Chicken Pasta, which happens to be another Pioneer Woman chicken recipe, so I will share that with you as well.
Jeremy cooked the pasta and prepped the vegetables:
I cooked the chicken, veggies and sauce. The seasoning called for a Cajun spice mix which I didn't have on hand so I used 1 tsp Cayenne Pepper, 3/4 tsp Paprika, 1/2 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp garlic salt, and 1/4 tsp black pepper. It had the perfect amount of heat for us. I didn't get any more pictures of the process as it went fast and we were trying to enjoy the time spent together, but check out the original recipe for ingredients and awesome step by step photos. Doesn't this look delicious?:
We paired this with some french bread. I roasted some garlic and threw it in the food processor with butter and Parmesan cheese and gave it a good whirl. This made a perfect topper for the bread and was especially good when we popped it under the broiler for a few minutes.
Cue candlelight, a little Nora Jones in the background, and a glass of wine or two and we had the perfect dinner date. It was absolutely interruption free which wouldn't have even happened at a restaurant, so I would say that this was even better than getting out!
Nora Jones is always good. LOL
ReplyDeleteI just saw a cool date idea on Focus on the Family FB page. A lady wrote in that her husband made 3X5 cards with question prompts that pertained to them as a couple. Some were just plain silly and others were more specific to rembembering times in their life together. It was cute.
Another lady did a picture date where they went out together and took pictures of eachother and the scenery then made a book. I might try these and blog about them!
This is on my list of recipes to try. It looks soooooo good!
ReplyDelete