Valentine’s Day Meal Ideas
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, which is a great time to show your family members how much you love them! While it’s often portrayed as a romantic holiday, it’s also fun to do special little things for your children. Here are some fun ways that you can incorporate the holiday into tomorrow’s meals. This shouldn’t take too much time, and you might be able to do some of the prep-work tonight, since Valentine’s Day falls on a school day (and night) this year:
- Breakfast Heart-shaped pancakes would be a huge hit, especially if they’re made with something special, like chocolate chips or sliced strawberries. Since pancakes take a while to make, consider whipping up a batch tonight. You can stick the in the fridge overnight and just reheat in the oven or microwave in the morning. If you have heart-shaped metal cookie cutters, you can use them to shape the pancakes as you pour out the batter. Add a bowl of fruit salad to make the meal a bit more healthy!
- Lunch When packing your kids’ lunches, add a little love note! Also, use your cookie cutter to cut sandwiches into the shape of hearts. If you don’t have a heart-shaped cookie cutter, how about cutting the napkin into the shape of a heart, instead? Or cut slices of cheese into hearts with a knife and put them in a separate ziplock bag for your child to put on his sandwich or simply eat out of the bag. A small box of conversation hearts is a special treat, if your child’s school allows you to send in candy. Also, consider sending in red or pink foods: an apple, grape or cherry tomatoes, red fruit leather or Valentine’s Day Oreos would be a nice touch.
- Dinner Serve a family favorite for dinner! Make dinnertime special by lighting candles and putting a vase of roses on the table if you can. Take off your regular tablecloth and use a red flat sheet if you have one, or maybe pick up a plastic heart-theme tablecloth at the dollar store on your way home. While you’re there, buy a heart-shaped balloon for each family member and tie them to each chair. If your family’s favorite meal is time-consuming, think about whether you can start the process tonight after the kids go to bed.
- Dessert You might want to stop and buy a box of chocolates to share with the kids after dinner. Or you could make your own special treat, like cookies (even the break-and-bake kind is popular with little ones!) or chocolate-covered strawberries. You could also all get into pajamas and enjoy popcorn and hot chocolate in the living room while playing a game or watching a favorite television show together.
What are you planning to do for Valentine’s Day with your children?
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I love these ideas! We always make our own chocolate covered strawberries and make a little fondue to share! Happy Valentines day
Valentines day is so much fun – we make our own valentines and try to get the kids involved in making breakfast – its going to be tough this year because everyone has to get to school on time – but here is to keeping our fingers crossed that it works out!
I am going to attempt the heart shaped pancakes – last year they didn’t turn out so well but I am going to take your advice and add chocolate chips. I know the kids are going to be surprised. Thanks for sharing your ideas and Happy Valentine’s Day to you and your family.
These are all cute and nice ideas! I really like the dinner tips too, like the balloons. Can make it more festive by adding more elements to it like heart placemats, valentine name cards, red plates and cutlery, etc. But the hot chocolate, popcorn and tv plan sounds perfect as well!
Aww…these pancakes are so cute! I think I just might try making them for breakfast today!
I’m gonna make these pancakes too. Thanks for the idea, the kids will love it!
I made the pancakes cuz I so love it and they make the best breakfast!
These are all very nice ideas. I will be making the pancakes this morning.
I love the pancakes idea! It’s both simple and very pretty at the same time! I’ll try it.
I love these ideas!
We had a few snow days—so we used our time wisely! We made daddy some heart shaped chocolate brownies topped with oreo cookie and cream cheese crumble. We also made my son’s preschool cards–we saw the fishbowl idea…we made little tanks and decorated them with greenery–added the note -Valentine, I am so glad we are in the same school…and added goldfish crackers! The tank held more than a bowl. 🙂
This morning I woke up early and made fruit smoothies and cinnamon rolls (fromt he can) that I rolled into heart shapes.
Happy Valentines Day!!
love valentines day. my son loves pancakes so i think im going to attempt it
good idea but i don”t want to get fat…:)
Nice! Thanks for sharing. My 5 year old daughter and I just went to a spa for Valentines. She loved it! She’s such a princess. Happy Valentines!
thanks for the great ideas. for my daughter today I cut out cucumber slices for her lunch using a small heart shape cookie cutter. they looked adorable and were a healthy alternative my usual go to candy
I made hot cocoa cupcakes with white frosting and red sprinkles!
I wish I would have seen those cute little pancakes yesterday! I am going to make them some other day just for fun! Great ideas 🙂
The heart-shaped pancakes are so cute.I will be doing this for the kids even if its not on valentines day.