Fondue Night

I was feeling pretty depressed today about the fact that we had nothing fun planned for this three day weekend.  I looked up going to a waterpark overnight, but they were all booked or super expensive.  It's too cold to go downtown to walk around or to the zoo, and we don't dare go anywhere near museums or malls on the weekends.  Paul came up with the plan to go buy a projector to go with our big screen we got for Christmas, so we could turn our living room into a movie theater.  We were going to make popcorn and eat candy and cozy up together.  We saw several projectors listed online at Best Buy, so we went straight there only to find that they only carried three models in the store which were all over $500.  Discouraged, we went home and ordered one from Best Buy online. We should get it in the next few days which is exciting; but, in the meantime, we were back to having NO plans for the day.

Then I remembered that on Sundays kids eat free at The Melting Pot.  Paul and I used to go to The Melting Pot for every anniversary and always to celebrate mine and Cari's birthday.  We love it there but haven't been in years. I was super excited and called to make a reservation and was told that we could come at 4:15 or 8:15.  Foiled again. We ate lunch around 1:00 today, so I knew no one would be hungry enough to make it worth it.  It would have still cost us almost $80 even with the kids eating for free. I huffed and puffed and headed to the grocery store to shop for the week and find something for dinner.  On the way to Caputo's, I made the executive decision to make fondue at home.  I knew this would probably be a total failure, but I was determined to do something fun today! I spent an hour at Caputo's and then had to stop at Jewel for steak because Caputo's had slim pickings.

 I walked in the door at 5:15 and got started on our three course fondue meal.  We only had one pot, so we had a leisurely dinner that lasted two hours. The kids could have cared less; they had the BEST time.  I'll show you the pictures first and then link to the recipes I used.  I could not believe how easy everything was and prep time was surprisingly quick for all three of the fondue recipes.  Plus, I think I spent about $25 to create our at home fondue night, and we had much larger portions. Much to my surprise, fondue night was a complete success!

First Course: Cheddar Cheese Fondue. AWESOME!!!!

We ate ours with green apples, celery, carrots and rye bread.

http://www.food.com/recipe/cheddar-cheese-fondue-courtesy-of-the-melting-pot-288342

Second Course: Chicken, steak, shrimp, broccoli and mushrooms in veggie broth.

I made my own recipe for this. Finely chopped garlic, celery and carrots and 1 and 1/2 containers of vegetable stock. I used Emeril's brand of organic stock.

We used cocktail sauce, ranch, BBQ sauce, A1, ketchup and buffalo ranch as our dippers.  We also used chive and onion cream cheese to take the place of the green goddess sauce we usually use to stuff our mushrooms.

 Paul wanted to let you all know that he didn't do his hair today. 

The dippers plus bananas too

Third Course: Dark Chocolate Fondue

Ours started to separate for some reason towards the end, but we didn't care because it still tasted phenomenal!!! 

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/chocolate_fondue/

 

We all enjoyed dinner thoroughly and the best part is that I stuck to Paleo 99% of the meal.  My only cheat was a tiny bit of cheese fondue with some apples and celery. I didn't even miss the bread. The main course was 100% Paleo which makes me want to eat fondue style every night, and for dessert I only used grapes and bananas as my dippers.  The recipe did call for heavy cream which is a no no on a Paleo cleanse, but is acceptable when following a Paleo lifestyle.  Woo hoo!

 

We made great memories tonight and saved a boatload of money. Plus, it was a nice change from the traditional sit down dinner we typically have.  In fact, we enjoyed it so much that I may invest in a second fondue pot. That way dinner would go a little bit faster.  However, staying up until 8:00 eating added to the excitement of the night for the kids. 

 

I feel very full.  I ate a lot. All Paleo approved foods, but a LOT of Paleo approved foods.  I think I'll see a weight gain tomorrow after tonight's meal, and I don't care.  I think we will make fondue night a monthly requisite at our house from now on.

 

This was definitely the only exciting meal I had today.  Since I didn't make it to the grocery store until 4:00, I had very few lunch options. Breakfast was just coffee and lunch was some nuts and a large orange.  Very poor eating on my part. I got a ton of produce and lunchmeat at the store, so lunch tomorrow will be much better.

 

Mexican beef skewers are on the docket for tomorrow night assuming I remember to marinate them.

 

XOXO