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!

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Bring on the PINK Valentine Decor {Tutorials and Ideas}

I love to decorate for Valentines Day. It used to be a holiday I would skip when it came to decor, but I will take any excuse to add some pink into this home filled with boys every once and a while. Really though I am loving all the pink, girliness and femininity of the decor this month. And well, the boys can just deal with it one month out of the year right?! So I just thought I would share how I decorated my home this month with some links to some tutorials or shops.

Sometimes you just need pretty and simple. For my kitchen table it is pretty small so I don't like a lot of clutter. I simply used a white table runner and placed a vase in the middle. I have these little snow balls left over from Christmas that I believe I got at Tai Pan and the hearts are cut off from heart picks from the dollar store. Then I simply added a little red ribbon. So simply but so pretty,

For my faux mantel I used my favorite backdrop that I made a couple years ago, you can find the tutorial HERE. I love it because I can use it for holidays but also year round since my kitchen is red. I got the globe from a Cricut event, the pink vase is just a spray painted soda bottle, the little glass containers are from the dollar store and the target dollar spot and I just filled them with valentine candy.  The candle sticks are from Ikea and I made the Rosette balls from THIS tutorial from House of Smiths. Then I spelled out Valentine with Scrabble letters and finished it off with a super simple garland. The garland is just twine with pine cones and dollar store snowflakes strung on.

My sofa table is always a fun place to decorate and I like to use larger decor items to fill up the space and give it some depth. The Love wood letters are from the Wood connection and you can find my tutorial of how I made them HERE. The little I heart U vases are from the dollar spot at Target and I filled them with dollar store heart picks. Then the rest are printables I found HERE, HERE and HERE. I used frames I already had and spray painted the pink and white ones.

I have a really fun small and tall red table next to my sofa table I simply added my adorable and Favorite owl from Michaels and a milk glass vase from the DI with some babies breath inside. And it is always fun to decorate the Chalkboard for whatever holiday or event is coming up.

This adorable Be Mine bunting was made by my mom over at Organize and Decorate Everything and she gave it to me. I love it and always find the perfect place for it no matter where we are living at the time.

I put this pillow out every year. I love the pink on my couch mostly, and the beaded letters are so much fun. I have had this pillow since I was in High school. My mom gave it to me one year for valentines day and it has seen many dorms and homes since.

You can find my straw wreath tutorial HERE. I use this for many occasions and holidays, I love how versatile these wreaths can be. The tutorial for the chalkboard banner is found HERE.

Love sign from Michaels, and white vases from ikea filled with some twigs from michaels.

I love this little pop of Valentine Love and color in the little guest bathroom in out main living area. The tutorial for the Feather wreath is HERE. For the frame, I simply wrote out All you need is...is all you need on my computer, printed it out, and then stuck on the glitter love with some sticky dots on the glass of the frame. I got the LOVE from the target dollar spot.

My antique windows are my very favorite I LOVE them. I simply added some washi tape bunting to dress them up from this month. Tutorial HERE.

Upstairs in the hall way I have these fun little shelves that are great to get a little bit of the holiday spirit up there too. I got the Heart print HERE and just put it in a spray painted pink frame I got from the dollar store. Added and Ikea frame, an antique wood molding piece, and a little glass birdie from Michaels. On the left I have a picture of me and the hubby, another love bird, and a bird cage with some heart picks inside. On the right side I put a picture up of my other two little valentines, a spray painted pink soda bottle and a fun chicken wire frame for texture.

Phew! Did you catch all that! Fun right?! Just pick a few ideas that you love

and bring them into your home and your style. 

I hope you were able to be inspired by some of my ideas 

PIN PIN PIN away for future years to come and holiday craft nights 

Happy Weekend, Happy LOVE Month, Happy Monday

and smile lets get this week off to the right start shall we?!

Oh and please come back for some more great posts this week.

I would love to have you follow me on Instagram

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Valentine's Day Round up

 

 Not only is it a new year, but Valentines day is quickly approaching. It is crazy how fast time really does fly by the older you get. I am not sure I like it so much. So with Valentines coming up I wanted to share with you some of my top crafts, DI projects and decor ideas so you can get to creating and decorating. I didn't used to decorate much for Valentines day, but after the last few years it has become one of my favorite. It is the one time of year I can have pink in my home of all boys. I'll take it where I can get it. I can't wait to get all the love up in my home. Check them out, each link will take you to the tutorial for that project.

Valentine Decor Ideas 

DIY Chevron Backdrop 

 Easy Paper Straw Wreath

 Washi Tape Bunting

 Feather Boa Wreath

Can of Love and gifts for your Lover

 Wood Love Letters

 14 print- The Fickle Pickle

V-day subway Print- Today's Fabulous Finds

Happy Monday!

Happy creating 

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}