I Pink-Puffy-Heart Food!

Valentine's Day! Some people hate it but I think it's fun. I didn't always feel that way. In fact, it wasn't until I was dating the Man that I had someone special on Valentine's Day. And that first one was not what I expected (I cried). The next one - our first as a married couple - was equally as disappointing (I cried, this time locked in the guest bedroom, not speaking to him). But he's gotten better! MUCH BETTER! And I've loosened up, too. We've started celebrating it as a day to spend with the people you love instead of purchasing over-priced flowers or an expensive dinner (but I still demand a box of nice chocolates).

Three years ago, I started the tradition of a heart-shaped dinner with the family. That year, we had a heart meatloaf and heart carrots (which actually didn't look at all like hearts, more like an orange PacMan). Last two years (here and here), we've had heart pizzas.

In my efforts to improve on the year before, I decided to tap into my Type-A personality and do everything in hearts.
Or pink.
Or with pink hearts.
And we started with breakfast: pink chocolate chip pancakes. I didn't take pictures because I was too hungry.

Here's lunch:

That's a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich made into hearts with a sandwich cutter I got at Wal-Mart (we also have a dinosaur one). It about blew their minds that the milk was pink. Boo kept asking me how I did it. I told her I was magic. Somehow, she didn't believe me.

Since we were once again having pizza for dinner, I made it more Valentine-y.

I folded the pepperoni in half then used my kitchen shears to trim out the hearts. It actually went pretty fast (and the pepperoni under the cheese is the normal round stuff but don't tell anyone). And that's not grease glistening on there...it's love.

Drinks were the same as last year (Sprite) but this time I made the heart ice cubes with pomegranate juice. It was rather tasty but not as pretty a color.

The pears had to be improved, too. I soaked them all day in pear juice with food coloring. This picture is actually rather deceiving; they were more pink than it shows. Next year I may try to get them soaking overnight for better color. And the Boy would have mutinied if I didn't have jell-o. These were made using the "Cool Layers" recipe from the side of the box (basically you mix in Cool Whip and it separates out as it sets) with raspberry jell-o.

For dessert, I used a silicone pan I got on clearance last year. I used my favorite brownie recipe but the details didn't quite come out so it's hard to see. It's mini loaves made to look like Hershey's bars. There was strawberry ice cream with chocolate sauce and piped chocolate hearts. The dessert plates were a clearance item from last year, too, for a quarter each.

While the dinner was tasty, it was also really fun to put together. I don't think I could have gotten everything done if it hadn't been a Saturday when the Man was home. It helps to have an extra set of hands to put kids in time out.