What to make for Valentine's Day.

Reservations always come to mind on Valentine's Day...

If you cook a lot like I do, going out to eat is a special treat.

If you decide to stay home or need to because of work, the kids or money, there are still ways to make that evening meal a special one.

Set a nice table, use good dishes, fresh flowers and some candles.

It's definitely the time to splurge.

Make something you love but usually don't have, maybe a nice piece of fresh fish or crab or a rich dish of pasta.

Here are a few ideas from past posts.

I recently posted about crab manicotti. With crab in season this would be  fabulous, to make it vegetarian just replace the crab with some steamed spinach. Serve with a simple green salad.

If life is too busy for something with lots of steps: roasting a whole chicken is so easy, makes the house smell good and it you have kids they will love it too. Serve it with your favorite roasted vegetables or a beet salad, and cornbread.

For a beautiful plant based meal, try the red lentil soup, if you have lots of time make the stuffed flatbreads to go with. If time is short serve with store bought naan and a kale salad.

Now for dessert !!
If chocolate is your true love, have a fresh simple dinner and crown it with a rich sinfully chocolate dessert.
Molten Chocolate Cakes are very quick and so decadent, especially served with vanilla ice cream.

Or the flourless chocolate cake, my friend Susan makes is exquisite and can be made in advance.

If chocolate is not your thing how about a cheesecake tart or a ginger cake with hot caramel sauce.

If my ideas don't quite fit your tastes, browse this blog for more inspiration.

Food made with love and shared with the ones we love is the best valentine there is :-)