Not this girl.
I told my husband, who managed to get my present only yesterday, "No flowers, no chocolates." He just stared at me and said, "Then what??" Ha ha. After 6 years, he should know the drill, "Surprise me." I said.
This morning I woke up to some badass patent leather red heels. Yes..that's perfect!
Since my husband decided he is also now eating only a plant-based diet (AWESOME), I decided that our V-day plans would be to go to lunch at the local vegan restaurant, Pura Vida. I love Chef Mayra's fun personality. She has some videos (here) you can watch and see for yourself! I also am completely in love with her incredible Latin inspired food. I knew my hubby would, too. So we went for lunch, filled out bellies with delicious food, and talked about what to do for dinner.
I had planned to make portobello piccata, but I found a "tasting menu" on another site yesterday, and wanted to try that fun combination of different foods. I am a sucker for food, obviously, and if I have the option to have MORE of it, I definitely take it. So, I made some of the recipes I found on the V-day tasting menu from The Family Kitchen, here.
We had:
- 5-Minute Spicy GlazedVegan Meatballs, with less spice in half to be more kid-friendly.
- Cheesy Pumpkin Chickpea Croquettes, hubby's favorite of the night
- Lemon Sunflower Pesto Pasta, we used rotini and the kids loved it
- Salt and Pepper Tofu Triangles, which were my brother's favorite. The maple adds a slight sweetness that I also enjoyed a lot
Also, from my own arsenal of ideas:
-Portobello Piccata, with mashed potatoes. I used slices of big caps that cooked down and caramelized perfectly. I will make a recipe for this someday. I just eyeballed it.
-Chocolate covered strawberries, which were dipped in melted grain-sweetened chocolate chips. These are my favorite, and they have this fun stickiness to them when your mouth melts them. I love them!
And, my dear friend, the Red Velvet Cupcake.
No, no, this wasn't a big dinner. It was actually a nice, somewhat romantic one with my husband and toddlers, and my brother sneaking in (and out) to grab his servings when it was all done.
I told you, I love food.
I got the red velvet cupcake recipe here. The cupcakes were moist and dense, exactly what I was going for, in the texture dept. But the flavor...It was not even close. These cupcakes were definitely lemony beet cupcakes. They were tangy, and...beet flavored. Not bad, really, it fits perfectly for that gorgeous red hue and the 6 tbsp of lemon juice it called for. I even amped up the cocoa powder and added water to balance it out. But that was not the slightly cocoa flavored red velvet I was looking for. Chef KC said, "You know what would be good, if you filled them with that chocolate avocado mousse." I know he was just teasing me about the veggie-ful odd recipes I make, but I am going to call his bluff and actually do it tomorrow. Who knows, maybe it will be an awesome combo.
