Home Date Night: The Melting Pot

It's important to keep the spark alive in marriage and to always be putting forth effort to continue to grow in your relationship with your spouse.  However, dating your spouse after you've had children isn't easy.  It's also expensive.  But who says in order to date your spouse you have to go out?  Home date nights can be just as nice, if not sometimes nicer.

It's my job to take care of and plan date nights at home, and then because it's still important to get out (away from the house and children), Zenith plans our nights out.  Because it's expensive to go out, we only go out every few months or so, which is why we need something to fill in between that time.  Dating your spouse is so important and can't be neglected because of money.

This date-night-at-home's theme was the Melting Pot.  It's a pretty neat fondue restaurant, which I've never been to but wanting to.  So I decided to recreate the restaurant at home.

Welcome to the Melting Pot, your table for two awaits you...

This evening's special features a delicious Spinach Mushroom Cheese Fondue; the sharp Cheddar, Feta and Parmesan cheeses are balanced perfectly with a splash of a bold yet slightly fruity red wine added in.  One the side we have vegetables for dipping as well as freshly baked artisan bread.

...and tonight's entertainment will be Mr. William, monkey extraordinaire!

(the little guy joined us until he went to bed)

And to finish off , we have a Paleo Dark Chocolate Fondue.  This rich yet smooth chocolate is paired perfectly with fruit to make it a deliciously sweet, yet not too heavy dessert.

It was seriously delicious as well as refined sugar free!

It was a lovely night and it felt so good to take time out from the daily grind and focus on our relationship and just reconnecting.  

How about some recipes?

Spinach Mushroom Cheese Fondue

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I used sharp cheddar)

1/2 cup crumbled feta

1/4 cup of grated Parmesan

2 Tbsp cornstarch

2 Tbsp butter

1 heaped tsp garlic

4 oz frozen spinach thawed and drained well

1/3 cup chopped mushrooms (I just used canned)

3/4 cup wine

Shred cheeses and gently mix cornstarch into the cheese. Refrigerate until needed.

In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Add minced garlic. Meanwhile, roughly chop mushrooms and add to pan. Cook mushrooms down for five minutes. When liquid has evaporated and you notice brown bits on the bottom of the pan, add wine.

Begin adding shredded cheese a handful at a time to ensure slow, even melting. After the cheese has melted, add the well-drained spinach. Stir to heat through.

Pour cheese mixture into a fondue pot or a crock pot. Serve with variety of fruits, vegetables, breads and meat.  (Adapted from the original recipe here.)

Here's the Paleo Dark Chocolate Fondue recipe.  The only changes I made to it were using regular milk instead of coconut milk because I didn't have any, using regular cocoa powder, and corn starch instead of arrowroot powder.  I made it all right in my fondue pot, but I recommend the double boiler.  It MUST be heated very slowly!  I burnt my first batch from heating it too fast. 

I have some videos of the kiddo crawling around that I still need to upload off my camera so I'll put them on here soon.

Happy Thursday!

~Lindsay