Enjoy a Picnic Under the Stars with this #diydatenight complete with recipes and a galaxy light show.
Enjoy a Picnic Under the Stars with this #diydatenight complete with recipes and a galaxy light show.We’ve got an all-star lineup for this indoor date. You’ll make an Orzo Salad with Starfruit Salsa, Galaxy Donuts with Chocolate Starglazing and create a Galaxy Light Board craft. You add the romance.
Welcome to the new #diydatenight series! In yesterday’s post, I briefly introduced Megan Crow, my partner in date night crime, but today you get to see just how awesome her illustrations are. She will be bringing our themed date nights to life…because words don’t always do justice to how much fun #diydatenight can be.
For our first #diydatenight we are creating indoor romance with a Picnic Under the Stars theme. It’s perfect for when it’s cold or rainy and you can’t go outside for a picnic, but its also great for all those parents out there looking to enjoy an evening together while the kids are sleeping. So crack open a bottle of wine (I’d suggest Sauvingnon Blanc to pair with dinner) and let’s get started!
For a stargazing picnic, you need stars! My hubby Kevin and I made the above Galaxy Light Board using inexpensive materials we got at Walmart and the Dollar Store. Some of the items we already had on hand, like the string of lights, the toothpicks and paper plate, so the project cost less than $15.
To keep the mess to a minimum we laid out newspaper on the kitchen island and started painting before making dinner. Because the paints are acrylic they dry really quickly, but you’ll want to start your craft first and cook dinner during the intervals when the paint is drying.
Ta-da! Isn’t Megan’s illustration so cute? This has been me and Kevin for the past month! Not only is the galaxy board pretty, its a great nightlight, so we haven’t taken it down.
Once your star show is ready, it’s time to finish dinner. Because I’m a theme nerd, the main course is a cold orzo salad with a starfruit salsa. We served it with shrimp, but if you’re vegan like Megan, the salad is great with black beans.
Because it’s picnic food, I served the salad in wide mouth Ball jars. The pictures look deceptively like jam jars, but these are the 16oz jars… and speaking of which, the salad filled 4 of these, so the recipe is scaled such that you can do your picnic under the stars as a double date, a family date or you can have leftovers for lunch the next day.
I guess I could have gotten out my old school wicker picnic basket, but I decided to keep things simple and load our dinner onto a metal tray. But you can do as much or as little as you want to do to create the picnic vibe. All you really need is a blanket and an imagination!
Finally, the evening ends with these stellar Galaxy Puff Pastry “Donuts” with Chocolate Starglazing. They are super easy to make, but if you fall asleep while stargazing, you can always have them for breakfast!
We hope you have an out of this world date! If you try it, please let us know how it went ;-) Scroll down for the Orzo Salad with Starfruit Salsa recipe ↓
Orzo Salad with Starfruit Salsa
Ingredients
Starfruit Salsa
- 1 starfruit, half diced, the other half sliced for garnish
- 1 mango, diced
- 1 kiwi, diced
- ¼ cup diced red onion
- ⅓ bunch cilantro, chopped
- 2 large jalapenos, finely diced
- ½ lime, juiced
- 1 teaspoon sugar
Orzo Salad
- 1 16oz box orzo
- 24 medium sized shrimp (or for a vegan version, substiture with one can of rinsed black beans)
- 1½ limes, juiced
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- ⅔ bunch cilantro, chopped
- ½ cup diced red onion
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Starfruit Salsa
- Combine all starfruit salsa ingredients in a bowl and set aside
Orzo Salad
- Cook orzo according to package instructions, drain, rinse in cold water and drain again.
- In a large bowl combine olive oil, lime juice and sugar and whisk to combine.
- Add in orzo, shrimp (or black beans), red onion and cilantro and toss to combine.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serving
- Salad can be served with the salsa and orzo salad tossed together or can be served deconstructed
Notes
Nutrition
#diydatenight is brought to you by:
Megan is a Seattle area freelance illustrator. She loves drawing people’s mugs, laying on the ground with her dogs, eating beans and traveling. She can most often be found sitting in the rain, contemplating life’s great question: Spike or Angel? For commission information: megcondron@gmail.com | megan-crow.com | Instagram: @megzcon
christine says
Such a cute idea. We don’t do anything fun like this nearly as much as we should. Once the kids are in bed, it’s sort of a collapse on the couch kind of thing for us. This would really be fun.
Vintage Kitty says
Maybe your kids would enjoy helping with the galaxy craft, that way you could get a jump start on your date. I certainly understand the desire to relax on the couch after a long day!
Monica | Nourish & Fete says
This looks awesome! I wish I had the energy for this once my toddler is in bed – maybe I need to rally a bit more, ha! Those donuts especially look to die for!
