Would you like to have a nice Valentine’s Day Dinner without blowing your budget? This delectable gourmet Valentine’s Day dinner for two costs just $6!
$6 Gourmet Valentine’s Day Dinner for Two – Recipes and Meal Plan!
Going out to eat costs a lot and we try to give people other options besides eating out. Valentine’s Day is one occasion when it is nice to go out with your sweetie (and okay if you can afford it) but if you are serious about getting out of debt, don’t feel like going out or just plain don’t have the money, you can still have a special dinner at home. Here are some tips and a menu to give you some ideas.
You can add a little romantic ambiance with a nice place setting. Fancy napkins, tapered candles, china place settings and a lace tablecloth add a nice touch.
- It is relatively easy to find one or two nice settings of china for 50 cents each at thrift stores or garage sales.
- Buy tapered candles after Christmas. Sometimes they are as much as 75% off.
- You can also purchase red napkins, lace tablecloths, and red ribbon after Christmas for .50 – $1.00. If you didn’t do it after last Christmas, try it after next Christmas.
- You can also purchase things on sale 50% or more off after Valentine’s Day and keep them for other holidays throughout the coming year.
Of course if you’re with the one you love, who needs food for Valentine’s Day! ;-) …But man can not live on love alone, so here is a delicious Valentine’s menu you’ll love!
The Valentine’s Day Dinner Meal Plan:
( $6.41 for 2 people)
French Onion Soup
Tomato Basil Salad
Maple-Glazed Chicken
Glazed Carrots
New Potatoes With Parsley
Red Velvet Cake
Water With Lemon Slices
Tea Or Coffee With Dessert
French Onion Soup ($1.15)
2 Tbsp. butter or margarine (.10)
2 onions, thinly sliced (yellow onions work best) (.25)
2 cups beef stock (made with bullion cubes or beef bones) (.10)
1 bay leaf
2 slices day-old French bread (.20)
1/2 cup Mozzarella or Swiss cheese, grated (.50)
Instructions:
- Melt butter in a skillet.
- Saute onions until slightly brown.
- Pour beef broth into a saucepan.
- Add onions and bay leaf to beef broth.
- Simmer slowly for 10 minutes or simmer overnight in the crockpot on low.
- Pour into bowls.
- Place bread on top of each bowl of soup, and sprinkle the cheese on top.
- Then set under the broiler and cook until the cheese is melted and brown. Careful! The broiler will make the bowls very hot!
Tomato Basil Salad($1.44)
4 large peeled tomatoes (.79)
Salt and pepper (to taste)
1 Tbsp. wine vinegar (.10)
2 Tbsp. olive oil (.05)
1/3 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped into small pieces (.50)
Instructions:
- Dice tomatoes.
- Combine diced tomatoes with salt, pepper, vinegar, oil and basil.
- Serve.
If desired, you may also add cubes of mozzarella cheese.
Maple-Glazed Chicken ($2.15)
1/4 cup maple syrup (.05)
4 tsp. lemon juice (.05)
1 Tbsp. butter or margarine (.05)
Salt and pepper (to taste)
4 pieces chicken ($2.00 purchased on sale at $2.00/.lb)
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 450°.
- Mix maple syrup, lemon juice, and butter together in a small saucepan to make the glaze.
- Simmer 5 minutes.
- Spray a baking dish with oil and place chicken in it.
- Add salt and pepper to the chicken.
- Bake 10 minutes.
- Remove the chicken from the oven and pour on the glaze.
- Bake 15 minutes more or until juices run clear.
Glazed Carrots (.37)
1/2 lb. fresh carrots or baby carrots (.12)
1/2 stick margarine (or butter) (.05)
6 Tbsp. brown sugar (.10)
1 tsp. cinnamon (.05)
1 tsp. ginger (optional) (.05)
Instructions:
- Clean carrots and cut into bite-sized pieces.
- Cook 10 minutes in a small amount of boiling water or in the microwave, just until tender.
- Melt the margarine in a large skillet over low heat.
- Add brown sugar, cinnamon and ginger. Cook 1-2 minutes.
- Add hot drained carrots, stirring well to coat.
- Remove when shiny and well glazed.
New Potatoes (.75)
6 new potatoes or 2 medium potatoes, cut in halves or quarters (.50)
2 Tbsp. margarine (.05)
1 Tbsp. parsley, or to taste (.10)
1/4 tsp. salt
dash of pepper
Instructions:
- Clean potatoes.
