Valentines Day
It’s easy to add vibrant red color to Valentine’s Day meals with beautiful bright red fruit and vegetables, which just happen to be some of nature’s healthiest foods.
Deep red cranberries complement any meal, beginning with breakfast. Serve cranberry juice. Add cranberries to oatmeal…Bake cranberry bread or muffins. Use them in salads, sauces, and desserts. Tomatoes add a vibrant shade of red to Valentine’s Day meals, from tomato juice at breakfast to a rich red pasta sauce for dinner. Tiny bright red grape tomatoes are perfect in salads. They have a sweet, fresh from the vine taste, even in winter. Serve red potatoes or red beets as a side dish for dinner. Use sweet red raspberries, brilliant red cherries or heart shaped red strawberries in desserts. Make heart shaped foods to say “I Love You”. With the right equipment you can make heart shaped muffins or heart shaped waffles, even heart shaped pancakes. Use a big heart shaped cookie cutter to cut heart shaped toast. Pack a little extra love in someone’s lunch box with a heart shaped sandwich. Don’t forget a crisp, beautiful, heart shaped red delicious apple! Make dinner in a heart shaped casserole!
Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Dip them in melted chocolate or drizzle chocolate over top. Add stripes of chocolate, white chocolate or colored chocolate to plain cookies or drizzle contrasting stripes over already dipped pieces.
Start with chocolate melting wafers – milk chocolate, dark chocolate, mint chocolate, white, pink or red chocolate.
For a medium chocolate that’s not quite as sweet as milk chocolate but less bitter than semi-sweet, blend milk chocolate and dark chocolate together.
Directions for Melting Chocolate….
For 1/2 pound (8oz.) of chocolate wafers, or plain chocolate candy bars – broken in pieces, or chocolate morsels..
- Place chocolate in a 2 cup microwave safe glass measuring cup.
- Set microwave on full power or High.
- Use the following times as a guide, stopping to stir every 30 seconds.
- Melting times -
milk chocolate – 1 to 1-1/2 minutes
white chocolate – 45 seconds to 1 1/2 minutes
semi-sweet chocolate – 1-1/2 minutes to 2-1/2 minutes - Times will vary. Do not overcook. Chocolate scorches easily!
Dip or swirl pieces of fruit, cookies, wafers or whatever (be creative) into the melted chocolate. Surround the pieces completely with chocolate or dip them only half way. Place coated pieces, right side up on a wax paper or parchment paper lined baking sheet until the chocolate hardens.
Get the mood started right with this little treat for your loved one.
Chocolate Crepes with Raspberry Sauce
Chocolate Crepes with Fresh Raspberry Sauce Recipe
1 egg plus 2 egg whites
1 C. skim milk
1/2 C. evaporated milk
1 C. sifted all-purpose unbleached flour
1/4 C. Dutch process cocoa powder
1/4 C. sugar
1/2 t. salt
1 t. vanilla – optional
cooking spray
fresh raspberries for garnish – optional
powdered sugar for dusting – optional
Sift flour, cocoa, sugar and salt together in small bowl. Mix flour/cocoa mixture together with eggs, milk, flour and vanilla together with a wire whisk, in a food processor or blender. Cover batter and refrigerate at least 30 minutes or up to 3 days. Batter should be the consistency of heavy cream.
Spray a 6- or 7-inch non-stick or stick-resistant crepe pan or skillet with cooking spray and heat on medium-high. Pan will be ready when drops of water sizzle on pan’s surface.
Lower heat to medium and pour about a 1/3 cup batter onto pan. Quickly tip pan from side to side to coat bottom. Cook crepe on first side until golden, then using fingers to help, turn crepe over and cook on other side for 1 minute. Remove crepe from pan and place on a flat surface covered with foil or wax paper, cover crepe with a towel or wax paper. Repeat process re-spraying pan with cooking spray every two or three crepes. Stir batter often, if it becomes too thick, thin with a little milk.
Fresh Raspberry Sauce:
3 1/2 C. fresh raspberries or 1 12-oz. package frozen
1/3 to 1/2 C. sugar depending on sweetness of berries
1 C. water
1 1/2 T. cornstarch
2 T. raspberry liqueur
Thaw raspberries if frozen. Puree raspberries in food processor or blender with water until smooth. Strain into small saucepan, pressing puree through mesh. Whisk 1/3 cup sugar, cornstarch and liqueur into sauce. Cook all ingredients together over medium-high heat until thickened and clear.
Remove from heat and add remaining sugar if necessary and set aside to cool slightly before serving or transfer topping to a nonmetallic container, cover and chill until ready to use.
Filling:
1/3 C. raspberry curd
2 C. whipping cream
Beat the whipping cream with the raspberry curd until soft peaks form, or desired consistency.
Fill the crepes right before serving with the filling. Top with raspberry sauce.
Note: If you can’t find raspberry curd, substitute 1 C. pie filling. Whip cream first and fold in filling.
Enjoy a perfect edible evening with one that you love!
