V-Day

Jalapeno Popper Eggrolls

This year, I wanted to do something special and creative for Valentine's Day, but didn't want to spend a bundle of cash.  I did some checking around online and came up with some fun ideas...

I made a twist on M's favorite appetizer, Jalapeno Poppers...  I did a jalapeno and cheese filling stuffed into eggroll wrappers, then baked them like I did with the Buffalo Chicken Eggrolls a few weeks ago.  They turned out really good!!! M said he would have like it to be a bit spicier, so next time, I'll leave some of the jalapeno seeds and ribs in. Check out the recipe on my recipage, here.

Chocolate Yogurt Cheesecake

To lighten things up, we both had a huge salad with balsamic vinaigrette.  But, for dessert, I tried a new recipe, Chocolate Yogurt Cheesecake, from Jessica Seinfeld's Double Delicious cookbook. I topped our servings with some sliced, fresh strawberries and powdered sugar. It was pretty good; it tasted like chocolate frozen yogurt.  I think next time, though, I'll cut the yogurt in half and make up the difference with cream cheese for a little less "tang". (Remarkably, there is no cream cheese in the original recipe.)

While enjoying our dessert, we played a round of MASH...  you know, the crazy game that hormone crazed adolescent girls all play?  Well, the Dating Divas posted this grown up version on their site  - a free printable! 

We followed the direction on the bottom of the printable and laughed our way through predicting our future.  According to the "very accurate" results, 5 years from now, we will be living in a shack with our 3 kids, making it on $20,000 a year.  The good news is, I finally get my trip to Hawaii!!

Then, we opened our presents.  I gave M a pair of Hershey's kisses boxers, a bag of homemade Peanut Butter Hearts, a small pack of Wonderful pistachios (for him to munch at his desk at work) and a Love Tickets book. I attached little gift tags that I designed myself and printed on cardstock.

The Love Tickets book I made from this free Avery template.  They really look like tickets!  You can print them on business cards, or just on a piece of 8.5 x 11 cardstock.

I printed a cover and punched holes in one end, so I could tie the tickets together with ribbon. 

Each of the tickets is redeemable for something... for example, "No dishes for one week" or "1 lunch date, my treat", or "Your Choice on Movie Night", or "Good for a 30 minute massage", etc. The template comes with a few suggestions, but I just changed the template to fit us.  

The last thing we did on our Valentine's date was a game of Love Memory.  Remember the kid's game, "Memory"? This is a similar principle.  You have 2 of each card and each person has to flip over 2 cards each turn and try to make a match.  The person with the most matches at the end of the came wins.  M won, with 11 matches to my 7. 

I got the idea from a Dating Divas printable, but changed it up a bit.  Their printable was in full color and required printing a front and a back, then gluing the fronts and backs together.  I just typed up "cards" in a table in Word and printed it on cardstock. Then, I cut the squares out and used some rubber stamps to decorate the flip side. 

The cards can say anything you want, really.  I chose to use some activities as well as some conversation starters.  Everything from "Pillow Fight" to "3-minute Foot Rub" to "Raid the kitchen for a sweet treat" to "What one word best describes your spouse right now?" etc.  Once I figure out how to post pdf's, I'll put up my version of the printable so you can make your own version.

Hope your Valentine's Day was great!  Feel free to try these date ideas any time, not just February 14!