Need some ideas for a good and inexpensive Valentine’s Day dinner for two? This easy meal includes tasty recipes for Raspberry Chicken and more!
I always have trouble writing Valentine’s Day menus because I never used them myself. I would serve my sweetie’s favorite foods but if you are stumped or if you want something different, here are some other ideas for you!
Valentine’s Day Dinner For Two
Tips:
- Make it simple. The red velvet cake roll in today’s menu is fun to make for special occasions but if, for some reason, you run out of time and need something fast, bake the red velvet cake mix as directed and use the filling recipe to frost it.
- Dip Twizzlers into melted white chocolate for a treat instead of pretzels. Roll them in Valentine sprinkles for something extra special. You could also dip strawberry Twizzlers in melted milk chocolate.
- For a very easy dessert, layer chunks of angel food cake, drizzle with chocolate sauce. Top with whipped cream and raspberries.
Menu:
Raspberry Chicken
Rice
Asparagus Wrapped with Bacon
Sparkly Raspberry Drink
Red Velvet Cake Roll
Recipes:
Raspberry Chicken
2 tsp. canola oil
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts*
Salt and pepper to taste
3 Tbsp. orange juice
1/4 cup raspberry jam
Fry the chicken in oil (about 5-7 minutes on each side) until cooked but not tough. When it is almost done, add orange juice and jam to the pan, mixing and letting it boil to thicken. Take out the chicken and serve with the sauce.
*You can use other less expensive pieces of chicken. If you do, you might need to adjust the cooking time and possibly drain off some of the drippings before adding the other ingredients.
Asparagus Wrapped in Bacon
Wrap each piece of asparagus with a slice of bacon. Broil or grill until bacon is crisp.
Sparkling Raspberry Drink
Chill ginger ale. Add 2 Tbsp. frozen white grape juice concentrate to each 12 oz. of ginger ale. Drop 2-3 raspberries in each glass.
Red Velvet Cake Roll
1 box red velvet cake mix (2 layer cake size)
water, eggs and oil to add to cake mix (see adjustments below)
Filling
2 pkgs. (3 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
Cut a piece of waxed paper to fit the bottom of a jelly roll pan and grease the pan. Mix cake mix according to the directions on box, except cut back slightly on the water and oil. (For example, if it calls for 1 cup of water, use 3/4 cup and if it calls for 1/3 cup oil, use 1/4 cup. You are just removing a few tablespoons.)
Pour the mix into the jelly roll pan and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Check and if it is browning too quickly, turn it down a little.
After the cake is baked, lay a cotton dish towel on a flat surface and sprinkle well with powdered sugar. Carefully and quickly flip the cake onto the towel. Peel away the waxed paper. Starting at the short end, roll up the cake, including the towel, and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
While the cake is chilling, beat the filling ingredients together. Gently unroll the cake and spread with the filling. Re-roll, leaving the towel behind. Place on a platter and chill a couple of hours until the filling is firm.
Sometimes cake rolls will crack. Don’t panic. Cover it with chocolate frosting, lots of powdered sugar or serve it sliced with some whipped cream.
For hundreds of recipes for quick and easy inexpensive home cooked meals, check out our Dining On A Dime Cookbook.
HELP! Lots of people on the East Coast have no power in this cold. Some have pets. Advice?
Grizzly Bear Mom this is one of those things that I have preached to people for years to be prepared for these emergencies and after it has happened it is much harder and sometimes impossible to fix but here are a couple of things that may still help.
Totally change your way of thinking.You can’t worry about how to blow dry your hair each morning, how to do laundry (you will have to wear the same clothes several times and maybe socks for 2-3 days), you can’t worry about how to make sure you can watch TV or even use a lamp(when it is dark plan on going to bed or use candle light or something similar for really necessary things).
I heard people are trying keep their refrigerators running with a generator. Why? If you have lost power because of snow it is cold enough to place as much as you can in coolers or something like that and set it outside or in a garage.
My hot water heater is in a smaller room. I had some special plants that were over 50 years old and heirlooms I hated to see freeze so I put them in the room with my hot water heater because the pilot light from it and my furnace kept the room above freezing. If I needed to I could have stayed in that room because it was a little warmer.
