Thursday is date night. We keep our dates economical, and we discovered that Thursday night is a great night to go to Macaroni Grill.

First of all, they have good happy hour deals between 4 and 7 pm nightly. Wine is $3 a glass, and appetizers are 2 for $9. On Thursdays, they also have a deal where you can buy a bottle of wine half off.

Here’s how to handle this while working the keto plan:

1. Order bottle of Chianti ($30, half price = $15)
2. Order two appetizers that are (hopefully) keto-friendly – peppadew peppers with goat cheese and balsamic vinaigrette
3. Order husband a $5 sausage pizza
4. Ignore bread and oil
5. Drink one glass of wine and follow up with multiple glasses of water

Note that BOTH plates of peppers became mine. It was like a $9 gourmet meal.

The total bill is about $30. This is not exactly the cheapest meal one could hope for, but it’s very good for Macaroni Grill, plus half a bottle of wine goes home with us for another night. In our hey dey, we had lots of money to throw around and we would rack up a $100 check at M.Grill, so this seems like a good deal.

As for the movie night success part, see my blog about salt and vinegar almonds here.

Here’s a peppadew pepper recipe. It’s basically the peppers stuffed with goat cheese and drizzled with balsamic vinegar. YUM.