A Simple, but Special Night In.

This is a sponsored review from BlogHer and Stouffer's.

If you’ve been around my blog for a while, or even just a week or two, you know full well that I live one of the craziest schedules and so does my husband. Emergency services careers are just not conducive to anything romantic or well planned, but that doesn’t mean I don’t hope for the same well thought out gestures ‘normal’ marriages get! Shawn and I just have to work hard at making the romantic moments happen or, in this case, just working smarter not harder.

One thing we never seem to get to do together, ever, is have a nice dinner. Its always something that seems to take too much effort or time to pull together. I can’t even remember to take something out of the freezer to thaw ahead of time let alone remember to purchase piles of ingredients ahead of time at the grocery store so this was the perfect solution

That, my friends, is something awesome I recently tried out for the first time, Stouffers dinner for two! Not only does it solve the “What’s for dinner?” conundrum, but it solves the taking food out in ahead of time problem, and the “We never have a nice quiet dinner together at home” plea.

At first I was skeptical of this frozen dinner concoction since being in emergency services I’ve had my fair share of frozen meals and most are none-too-appealing. As soon as we started cooking the meal you could smell the freshness. We chose to cook the Grilled Chicken and Asiago Tortelloni mix. As the Stouffer’s dinner cooked it actually smelled like real food, rather than a frozen premade preparation.

Yes, the meal still had to be cooked. It’s not something that could just be shoved in a microwave for five minutes, but I swear it was almost as easy. We opened the bag, put all the ingredients in a frying pan, let the ingredients sizzle according to the package, and about ten minutes later it was ready to eat! That’s it. Even in a tired and pregnant state cooking a Stouffer’s meal for two is something I could realistically do any night of the week. And, if you dislike this chicken tortelloni concoction there are numerous different kinds of these Stouffers Dinner you can try!

While Shawn sizzled away I set the table. We even had some leftover rolls from takeout at an Italian Restaurant the night before (that cost three times as much as the Stouffer’s dinner we were preparing) and I even put out some olive oil, fancy-like, for dipping. Honestly, this was the FIRST dinner since we’ve bought the house (in December…) that I have set and eaten at the kitchen table. I’m not kidding when I say we just don’t have the time or energy for a real dinner, ever.

When we sat down to eat at a set table, about fifteen minutes after we took the Stouffers Dinner for Two out of the freezer, and it was amazing. The sheer enjoyment of a calm and “real dinner together at the table was more than I could have imagined? “Why don’t we do this more often?!” I thought, especially if it can take such little effort. And so what if we didn’t dim the lights and light some candles? This was enough for us.

Besides the wonderful conversation that wasn’t in the living room and dictated by the television the meal was great. Initially Shawn and I thought the portions were small, at least to the eye, but honestly after eating a few forkfuls I filled up quickly. Shawn didn’t enjoy the spinach like I did. He is not a vegetable person usually, but I loved having vegetables already tastefully thrown into the meal since they are usually an afterthought when I actually do attempt to cook something.

When we finished the dinner we actually lingered at the table, talking about how enjoyable the night was. What a wonderful change from our normal zoned-out effect in front of the TV after consuming whatever we each individually throw together that evening. Seriously, a great evening is apparently easier than you think!

So I am curious....

Because I can’t be the only one with a crazy schedule and the need for a romantic night in.

What do you do to make an ordinary night extraordinary with your significant other?

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