Valentine's Day easy and affordable

Feb 14th

I am no expert since I am single but Valentine's Day is supposed to be all about LOVE.

What is LOVE?  According to Wikipedia this is what it is!

"Love encompasses a variety of strong and positive emotional and mental states, ranging from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection and to the simplest pleasure."

It doesn't say anything about it being between a man and a woman so who says you can only show people you love them if you are a couple?

Why not look at it as a day to show the people in your life that you love them or even if you are alone do something special for yourself to give yourself a bit of loving care for a change.

You don't have to be rich to show someone you care about them.  I have put together a few ideas for things that you can do that can be helped with a few grocery and dollar store items.  You don't have to make reservations at the fanciest restaurant or be a culinary whiz.  With a little bit of thought and effort you can create a meal that's full of heart while still staying on a reasonable budget.  Don't limit this to only 1 day a year.  You can do these things anytime of year.

First:  You can pick up some interesting things at your local dollar store.  I picked up a can of Hearts of Palm at my local dollar store for about $2.00.  This is an overlooked vegetable so it's great for something light and quick to make.  Just slice it and add a vinaigrette even if it's a bottled Italian dressing or just oil and lemon juice and salt and pepper that's fine.  I added a pop of red with chili flakes but you can add some crushed pink peppercorns or even some pomegranate seeds for color and sweetness.  This will easily serve 2 people.


Second:  You can always serve Pizza but make it Heart shaped.  I made this heart shaped pizza from scratch and added jarred artichoke hearts and cut out red peppers with a heart shaped cookie cutter and topped it with red onions and goat cheese for a bit of tang.  This is the fancy "I made it myself" version but you can take a step down and buy some frozen pizza dough and a jar of tomato sauce and some cheese and whatever other toppings you like but make sure you shape it into a heart before you bake it.  Still think you have no time or can't do this much then you can order a heart shaped pizza but it doesn't really show someone that you went out of your way for them but it's still cute.

Third:  Don't forget dessert of course.  Dark chocolate is great for boosting the feel good part of your brain so unless they don't like chocolate this is usually a good choice.

I have 3 choices for you for dessert.  You can take a few pantry ingredients and a little time and effort and make some shortbread cookies and decorate them with sprinkles with little hearts as I did above.  You can take something like homemade or store bought brownies and cut them into heart shapes.  Pick up some heart shaped chocolates and don't forget a cute little card. 

Of course you can pick up a little gift and put it in a cute heart shaped tin or box.  Add some balloons if you like because they always add a sense of occasion.  Depending on the time of day you can enjoy some wine or just take some cranberry juice and you can add some blood orange slices or some carbonated drink to it to add some bubbles.

Make it look as nice as you can even if the items aren't fancy.  You can even pick up little heart shaped cakes from the dollar store and see below where I just put some of the cookie sprinkles on top.  Put a caramel, chocolate or strawberry sauce on the plate to make it even fancier.  I didn't have any or I would have for this photo.

 

 You can add things like these pink meringues that I made last year or pink popcorn or even something like pop rocks.   Find a nice plate,  you can even find this at the dollar store and the placemat above is a felt placemat from the dollar store.  You can even find chocolate covered heart shaped cakes at the dollar store if the rest of these things are too much for you.

Take your time and make it as nice as you can.  What counts is the theme, the thought, the effort and the love you put into it that matters.

If you are single you can have your BFF over for dinner or if you have a little girl or boy in your life you can make some of these things with them.  You can have a Galentine's Dinner and make it a potluck with your gal pals and have them bring something with the red, pink or white theme.

An of course if you are SOLO and everyone else has fancy plans elsewhere you can still do all of this for yourself and watch a great movie and enjoy your time to yourself.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY  

XOXO..... Linda