Iron Chef Variation

Looking for a last minute date night? I love this date, and the best part is there is really no preparation to it. You can do it this weekend with another couple or even just you and your spouse.

I know there are a lot of variations to "Iron Chef" dates, but I think this is a fun way to do it.

Have someone on each "team" roll a die. Whoever gets the larger number gets to choose if they want the appetizer or dinner. (You can pick whatever combo you want or even have a dessert night and each couple does a dessert).

Nic and I got appetizer and our friends Nicole and Josh got dinner.

Take a few minutes with your team mate and come up with an ingredient the other team must use. We chose string cheese for Josh and Nicole and they chose pineapple for us.

Each team will role both dice. Whatever number you get on the dice is the amount of money you can spend at the grocery store for ingredients. You can spend less than that amount but not more. We allowed each team to use whatever ingredients are in a normal kitchen (cornstarch, milk, butter, etc.)

Nicole and Josh only got $5 and Nic and I got $8.

We decided before we went to the store that Josh and Nicole were going to use the oven. (It can be nice to coordinate this before you buy ingredients so both teams are both not trying to use the oven).

Nicole and Josh were able to buy spaghetti sauce, manicotti noodles, and string cheese (their chosen ingredient).

We were able to get a couple of bell peppers, onions, and pineapple. Fortunately, the sauce we chose to make uses a lot of ingredients found in most kitchens so we didn't have to buy anything else.

Nic and I made a sweet and sour sauce to go with our vegetables skewers. We barbecued them. They turned out pretty good.

Josh and Nicole treated us to string cheese stuffed manicotti. It was delicious! (Unfortunately, we didn't get a pretty picture of it).

Hope you get a chance to try this date. Please let us know some of the creations you come up with. 

Questions Date Night

Now that we have a kid, we are always looking for some date nights we can do at home. I planned Valentines this year and I made some cheese fondue and printed off some fun questions for us to answer. (You can use the same bank of questions that we did here). We love asking each other fun questions, usually beyond the what's your favorite food. We thought this was a fun variation since we had to guess about the other person.

We had so much fun that the next night, Nic found the NewlyWed game and asked that we play it. We only did page 3, but I am sure we will play again and use some of the other pages. We played it while eating some delicious cheesecake. I may be biased but I think the best way to play these games is while eating, gives you some time to think. ;)

Even though we have been married for 5 years, we still had a lot of fun playing this and surprisingly we still learned a few things about each other.

Once a month plan a fun dinner or dessert pull out a set of questions from either The Love Map: 20 Questions Game or the NewlyWed Game and you have yourself an at home cheap date. Plus every month you will learn a little bit more about your spouse.