Valentines Dinner

...a day late!

Somehow (ahem, 2 year old) my plans for a festive Valentines dinner went down the tubes.  We ended up with pasta and caulifower.  Because nothing says "I love you, honey!" like a big 'ol plate of caulifower, right?  So on Tuesday, refreshed by my afternoon "me" time I decided to give it another try.  This is what we ended up with:

Spicy potatoes, individual heart shaped turkey meatloaves (with red sauce), and heart-healthy veggies.  My sous-chef extroidinairre, (the lovely Raina) helped season the potatoes and mix up the meatloaf.  She definitely eats better when she has helped cook, and loves to be involved in what I'm doing in the kitchen!  The only part of the meal that didn't make it...  after slicing the potatoes, Raina helped me scoop them into a big bowl of water that we had colored red with fod coloring,  They soaked for a while, Raina stirred them for a while... we (I) hoped that they would pick up some of the food coloring and turn a festive shade of pink.  No such luck.  Though with the cayenne powder, paprika, and seasoned salt (applied liberally - thank you Raina!) they did end up sort of red in the end!  Everyone ended up a member of the clean plate club... hubby even had seconds!! 

I realy look forward to having Raina's help in the kitchen more and more as she gets older.  It may make things messier, and it takes about twice as long... but it's also twice as fun! 

Here's a look back at some of my kitchen-input when I was younger.  A plate I left out for Santa, who was surely tired of the regular cookies:

Happy cooking!