Tag Archives: valentine’s day meals
Valentine’s Day is a real pressure cooker of stress—expectations, romance, gifting and New Year’s resolutions. That’s right. Coming only six weeks into the new year, February 14th is often smack dab in the middle of people’s diets. And diets and holidays don’t typically mix. Diets and romance are hard to mix, too. Well, not any more! I’ve scoured the internet for some very romantic and healthy meals you can make at home to stick to your healthy lifestyle and celebrate ole Saint Valentine in style.
Simple salad
This is some intense salad making. She really gets into the details here, which I love. And I dig the basic dressing and how exacting she is with the ratio measurements. You can simplify this for yourself and pick up a bag of mixed greens or only do one green. But, don’t mess around with the dressing. It’s perfection. Make a huge batch of it and save it to use throughout the week.
Roast chicken
This is Glamour’s famed engagement chicken. The story goes that an assistant at Glamour made this chicken for her boyfriend and he proposed soon after. Then, three other women at the magazine made the chicken for their boos and got rings. So, Glamour printed the recipe in their magazine and 70 women from around the country wrote in to say they’d gotten engaged after making their men this chicken. I’m not saying this recipe will take you down the aisle, but a nice, perfectly cooked, lemony chicken sure can’t hurt the cause.
Roast potatoes
If you don’t think Jamie Oliver is cute as a button, I think we might have nothing in common. He’s so adorable! And his recipes are dynamite. Check out how he makes roast potatoes taste even better than normal. I love how focused on texture he is, too. That combo of crunch and creaminess just can’t be beat. Pick any one of these as a side dish for your special meal.
Sautéed greens
A nice dark leafy green is part of nearly every healthy diet, so this dish is a must serve. You can make this with spinach, like she does in the video, or another green, like kale or collard greens. The flavors and techniques translate perfectly to a variety of greens. Just sauté heartier greens for a bit longer.
Green tea macarons
Even when you’re watching what you eat, you can’t skip dessert on Valentine’s Day. So, here’s a healthy-ish take on dessert. Green tea has restorative properties that are beneficial to the body, but what’s really great about these macarons is that they’re really small. So, it’s easy to just have a bite and indulge without feeling like you’re wasting food or denying yourself a full dessert.
Happy Valentine’s Day and happy healthy living!
