Matt and I hardly ever do anything “special” on Valentine’s Day…we’re a little bit rebellious when it comes to this holiday. Although one year he did “break the rules” and get me some new potholders. :)
A few years ago when our boys were all pretty little, going along with my Valentine’s Day rebellion, I didn’t do anything at all special for the family on Valentine’s Day. I guess I thought my kids were young enough not to notice? Or I figured they were boys and that they wouldn’t really get into heart shaped sandwiches?
What was I thinking?
That evening, they shared with me how disappointed they were that we hadn’t done anything special to celebrate Valentine’s Day. No heart shaped pancakes or anything. Wow, I had no idea that my heart shaped efforts in years past had meant something to them. I ramped it up the next year, making heart shaped everything. They loved it…manly boys that they are. And I haven’t stopped since. I’m glad they care…hopefully they’re learning to do simple, inexpensive things for their future wives. Hopefully.
Here are some fun Valentine’s Day treats we’re looking at making this year:
Chocolate Caramel Truffles and Peanut Butter Truffles
Then of course, there is always the option of cookies and cakes, sandwiches and quesadillas cut into heart shapes. How about heart shaped Pop Tarts? Pancakes? We even thought we’d use our tiny heart shaped cookie cutter to try and form some heart shaped Homemade Tater Tots.
Share your ideas! What Valentine’s Day treats are you making this year?
I’m totally impressed by the tater tots. If you can make them heart shaped….that will blow my socks off!
I’ll let you know!
The way to a man’s heart IS indeed through his stomach ,my husbands request for special occasions is ALWAYS food. So I am making his favorite dessert, Boisenberry cobbler :).
( maybe some heart shaped crackers and cookies too )
Ooh, Boisenberry Cobbler…Matt would LOVE it if I made him that!!
Yum!! I don’t usually do much for V’day. I usually get my hubby a bag of peanut M&M’s (his fav) since we don’t do much candy around here and he boys get some plain M&M’s too! I do cut the boys heart sandwiches at lunch and think it would be fun to do an all red dinner… I’m thinking spaghetti and red velvet cake/cookies. Maybe I could whip up some red punch? Hmm.. gotta start thinking!
Now I have another holiday to do a bunch of stressed out baking on. Yikes!
Naw, just keep it simple and have fun! These are just some ideas! :)
Cute. My boys (8 yrs old), love heart shaped food, too. For Vday, my husband told me that he is reading “For Men Only”…how sweet ;) I hope he applies the suggestions in there, too.
I only have heart shaped cookie cutters so when I made doughnuts for my husband’s birthday breakfast they were heart shaped. The doughnut dough holds the shapes great! I even stamped out some Rudolphs for my son.
Ok, now I feel guilty..I was thinking of kind of skipping on the Vday celebration this year because I was thinking my boys could care less and since my daughter is away at school….well, maybe not, huh?
I recently purchased a heart-shaped waffle maker…just for the occassion… :)
Ooh, how cool! Maybe I’ll catch some after-Vday sales for things like that!
Valentine’s Day is one of my favorites, mostly because I just love HEARTS!! I decorate with them all the time, so V-day is easy. The Death by Chocolate and Sweetheart Fruit Salad look like dishes that are going to have to be on our V-day menu this year. YUM!! While we have recipe traditions for other celebrations, I always like to try something new and chocolatey for all the sweet Valentines living at my house, so this looks perfect! Thanks!
Your chocolate cake, eaten warm, (baked in a heart-shaped pan) with your hot fudge sauce drizzled on top was a huge hit with my family! (Just needed a scoop of ice cream on the side! O.K. that might be overdoing it just a bit! (-:)
I am going to make rice krispie treats and cut them out with a heart cookie cutter for their lunch boxes. Yum!
When I got married, I received a set of 4 heart shaped mini-cake pans as a gift. So last year I baked up some mini-cakes and let my daughter decorate them to give to her dad, aunt and uncle. I don’t know if I will repeat that this year.
Also since my son is sensitive to sugar, I have in years past used the pans to bake some crust pies. It’s a pie crust of your choice put in the pan and dusted with cinnamon and sugar before baking – no messy filling and very little sugar.
I try to make my husband an angel food cake with White Mountain frosting (boiled frosting) every V day. It is his favorite and I started this when there was no money for a sweetheart gift the first year we were married, 25 years ago. One year when my boys were little we had a ‘teddy bear Valentine supper’. My husband worked nights so my mother, sisters and I gathered the kids for a sit down meal on the kids level. We had a great time.
My Dad is diabetic so sweets are not something we had a lot of growing up but for V-Day mom would make an apple pie for him and use the extra dough to make heart shapes on top, you attach them to the pie using egg whites before baking. My Fiance’ is not a diabetic so I’m going to be using some of the tips and idea’s I’ve read here today. Thanks for sharing ladies!
Its funny that you don’t do anything for valentines day I thought my husband and I were the only two who boycot it. I do like the heart shaped pretzels thou, they look soo yummy and I have started getting into making pretzels I even bought a big bag of salt at the Amish store, so I may have to make these for my boys.
How about adding reading about the real St. Valentine? I read this to my second graders every year and they were so surprised that people who are white had been slaves. This led to a good discussion about slavery and we related it to the bible stories of different ones who at times were slaves, too.
I loved this post! After experiencing yet another excessive Christmas for my 3 kids (provided mostly by my in-laws), Valentine’s Day seems to have come way too soon! I gave up refined sugar in October, so I really don’t need more candy/sweets in my house to tempt me! Plus, the last thing my kids need is more cheap toys that will end up broken or in a yard sale!
So this year we’re focusing on what’s important: showing our love for our family members without all the “hype.” For our special breakfast, I’m making heart-shaped pancakes with strawberries and sparkling juice. For lunch, I’ll either make sandwiches or quesadillas in a heart-shape. For supper, I’m making a heart-shaped pizza with little heart-shaped pepperoni, and a heart-shaped (healthy) chocolate cake for dessert.
I spent quality time my 2 girls hand-making their class Valentines with craft materials we had on hand. Each of my family of 5 made Valentines for the others that say what we love about each person. For my girls’ class parties, I’m sending juice boxes, mini bananas, and grapes.
My husband and I agreed: no gifts, no flowers, no storebought cards. The only gift I’ll give him will be me wearing a little red number that always does the trick. ;)
Chocolate dipped strawberries, heart-shaped cake, a special Italian chicken dinner over pasta, big salad like Olive Garden’s. I wrote about it (with some recipe links) here: http://momsinneedofmercy.blogspot.com/2011/02/show-your-love-for-less.html
Happy Valentine’s Day!
We’ve never done much… but this year we kept the Christmas tree up and turned it into a Valentine tree. We wrote the names of all the people we love on red hearts cut out of paper and hung them on the tree!
You might have answered this somewhere else (and I apologize for asking if you have…), but what’s the reason behind the “rebel” against Valentine’s Day? Just curious! :-)
It’s simply because we feel that the holiday is commercialized. We don’t feel the need to spend money on each other just because the holiday dictates, and we despise going to crowded restaurants on holidays. So, we just “rebel” and keep it simple. :)
That’s as good of a reason as any!
Thank you for satisfying my curiosity. :-)