Hey everyone, I am constantly looking for fun, cheap ideas for dates. When I saw Bear Grylls new show, You vs Wild, I saw the perfect opportunity, especially with the nicer weather. I decided to make a themed date for my fiance and myself. Mild spoilers in this post, spoiler tag used.
I dressed for with a survivalist theme in mind and also to get into the right mindset. I wore cargo pants, a t-shirt, a denim button up shirt, and good tennis shoes for hiking.
The first part of the date was going for a hike at our local state park. I put lemonade in water bottles (because I can't do a Bear Grylls date without referencing the 'Drink your own piss' meme). We went for a calm hike and enjoyed nature.
I also made trail mix with a nut mix, stovetop popcorn, and M & Ms. I already had the nut mix and bought more stovetop popcorn (I was running low) and two personal size M & Ms. Additionally, I bought gummy worms as my fiance really enjoys them. I brought the snacks out while I made dinner.
Dinner was chicken and mushroom kabobs since it was meat on a stick as well as tofu and mushrooms since I don't eat meat. My fiance has an airfryer so I made the kabobs in advance and just put them in the airfryer once we got back from our hike. Overall, any sort of meat (or fake meat!) will likely invoke Bear Grylls vibes for your date.
Once dinner was ready, we watched the show. The premise of the show is you make choices to get Bear Grylls through the adventure to meet the goal. Without giving too much away, you can make wrong decisions, but many decisions will still allow you to finish the episode. It's a fun way to practice quick decision making skills with your significant other. One episode we watched twice and just chose opposite options, and I think saw the entire episode.
For desert, I decided to make bear poop as in the third episode you can make Bear eat bear poop. One word of advice is that not all options lead to the bear poop scene. I chose to use brownies as my poop, although after watching the show, peanut clusters would have been more appropriate. I made brownies (that have been sitting in my pantry forever) in an 8x8 pan. I cut the middle out of the pan of brownies and put them in a food processor. I thought I might need frosting to make them stick, but they were actually very moist, almost too oily. I originally shaped them into more elongated shapes, but after Googling pictures, I realized it needed to be more pancake-like. Overall, I was proud of my result. I waited until the decision came, and then presented my fiance with the brownies.
Grocery list:
M & Ms personal size x 2 = $2.67
12 pack of Minute Made Light = $5.49*
Gummy worms = $1.69
Stovetop popcorn = $1.49
Chocolate Frosting = $1.38
Total Spent = $13.41
Items already at home estimated costs:
2 x chicken breasts = $2.50
White mushrooms = $2
Tofu = $1
Marinade and seasoning for chicken/tofu = $0.50
Nut mix = ??? ($2?)
Brownie mix = ??? ($1.50?)
Additional costs = $8.50
Total estimated cost = $23
*=There were 2 L of lemonade for $2, but we do have a wedding soon so we are trying to be somewhat mindful of calories. The lemonade will last throughout the week as well. Another cheaper option is if you had a lemonade mix at home.
Additionally, the stovetop popcorn is something I make often for myself as a snack. And per my experience, the frosting was not necessary.
In terms of preparation, I marinated the chicken with a simple marinade of soy sauce, olive oil, brown sugar, and vinegar. You can store kabobs for a day or two in the fridge, so it might be a good idea to prep the day/night before. Additionally, it's grilling season so grilling the kabobs might be a reasonable idea as well. I covered the chicken in a chicken rub from Aldi. I made the trail mix in advance as well.
Improvements for next time:
Really, the only change I would make would be to use peanut clusters instead of the brownies since it is more specific to the show, although I will say the brownies did very much resemble poop. The peanuts could be used for both the trail mix as well as the peanut clusters. Overall, I feel it was a very successful date.
April 20, 2019 at 01:09AM
