A heart has long been the symbol of love and affection. Cooking has been said to be love made visible. So why not put the two together? Show those you love that you really care by getting creative in the kitchen this Valentine’s Day with fun heart-shaped foods.
For the classroom
For kids, the fun starts with their classroom Valentine’s Day parties. They get to hand out cards, play a few games and, to top it all off, indulge in a few sweet treats. Homemade treats trump store-bought any day, especially when it comes to cookies.
The kids at school will be smitten by Slice and Bake Heart Cookies. They look impressive, but are quite simple to put together.
- Whip up a batch of your favourite sugar cookie dough.
- Take about one-third of the completed dough and dye it pink or red. Chill both the plain and coloured dough.
- Once chilled, roll out the coloured dough fairly thick, and cut out mini heart shapes using a small cookie cutter. Stack them together without ruining their shape – it’s easier to make two or three shorter stacks instead of one long one – and freeze for about an hour.
- Using the chilled plain dough, carefully cover the frozen stack of hearts and shape into a cylinder. It’s easiest to work with small amounts of dough. Try rolling long, skinny snakes to fill the crease at the top and evenly apply the dough around the heart. Chill the dough again.
- To make the cookies even more impressive, coat the outside with an egg wash and roll the log in your favourite sprinkles, or coloured sugar. The dough can then be sliced and baked.
For the lunchbox
You can surprise the kids with a special Valentine’s Day lunch, too. It’s a piece of cake to make healthy lunch options entertaining and enjoyable. Try cutting tomatoes, grapes and baby carrots into heart shapes by slicing off the end of each one at a 45 degree angle. Then, skewer them together in a heart shape on a decorative toothpick.
For a unique sweet treat with lunch, use fruit leather rollups to make fortune cookies.
- Cut out two or three round circles from the fruit leather and layer them one on top of the other.
- Place a small, handwritten paper fortune in the middle of the stack – sticking out slightly so it’s seen and not eaten – and fold in half like a taco. Gently pinch the edges together to seal.
- To form into a fortune cookie, place a finger (or use the rim of a cup) at the center of the flat bottom of the folded fruit leather and press the two sides down to create a crease.
For the dinner table
Nothing says “I love you” more than a wholesome homemade dinner, except when dinner comes in the shape of hearts. Woo the family with a variety of heart shaped hand-pie pastries for dinner and dessert.
Store-bought puff pastry makes quick work of dinner prep, or you can make your own pastry crust. Cut out large hearts using a cookie cutter and fill the pies with pulled pork, taco meat, or even your favourite pizza toppings. For dessert, canned pie filling, such as cherry or apple, works wonders.
Making Valentine’s Day kid-friendly, unique and impressive only takes a little effort and some creativity. From sugar cookies for the classroom, a healthy lunch with heart-shaped veggies and heart-shaped hand-pies for dinner, the kids will be head-over-heels with excitement and feeling the love.