J and I do this thing. It started initially because we couldn’t afford much else. But as the years have gone on, we’ve continued to do it because it’s something that’s ours.
We take our at home date nights pretty seriously. Don’t get me wrong, we enjoy a nice dinner out or catching a movie, but sometimes by time the weekend rolls around, the idea of having to be on seems exhausting. That’s when the at home date night gets activated.
It’s easy to fall into normal habits during “dates” at home. You’re on the couch with your dinner on a TV tray and a movie. You’re both glued to your phones. The dryer dings and you grab the clothes and start sorting. The floor needs sweeping. The next thing you know, one of you has fallen asleep on the couch which effectively ends the night all together. Fail. Right?
Well, we switch things up. If you’ve hung out around here long enough you’ll remember when we built a fort at Christmastime and it was the best thing ever. Back in Athens, we used to have living room picnics, pre-Bailey. We’ve discovered the secret sauce to our at home date night success. We’ve blended it all together and do living room campouts!
We blow up the air mattress and set it up in all its cozy glory. We pick shows off our DVR that we’ve been saving to watch together (or rent a redbox or two). And best yet, we pick an old favorite recipe that’s easy to make together for dinner.
For some reason, just doing something slightly different like sleeping in the living room makes it all feel more intentional. I’m no longer focused on the cleaning. Our phones stay in our bedroom. And we live on the bed in the living room. Sometimes we leave the set up all weekend long, turning date night into date weekend.
Friday, before I left for work, I started some buffalo chicken in the crockpot. Buffalo Chicken Pizza is one of our faves, and I thought it’d be fun for us to make together. When J got home from work, we set up the air mattress and prepped the pizza, laughing and joking through it all. Absolute perfection, if you ask me!
Buffalo Chicken
- 3lbs raw boneless skinless chicken breasts (frozen or unfrozen, I used unfrozen)
- 12 oz Frank’s Red Hot Sauce
- 1 packet of ranch dressing mix
- Place all your ingredients in the crockpot. People will tell you it matters what order you pour them in, but it doesn’t. I was in a hurry and just dumped it all in.
- Cook on low for 7-8 hours or high for 4-5.
- Shred the chicken about 1 hour before serving to allow it to soak in the juices.
I usually make this earlier in the week to use for salads. With the leftovers, we make Buffalo Chicken Pizza!
Buffalo Chicken Pizza Sauce:
- 2 tbs butter
- 2 tbs all purpose flour
- ~1 cup cold milk
- ~1 cup franks red hot sauce
- Melt the butter over medium heat
- Whisk in the flour until a rue forms
- Whisk in the milk, bringing the heat up to medium/high. Whisk constantly to avoid burning. The sauce will begin to thicken
- Whisk in hot sauce, reducing heat to low.
Buffalo Chicken Pizza:
- Pre-packaged pizza dough (I used Mama Mary from Harris Teeter)
- Sauce
- Mozzarella & Cheddar Shredded Cheese
- Buffalo Chicken
- Preheat oven according to instructions on the dough.
- Spread a generous amount of the sauce on the dough
- Add a hefty helping of buffalo chicken on top of the sauce, spread out.
- Sprinkle a mixture of mozzarella & cheddar cheese
- Bake according to instructions on the dough.
What a lovely date night, I love a good homemade pizza. And wine, of course!
what a great idea!! i love the camp out nights at home! that awesome how you reuse the chicken from the salad into pizza. yummy!!
This recipe looks amazing! If I could eat on the floor of my living room without the two dogs in my face I totally would!
I've used ranch dressing and hot sauce mixed together as a dip for chicken fingers and things but I've never thought to use hot sauce and a package of ranch to make a sauce! It sounds great, I will have to pick up a package of ranch and try it out!
We've only built a fort once in our marriage….fail. But I love that has a way to make at-home date night different!
Love this! Especially that the phones are off limits. Then you can actually be present and enjoy the time together!
Um yes to this recipe!!! It sounds amazing!
I love that you guys are intentional with your at home date nights. We always try to be, but by the time we get baby girl to bed we're so tired we just sit and watch TV. That pizza sounds good. My hubby would love it!
I love how intentional your at-home date nights are! And this pizza sounds delicious!! We made an at-home one on the grill over the summer and it was yummy!
Your date nights sound so fun. And, this pizza sounds absolutely delicious. Definitely going to have to give this a try!
xoxo
Kat 🙂
We spend so many weekend nights at home especially during the winter. Guess we're just old and boring now lol. I think that this is a lovely tradition and that recipe sounds good too. Thank you so much for sharing lady and I hope that you have a great day!! 🙂
Looks so delicious!
liz @ sundays with sophie
I love buffalo chicken pizza so delicious!! Your weekend long date is adorable something I may have to adopt in the future, love the living room fort too!
I will be making this! I always need a good homemade pizza recipe. We enjoy date nights at home, too- it's good when you can enjoy a few drinks and no one has to drive! 😉
I love at home date nights! Chris and I pretty much stayed in all weekend. I made honey buffalo chicken meatballs last night, and we had ordered a pizza Saturday night….so clearly we were on the same page!
Omg, yum. I need this pizza in my life now! And I love your date night idea! We did a blow up mattress in front of the fireplace and watched Netflix last Thanksgiving break and we're already looking forward to it again this year 🙂
This sounds so fun!! I think Scott and I need to be more intentional about our lounging and turn it into dates! 🙂
I am going to have to make this one night. Buffalo chicken is one of my favorite things!
I love y'alls campout dates! They sound like such fun! I cannot wait to try out this pizza by the way 😉 xo
You guys are too cute. These are totally the kinds of things that keep a marriage strong (IMO).
i love that you all do the at home dates and take it so seriously. i wish we could do something like this but kc would probably laugh at me.
David's kind of obsessed with buffalo pizza but I've never made it for him. And YES to your description of at home date nights. We've never really even tried to be successful at them but I have a feeling that's about to change since going out will be slightly different in the near future. Thanks for the fun idea. {I can just hear Baby Girl when she's older… "Mommy, why do you and Daddy get to sleep in the living room?" hahah!}
Well, I just saved this recipe! YUM! xo, Champagne&Suburbs