Date night dinner ideas during the pandemic

2020 was definitely a year like no other.

A lot have changed in our daily lives and a lot of us have tried ( and I believe in most cases, succeeded) in making those drastic changes, the new normal. I have shared in previous posts some of ways of how I’ve coped (still am) during this pandemic when all our daily routines have significantly changed.

The topic of this post for today is about date night dinner ideas that my partner and I have tried to ensure we don’t get sick of each other even these difficult times. Of course, there are other areas in our lives that have been affected by the different restrictions. But as I read through posts about couples breaking up during the lockdown, I found myself thinking how have we managed to continue making our relationship work even when almost every aspects of our lives has gone mental.

That’s where our regular dinner date nights came in. In the bullets below, I’ll share some of the dishes we’ve tried (and I will try to keep this post live by adding more ideas as we try new ones) that were easy enough to make and kept a romantic atmosphere at home. (Note: we would usually prepare at least three courses to make us feel like we’re still eating out at a restaurant.)

• Mexican night

My boyfriend loves Mexican food, so this is a usual theme of some of our date nights. We would usually make vegetarian chilli with rice or wrap, tacos (using the chilli we made), nachos (with home-made salsa, cheese on top, soured cream and chilli) and cheesy quesadillas.

• Korean night

For our Korean night, we have tried making home-made kimchi, kimchijeon(kimchi pancake), soy-garlic chicken, kimchi fried rice, tofu dolsot bibimbap and sundubu jjigae (spicy soft tofu stew).

• Greek night

Since we went on holiday, I’ve always wanted to try some Greek dishes. We’ve only cooked Greek food once as of the date of this post. We made our own falafels with wrap, pita bread, garlic mayo and hummus. I am hoping we will add more menus for our Greek date nights.

• Spanish night

I have always loved Spanish food. It’s probably because the Filipino culture was greatly influenced by the Spanish when they came to the Philippines some hundred years so. During our Spanish date nights, we would cook vegetarian or seafood (for me) paella, different tapas such as sizzling gambas, patatas bravas, meatball (and non-meatball) with tomato and red wine sauce, mussels in white wine, creamy mushroom, Spanish chorizos and bread.

I hope you enjoy some of these dinner ideas! I will keep this post live and update it as and when we try something new (and easy!).