Vintage Kitty says
Sounds like we need to plan some relaxing movie watching dates! I know parenting is super exhausting work.
Alyssa @ A Bite of Inspiration says
I love these ideas! I’ll have to share them with my fiancé! I’m a huge fan of star fruit , so I can’t wait to make your orzo salad! Looks delicious!
Vintage Kitty says
Awesome! If you give the date or recipe a try, let me know how it goes!
Angie | Fiesta Friday says
You have got to be kidding me! Just how cool is this?! Thanks so much for sharing with us at Fiesta Friday!
Vintage Kitty says
Thanks Angie!
Ginger says
They look just too adorable! Thank you for sharing :-)
Monika Dabrowski says
What a creative recipe and a perfect addition to a picnic basket:)
Vintage Kitty says
Thanks Monika! Hope we’ve inspired some romance ;-)
ERICA WEAVER says
that salad looks amazing this would def be a mood setting date night meal
Vintage Kitty says
Hope our #diydatenight provides romantic inspiration ;-)
jberry says
The real question is who deserves the invite.
Lorrie Schoettler says
Such and fun idea!
sarah k @ the pajama chef says
what a fun idea!!
melody says
Love that galaxy board! What a great idea.
I also need to try that starfruit salsa out on my fellas.
Jenna Urben says
Awww what a fun date idea!! I’m gonna have to do this soon :)
Olga says
Such a fun and unique idea. I will defiantly try this at home
Victoria Watts says
This is such a cute idea that I’m totally in love with! My significant other and I love going star gazing at the beach and watching the meteor showers together, so this is perfect for a night at home!
Ciera Compton says
Will definitely be trying this! But I think I’m gonna do star shaped brownies for dessert!
Cami says
This is such a cute idea, I’ve never gone all out for a home date before. Also I’ve never had starfruit, if I ever see it I’ll try it out!
Jen Dantuma says
I love how you tied your recipes that include star foods and your star gazing date night. What fun!
Jill Hanson says
Cool and creative, thanks for sharing.
Edye Nicole says
What a lovely idea! Thanks for sharing.
Darlene Carbajal says
This is awesome. Thanks for sharing!
Melissa Storms says
This looks like an awesome time. I love the idea of working on something fun like this for date night.
Wendy R. says
Aww how fun!! I see lots of theme ideas, but this one is so different! I love it!!
Julie says
We go out less and less and this is such a cute idea and I love the recipes.
Ann Fitch says
Wow! These recipes look great! Will be trying the orzo for Easter. YUM!
Barbara Pacific says
All the recipes look yummy
Mary Beth Elderton says
OMGoodness, what a fun (and romantic) idea!
Sonya Allstun says
Sounds like we need to plan some relaxing movie watching dates! I know parenting is super exhausting work.
Megan Wulff says
Thank you for posting.
Meg Tucker says
Cutest idea! I especially am loving this Orzo Salad recipe! I actually have leftover Orzo from dinner that would be perfect for this!
Deborah Wojciechowski says
I love the galaxy theme, this is definitely going to be my next date night plan.
Susan D says
We can absolutely do this. How fun! Then later we can share it with our best friend’s daughter – giving it to her would bring huge smiles and warm fuzzies to all of us! The star puff pastries though? Those will belong to me and my man ONLY.
Mary says
This is adorable! I like the idea of a date night at home–we tend to get derailed with a missed babysitter or staying late at work, or weather…no excuses for this one!
Allyson Becker says
Your creativity is out of this world. You are so inspirational! I love it!
Tammy Catterton says
Just love th star shaped cookies here what a great date night for sure to glaze on the stars with a nice pincic
jules m. says
this is such a good and romantic idea! I love the puff pastry doughnuts!!
Kayla Klontz says
Awesome idea, is sounds like a blast!
Gina R says
What a cool idea! I think my kids would love to make one of these!
Vintage Kitty says
I think this would be a really fun family date!
Nancy says
What fun ideas for a cute indoor picnic date!
Vintage Kitty says
Thanks! We think so!
Laurie Emerson says
This sounds so romantic! It would be something I would love to do with my husband for our anniversary!
Vintage Kitty says
This would be a great anniversary date!
Jenni says
Oh, I LOVE this idea!! Its so cute and fun, and I love how themed it is! I hope you do a million more!!! I am going to share this everywhere!
Vintage Kitty says
Thanks Jenni! I hope we do a million more too! Gotta keep date night fun!
nichole says
the recipe is almost perfect, its light delicious and clean tasting. i just personally feel it needs one more savory component or just something else just not sure what may be. i used 1/4 less cilantro and next time will opt out of the sugar (personally it was slightly too sweet with all the fruit) and double the shrimp. it was a fun and rewarding recipe i look forward to trying again