Valentine’s Day Dinner Ideas!

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heart shaped valentines day side dish
Lemon Ginger

Are you looking for Valentine’s Day Dinner Ideas? Here’s an idea that will make your Valentine’s Day Dinner extra special. Just use some heart-shaped cookie cutters and make these adorable heart-shaped potatoes. You can make sweet potatoes, or regular potatoes, and season them however you like.

Cookie cutters aren’t just for cookies! Valentine’s Day Sweet Potato Hearts are an easy and adorable side dish for your special Valentine’s Day Dinner

roasted buttery Heart shaped potatoes for Valentines Day
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One of my favorite Valentine’s Day Dinner Ideas is these Adorable Heart-Shaped Lemon Ginger Roasted Sweet Potatoes! You can serve them plain, add whatever flavor you like, or make these Lemon Ginger Roasted Sweet Potato Hearts. Depending on the size of your potatoes, you’ll need 2-3 sweet potatoes, a cookie-cutter, (smaller in diameter than your sweet potatoes) butter, a fresh lemon, fresh ginger, brown sugar, and a bit of olive oil. (Salt, optional)

Valentine's Day Dinner Idea - cast iron skillet, heart shaped roasted sweet potato slices
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Variation: Try cinnamon and sugar or honey instead of lemon and ginger, or go savory with salt and pepper.

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Support your favorite food bloggers by rating or liking our recipes, or start your Amazon shopping from any Amazon link on a food blog. The blogger receives a small commission, at NO cost to you. 


Another Valentine’s Day Dinner Idea

Another fun tip for a romantic meal is to use aluminum foil to shape rolls or stuffed puff pastry into heart shapes for Valentine’s Day! I used my gran’s cornbread cast iron skillet but you can find one online! I filled puff pastry with chopped olives and cheese!

Valentine's day dinner ideas with heart shaped puff pastry and sweet potatoes
For Valentine’s Day 2021, I served bacon-wrapped scallops with Swiss chard, cinnamon sweet potato hearts, and olive and cheese stuffed puff pastry hearts
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And for dessert…

One of our favorite Valentine’s Day treats is Dove chocolate drizzled berries.

Valentine's Day
  • First, wash and pat the berries completely dry. I leave them wrapped in some paper towel or a tea towel for a few minutes.
  • Place the berries on a spare tray covered in plastic wrap or parchment. (You’ll transfer the finished berries to your serving dish(s) after they have set up.
  • Combine several chopped milk chocolate Dove Promises with chopped dark chocolate Dove promises and melt them with about 1/8 tsp of coconut oil. Sometimes I’ll use milk and dark chocolate Hershey Bars.
  • Melt the chocolate in a small dry cup in the microwave in 10-5 second increments, and stir with a dry spoon until it’s warm and the chocolate starts to melt. (*If you heat it up too quickly or introduce any moisture, the chocolate will seize up and you’ll have to start over.) The bit of coconut oil keeps the chocolate slightly pliable so it’s less crackley.
  • When the chocolate is about half melted you can stop microwaving and stir until smooth.
  • Use the tines of a fork or a small spoon, or put the melted chocolate in a plastic baggie and cut the tip-off. Then drizzle it over the berries until mostly covered and very cute!
  • Allow them to set for several minutes uncovered in the refrigerator and transfer to a serving dish or a newly lined tray until ready to serve.
Valentine's Day dinner ideas chocolate strawberries
I had some extra chocolate so I added a few blueberries
Close-up Chocolate Drizzled Berries
Those candy chocolate-flavored melty thingys just won’t do! Trust me, melt some quality chocolate! Dove, Godiva or Hershey always work well!

Variation: Try chocolate drizzled pear slices, or add blueberries to melted chocolate!


For the Morning After…

Why not have more chocolate-covered strawberries! Try my raspberry white chocolate scones cut in heart shapes, or my Holiday Biscotti would be perfect. Just use all red cherries!


Steak with Golden Beets, Braised Beet Greens & Cilantro Lime Shrimp

Whether you go out, stay home and cook, or order takeout, I hope you find my Valentine’s Day dinner ideas will inspire you to cook up some pretty food!

If you haven’t tried chocolate-dipped or drizzled fruit, give it a try! I think I’ll recreate this steak, cilantro lime shrimp, golden beets, and beet greens dinner from a few years ago. It’s not easy to find perfect golden beets in February with greens attached! Do you have a favorite dessert or dish that you cook up for Valentine’s Day?

Golden Beets

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Support your favorite food bloggers by rating or liking our recipes, or start your Amazon shopping from any Amazon link on a food blog. The blogger receives a small commission, at NO cost to you. 


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Valentine’s Day Sweet Potato Hearts

Cookie cutters aren't just for cookies! Use them to make adorable heart-shaped sweet potatoes for your sweetie this Valentine's Day!
These sweet potato slices make a fantastic side dish but they are sweet enough for dessert!
For an even easier variation try sugar, cinnamon, butter, or honey!
5 from 2 votes
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Course Appetizer, Dessert, Side Dish, Snack
Cuisine American
Servings 2
Calories 339 kcal

Equipment

Ingredients
  

  • 2-3 sweet potatoes
  • 2 tbsp salted butter
  • 1 lemon Zest and juice (*Variations: Instead of lemon & ginger use cinnamon and sugar, or use salt and pepper)
  • ½ tsp fresh ginger About ½ inch of grated ginger. You can substitute by sprinkling ground ginger over the tops. (*Variations: Instead of lemon & ginger use cinnamon and sugar, or use salt and pepper)
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar More or less, depending on how large your slices are or how sweet you like.
  • ½ tbsp olive oil to oil the pan.

Instructions
 

  • Oil the bottom of a cast iron skillet. (or line a roasting pan with parchment paper)
  • Preheat oven to 450°F
  • Clean and microwave 2-3 sweet potatoes for 3-6 minutes, or until you can slice through them easily.
  • Zest the lemon and use the zester to grate about ½ tsp of ginger.
    (Variations: Skip lemon & ginger and use cinnamon & sugar, or honey instead, or just olive oil, salt & pepper!)
  • Cut each potato into ½ slices, then use a heart-shaped cookie cutter. (You can save and use the scraps for another dish.)
  • squeeze half the lemon over the top and bottom of the slices and place them in the cast iron pan, or lined roasting pan.
  • Roast for about 10 minutes, or until browned on the bottom and flip each slice.
  • Sprinkle some lemon zest and ginger over the tops of each slice. Top with sugar and add a dollop of butter on each slice.
  • Roast for 10-15 more minutes or until browned on top.

Notes

*Nutritional value will vary depending on the size of your sweet potatoes.
 Variation: Swap out the lemon ginger flavor with cinnamon, or swap sugar with honey.
*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Support your favorite food bloggers by rating or liking our recipes, or start your Amazon shopping from a link on a food blog. The blogger receives a small commission, at NO cost to you. 

Nutrition

Calories: 339kcalCarbohydrates: 51gProtein: 3gFat: 15gSaturated Fat: 8gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 30mgSodium: 194mgPotassium: 650mgFiber: 7gSugar: 20gVitamin A: 24409IUVitamin C: 33mgCalcium: 68mgIron: 1mg
Keyword cinnamon sugar, ginger, lemon, lemon ginger, sweet potatoes, valentine’s day, valentine’s day ideas, Valentine’s Day side dish, valentines day recipe
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
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