- Steam or boil potatoes 20 minutes (until tender).
- Toss with the remaining ingredients.
Red Velvet Cake (.50 for 2 servings)*
*Or purchase a box mix on sale .79 and canned frosting on sale .69. plus .50 for eggs, etc. to make the cake $1.48.
3/4 cup butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cocoa
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. vinegar
2 tsp. vanilla
1-2 oz. red food coloring
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup buttermilk
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Cream together butter, eggs and sugar in a bowl.
- Add the rest of the ingredients except the flour and buttermilk. Mix well.
- Add flour and buttermilk alternately. Beat until all the lumps are out.
- Pour into a greased and floured 9×13 inch pan.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Frost with Red Velvet Frosting.
Red Velvet Frosting
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
Instructions:
- Cook milk and flour until thick, stirring constantly.
- Cool thoroughly.
- Beat milk and flour for one minute until fluffy.
- Beat butter and sugar until creamy.
- Add to milk and flour and add vanilla. Mix well.
- Frosts one Red Velvet Cake.
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I changed my colors in my Kitchen/Living Area area to a soft, dark green and red palate. This way, every year, immediately after Christmas and into February (Valentine’s Day), I am able to purchase a multitude of items from dinnerware, napkins, tablecloths, candles, pillows, wreaths, etc., material, all in “my” colors. I shop the Big Name stores first and then trickle down. I can state that it does not look like Christmas as I add in other soft ivories and items to diffuse the “Christmas” colors.
Everyone always asks me how can I decorate on my budget with such expensive items, I just smile and say “Oh, Thank You”.
Yes Ki. Thanks for reminding us. You can do this type of decorating with many holidays. Greens after st. patty’s day, light pink, blue, purples or yellows at Easter, dark blue, red or white after 4th of July, oranges, golds, browns at Thanksgiving, and blues, silver, white and sometimes blacks after New Year. You can even get pretty bold colors of different types at the end of summer.
Oh No, I came back to the comments to look for the women who posted the receipe using the red velvet cake mix to make cookies. She gave the ‘name brand’ that she was mimicking and maybe you ladies had to delete it. I figure it was oil and eggs, but I don’remember how much. Or maybe I am looking in the wrong posting but I am pretty sure it was here with your cake mix.
Can’t believe it but I found it Emily. Holler if you have more questions.
This is from Rachel :
Another idea:Use a red velvet cake mix, only add the eggs and oil to form a soft dough. Roll out to about half inch thickness, use a heart shape cookie cutter, place each cookie on parchment lined cookie sheet, bake at 350 for 10 to 12 min. They taste like loft house cookies (soft sugar cookies) that melt in your mouth. You can decorate or eat plain. Used this idea for Christmas cookies one year and had such fun with the different shapes.
Love the menu, but please share how you got 4 tomatoes for .79 (are they cherry tomatoes?) and 1/2 pound fresh carrots for .12!?! What am I missing?
CJ, the tomatoes were on sale/clearance and the carrots are a big bag 1 1/2 lbs. I think for $1.00. Prices will vary between states but even in the most expensive places this meal won’t be more than $10 for everything if you buy it on sale.
I love this menu. My family will eat everything except the carrots so I’ll switch that to corn (I know, it’s dull). I really appreciate all the recipes and menus that you all work so hard in sharing with us.
Thanks for all you do!
Thank you so much for the menus, recipes, and money saving tips. One tip I want to pass along is that in one of my local grocery stores is a reduced produce cart. Whenever I am in town I stop in and go to the corner to usually find a great deal: 4 avacados for $1, a six pack of various apples for $1, 6 large tomatoes for $1, etc. (and if 1 isn’t useable in the package I am still getting a great deal!) I just picked up 3 organic packages of lettuce for $1 each. It’s usually very simple to switch out my vegetable for a great find like these.
Keep up the great work!
