It’s been a while since I’ve been able to focus on my culinary adventures, but with Cupid comin’ a knockin’ tomorrow, I decided to host a Valentine’s Day Minus One dinner.  Who better to invite to a dinner celebrating love than my parents … and my numero uno, Mauricio?

The wheels started turning on the menu about mid-week when Cooking Light sent me a little email with ideas for “Healthy Recipes for Two“.   While many of the ideas caught my eye, I decided to stick with some five star favorites from dinners past.  After all, I didn’t want to take any chances that my dinner celebrating love – wouldn’t be loved!

For the salad, I served a Golden Beet and Citrus salad that’s a knockoff of a Food & Wine recipe.  I love this recipe because it makes use of readily available citrus in the winter months.  Now, I used oranges and grapefruit instead of tangerines … out of laziness.  It’s a lot easier to get quick results with bigger fruits than supreming a bunch of little tangerines.  If I’d had them on hand, I would have used blood oranges instead to let their pretty red flesh add to the Valentine festivities.

For the main event, I pulled out a can’t miss favorite, Scallops and Shrimp Au Gratin inspired by a recipe from Coastal Living.  With the bread crumbs protecting the seafood from heat during cooking, the seafood gently roasts in the oven and maintains a tender texture.  I make the recipe more healthy by cutting the butter in half and using whole wheat bread for the breadcrumbs.  For a worthy side dish, I made green beans with shallots.  I love the vibrant color the beans take on after a quick blanch in salted, boiling water followed by a shock in an ice water bath.  I do that earlier in the day to cut down on last minute prep steps.

Overall, dinner was a big hit with nothing but love left behind!

But what about dessert you ask?  Well, I left that to the dessert expert, my mom.  She made us a Cranberry Apple Cake from Ina Garten’s latest cookbook … Back to Basics.  Delicious!