Block off one small room and heat only it if you can. I suggest the kitchen or one of your smaller rooms. You may all have to sleep in that one room on the floor.
Of course dress in a ton of layers. I know this seems like common sense but I am repeatedly shocked at how little common sense people use in these situations. Some are more worried about losing power for their cell phones and computers then they are about heat.
For the future make sure you have a gas or wood fireplace to use. Make sure the gas fireplace can be started without electricity.
I would suggest keep your land line. They seem to be more reliable now then cells at certain times.
Don’t stock pile food that needs to be cooked or heated but things which can be eaten straight out of the box or can. You also may not be able to worry about eating 7 fresh fruits and veggies a day at this time. The main thing is to have something filling. You won’t die not eating a perfectly balanced diet for a week or two.
We went through a 4 1/2 day power failure Christmas week after an ice storm. Be very careful if you have elderly people in your home. My mom’s temperature dropped to 96-something. I woke her up to take her temperature in the middle of the night after I woke up with a start remembering that older people sometimes don’t show signs of hypothermia before they are dangerously cold. The next day a neighbor showed me how to start the ventless natural gas heater in the sunroom that my mother had never used. After that, we ran the heater all the time while we were awake. In the living room we used a kerosene lantern for light which I had bought on a whim this fall at Goodwill for $1. We placed another lantern on the stove to light the kitchen. We heated water and food on a baking rack set over tea lights placed in an aluminum cake pan on a marble-topped table. If we had pets or children, I would have kept the candles on the stove. I learned that our fireplace would be PERFECT for summer in the middle of the Mohave desert. But it did draw the air from the sunroom into our living room and so we kept a fire going in it during waking hours too. One of our friends brought gallons of warm water, the very best present you can give to people sitting in the dark whose well pump requires electricity. Baby wipes work great when you don’t have running water. If you do have running water, keep it running SLOWLY to keep the pipes from freezing. Fortunately, our pipes didn’t freeze even without running water.
After the power failure, I’ve been thinking about buying one of the propane heaters that claim to be safe for use indoors. It would have come in handy if the power failure had continued for keeping the water pipes in the basement from freezing.
We have a Buddy heater it is an indoor propane heater that is safe to use indoors, heats up a room nicely on low.
It is a Mr. Heater Buddy heater ours is a Big Buddy Heater.
Remember to store enough water to flush your toilet at least once daily. Our toilet requires almost 3 gallons. That seems to be quite a bit of water when you’re pouring it in by the jugful into the tank.
Also if you think you might lose power fill your bathtub up with water. You can use this for washing or mostly for flushing your toilet.
Please remember that a carbon monoxide detector is a good thing to have in your home. Even if you have a propane heater that “says” it is safe to use inside, it is better to err on the safe side. Buy the detector and make sure the batteries are working.
I TOTALLY agree about making sure you have a working carbon monoxide detector. Before the power failure, I had never used the fireplace (too many cases of bronchitis as a kid). So I didn’t know how to open up the chimney. I inadvertently conducted a test of both our carbon monoxide and smoke detectors before I figured out exactly which way the lever should be pointing so that the smoke headed up the chimney and out of the house instead of into the room. We also kept a window cracked open in the sunroom while the ventless natural gas heater was running. We didn’t use the fireplace or the natural gas heater while sleeping even though the house cooled down greatly at night. *** Once you’ve met one person severely brain and otherwise damaged by carbon monoxide that came from a faulty heater, you will ALWAYS be cautious! ***
I made your Raspberry Chicken, the asparagus bundles and the Raspberry Spritzer recipes for Valentines Day. They were all a big hit with my wife. Thank you very much for the recipes and your newsletters. David Johnson
I should be thanking you David for being such a great husband to take time to fix his wife dinner. You get extra Brownie points for that. : ) By the way great name (that’s my son’s name : )
I am making using this menu for my 25th wedding anniversary Monday. My husband and I have always celebrated our anniversary at home. He was in the Navy so not living near family. No one to babysit so I would make special dinner. Our son would join us. This time it will just be us. I really appreciate Jill going to all the trouble of posting. These menus my anniversary will be perfect now. Sending blessings to you. 🙏
Congrats Angela on 25 years. Sounds like you have the perfect evening planned.