Some of the prices do seem a bit low but it all depends on how you shop. I see you are using $2.00 a lb for the chicken. My Dillon’s store (part of the Kroger chain) had nice big baking hens on sale for $.79 a lb. That made the entire chicken just over $3.00. Anyone can cut up a chicken and there are online video tutorials on how to do it. I bought ten chickens for the freezer. They also had 85/15 ground beef in the 3 lb tubes for $1.50 a lb. They only had 6 left so I bought those and got a rain check for 8 more. So I won’t have to buy chicken or hamburger for a while and probably won’t ever get it for that again. I started out slowly by buying a lot of one sale item along with my regular groceries. Although I’m 67 I care for 3 of my grands and feed them 3 meals a day and these little girls are big eaters. Mom and Dad are 6 footers and for these dainty little girls to get that big in the same amount of time a girl gets to be 5 ft 2, it takes a lot of fuel. My daughter only make it to 4 ft.11 so the way these kids eat is amazing to me. I need all the bargains I can find. Once I got a bit of stuff stockpied in the basement I can go and get what I need for a meal knowing that it was all bought on sale at rock bottom prices. It’s hard at first but once you get some basics laid back it begins to save you a ton of money. I use a coupon if I have one but don’t go out of my way to buy everything like that. I have six jars of mayo about all the time and when something is running low I can wait for a sale and then that’s what my money goes for that week. If you know someone who does coupon, buy from them. I ran onto a family who does the couponing at a garage sale where they were selling items for fifty cents. I bought name brand bbq sauce, hamburger helper, refriend beans and taco seasoning packets, shampoo, conditoner and toothpaset. Some of this is not a food item but it still is something I buy at the store and goes on my grocery bill. I told them about the long hours the parents have to work and that I feed the children and they now let me know when they are selling and I get to come while they set up. That is a wonderful blessing. Before the holidays Dillon’s had cream of mushroom or chicken soup for $.50 a can. I bought several flats of each one and here it is the middle of Feb. and I’ve cooked all the holiday meals and I’ve still got gobs of soup downstairs. I won’t have to buy any until it’s on sale again. I have the money to stock up now because all my groceries are bought that way. Two weeks ago Walgreen’s had my brand of TP on sale 12 roll packages for $4.00 I bought 12. After a while, this kind of shopping saves a fortune even if you have to start amall and scimp to buy in quantity. Check your grocery ads this week and find the one product that is super cheap, a product you use and at a store that doesn’t limit quantities. That’s how I got started and it will work for you.
What a great explanation of how to successfully buy in quantity! Thank you!
I will be doing this for our valentines day dinner. I’ll do the glazed carrots and have the kids try them. If they don’t like them, they will eat raw baby carrots. Thank you for the idea. good way to spend time with my family:)
So happy to see the cooked frosting. Red velvet cake has been a family favorite since I was a little girl and cream cheese frosting has become the standard as red velvet everything has flooded the market. It’s not the same!!
That is actually the original Red Velvet Cake Frosting recipe! I have never seen it posted elsewhere online – or in periodicals. Nothing compares to the original imho!
Thank you for the recipes. I wanted to share a few of my mom’s money saving tricks from my childhood.
First – and my favorite – was what she called “Garbage Soup.” What mom did was to take a large Tupperware bowl and throw in any little bits of leftover veggies, rice or pasta, meats every night. She would freeze the bowl with its contents until it was full. At that point she would make up a big soup with all the ingredients. Since our menu varied each week, we never knew what kind of soup we’d be enjoying each week. Sometimes mom would thicken part of the soup and serve it over baked or mashed potatoes, rice or pasta. Good memories!
When money was particularly tight, Mom would serve us rice with a fried egg on top. Other times she would take leftover rice and serve it hot with milk, butter and brown or white sugar sprinkled on it. Took us a while to realize that rice could be breakfast, too. Finally, she would make rice balls or patties and throw some of the soup (or any sauce) on them . These dishes weren’t fancy, but they filled our bellies.
Hope these ideas will add to your list. Thanks again for sharing with us!
Monique, I make garbage soup also, I call it dump soup. No matter what we have during the week it becomes soup on Saturday. I’ve never had a bad pot yet and I’ve been doing this for 30 yrs. I’ll also make Dutch Oven Bread to go with it. The left overs are frozen into containers that I can heat and fill my husbands thermos for lunches during the week. I love all the great ideas on here and we’ll be debt free in 2 yrs even after paying for my son’s college.
Thank you for all the postings , I am saving the Special Valentines Menu!! It sounds wonderful. I make French Onion soup a few times a year, so that*s great . The tomato Basil Salad I have never tried, that will be new and the glazed carrots sound nice also. New type of menu!!