My husband and I don’t make a big deal about Valentine’s Day. He brings me flowers, I bring him candy, we say, “I love you” and all is well. There was one year we decided to try a restaurant for dinner since we had always stayed at home and boy was that a mistake. I guess we were naive to think that having a reservation meant we would be seated in a timely manner or that the prices would not be marked up to take advantage of lovebirds. Oh lesson learned and never again.
So now we stick with our tradition of me cooking a fancy meal, having a decadent dessert, and some nice wine. So how can I make my fancy meal without a working kitchen?
Thankfully we have a grill outside so that was perfect to cook up some tri-tip, but I had to lower my expectations for the rest of the meal. I am in love with my family’s meat marinade recipe. It’s written originally as Flank Steak Marinade, but I have marinated every kind of meat and it always turns out so flavorful.
My kids make slaving away in the kitchen practically impossible nowadays. Especially if my husband isn’t home to tend to their needs. I wanted to have dinner mostly ready before my husband came home so we could all eat together. That’s something we’ve been struggling with. Lately, I’ve been giving the kids super easy meals a la mac and cheese, eggs, or grilled cheese to just get them fed while I figure out what my husband and I are going to eat. We need to get back on the routine of home cooked, family sitdown dinners.
Foregoing fancy this year, I dumped some eggs noodles and fresh broccoli into the instant pot. For pasta, I know to set the pot on low pressure for half the amount of cooking time recommended on the package. Since you can’t set the Instant Pot to exact seconds, you are supposed to round down the cooking time. So for pasta that takes 7 min to cook, set your pot for 3 min (since at least on my model you can’t set it for 3 min and 30 sec). I had not done fresh vegetables yet so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that 3 min is an OK time.
3 min are done, I drain the pasta and broccoli. Pasta is perfect, but the broccoli is a little mushy. First time and lesson learned!
Tri-tip is cooked perfectly on the grill and I let it rest while the pasta and broccoli were cooking. My husband did the slicing, we sat down to eat, and the kids loved! Did I mention we skipped the wine this year in favor of Moscow Mules? Notice mine in the reusable Starbucks cup. Oh we are glamping, aren’t we?!
I always like to finish a Valentines Day meal with something chocolate and decadent. That would normally require an oven, which is sadly sitting disconnected in the corner of my dining area. My son loves to bake with me, so to get him involved and keep the chocolate tradition alive, I opted for a simple chocolate pudding pie. I am a homemade crust girl through and through (either pastry crust, shortbread, or graham cracker), but no oven means I opted for a premade graham cracker crust. My son loved helping me mix the instant chocolate pudding. Then we poured into the crust and straight to the fridge. When it came time to serve, I opened a small container of mini Oreo cookies, placed them into a plastic bag and started smashing to small crumbs. My son loves to top his pudding with “dirt.”
Our kid friendly Valentine’s day definitely ended on a sweet note!
