Melting Pot at home Valentine Dinner {Date Night in Idea}

I am really excited to share with you a fun Valentines Night in Dinner idea today. With kids, let's be real here, it is just plan hard to get in some one on one date night, and Valentine's day is probably the hardest day to get babysitters. So.... last year with our two kids at home with us I decided to surprise Ty with a Melting Pot homemade fondue at home Valentine's dinner that our whole family would enjoy together. It was really fun to put together, fun to surprise him and the food was so yummy. It was a bit of work, but so worth it. Also I am going to apologize for the picture not being the best, they are from last year and I just decided to post from what I had.

First up I whipped up a little menu to place on the table settings. And yes we totally used paper products. With all the dishes of cooking that is what happened but they were festive and that is the beauty of doing it at home with just your little family, they don't care about the plates. 

I simply just wrote out what we were having in Word added some cute clip art, personalized it to our family and printed them out on card stock. I thought it was a really fun little touch and made it feel more like a date and not just a normal dinner at home.

No lets get to the recipes!!! 

First up on the list was the Appetizer, which was a delicious Spinach dip. This was hubby's favorite of the whole meal. I think it was my favorite too. It was served with bread and pears for dipping.

Spinach Dip

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup grated Gruyere cheese

1/2 cup fresh mozzarella

1 pound cream cheese, cubed

2 cups heavy cream or whipping cream

1 cup frozen spinach, thawed, chopped

1 cup artichokes, frozen, chopped (canned is ok)

Salt and ground black pepper to taste

French bread, cubed, for serving

Tortilla chips, for serving

Mix together cream cream and heavy cream in a large bowl. Add all of the remaining ingredients into large bowl; mix well. Transfer mixture to a pot over medium-high heat. Bring cheese to boil, reduce heat and serve warm. Then transfer to a warmed fondue pot. Serve with cubed french bread and pears.

Next was a Caesar salad. Which was just a basic Caesar salad with yummy Caesar dressing, cheese and croutons. 

 

Then it was the entire and the side dish. The entire was pork medallions just BBQed in Teriyaki gourmet sauce with a side of the sauce for more dipping. With a side of cheddar cheese fondue and broccoli for dipping.

Cheddar Cheese fondue

4 ounces broth
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
cheddar cheese
pepper
mustard powder
Worcestershire sauce

 

Start with 4 oz of broth in a pot on medium heat on the stove. Add garlic, 3 shakes of mustard powder and then stir. Add small amount of cheddar cheese and mix thoroughly (using whipping motion until cheese is melted). Then add five turns of pepper grinder and three to four shakes of worcestershire sauce. Fold in pepper & worcestershire. Remove from stove into warmed fondue pot.

Dessert if you have room is chocolate fondue with bananas, strawberries, marshmallows and cheesecake bites for dipping. 

Chocolate fondue
6 tablespoons of whipping cream
400 gram Toblerone chocolate bar {14.1 oz)
1 tablespoon milk 

It was such a fun little meal filled with yummy food, fun conversation, laughs, smiles and the boys just loved dipping everything so they probably ate dinner better than they ever have before. If you will be doing a Valentines date in this year give this one a try, or try it out for another day. I promise you will love it.

Happy Valentine's Week!

Spread the Love

I would love to have you follow me on Instagram

@WHITNEYULRICH

to see all my fun pics, my real life, fitness, fashion ideas

and sneak peaks of what I've been working on

Thank you for your support, for reading and for following
It really means the world to me 

Make sure to check out my other social media sites and follow along
 {links below}