I Love You In the Kitchen #CPChef #CPDateNight

Happy Valentine's Day! 

It's the one day a year people openly profess their love for one another. It may be a bit too much at times -- too commercial, cheesy, unnecessary even. 

Honestly, I love love. I've said it before, but I'm a hopeless romantic. For me, the cheesier the better. (That goes for real cheese too, btw). I can watch the same lovey-dovey movies over and over again, and still get butterflies. But I can also totally understand the pressures VDay puts on couples, to show a love you feel all the time.

Donny and I have never really "celebrated" Valentine's Day with large, lavish gifts. There are usually flowers, cards, small gifts. But the best gift of all, is time. 

Ever since we started dating, our Valentine's tradition has been to prepare a meal together. Not used to playing chef in our parents' kitchens, we would buy WAY too much food for two people and it would take us hours to make, and by the time it was done cooking, we weren't even hungry. But, we had fun. And we laughed. And we spent time. (We even took pictures, and if I could find them, I would totally put them up here!)

Now that we're married (almost 9 years!) and have the girls, we often spend time in the kitchen, and involve the kids as much as possible. It may not be as romantic as it once was, but it's cooperative. And we still laugh, joke, and have fun -- even if our meals are a bit more "pressed" for time.

I was recently sent two meals from Chef's Plate to try, and thought this would be a good opportunity to show everyone how you can work together in the kitchen. The best part: Chef's Plate does all the thinking and prep. All you need to do is follow the recipe.

Meals take about 30 minutes to prepare, and are fairly easy to understand and execute. If your partner isn't much of a cook, it's also a good chance to get them involved. And if YOU'RE not the best cook, it's an even better way to SURPRISE your loved one with a home-cooked meal. 

Here are our finished meals: 

Meal 1: Creamy Sundried Tomato Chicken Linguine

Meal 2: Goat Cheese and Lemon Risotto with honey roasted broccoli

Both meals were tasty, and easy to create. And as for our little Valentine's Day photoshoot, props go out to Isabelle for taking all the photos, as she refused to be in the pics.

Enjoy Valentine's Day this evening, and if you're celebrating at home, there's nothing wrong with saying I Love You In the Kitchen!

For more info on Chef's Plate, visit their website.


Disclaimer: I was sent two meals from Chef's Plate in order to write this post. As always, the opinion expressed on my blog are my own.

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