Valentine's Night Dinner

Let me start off this post by saying that I am in no definition a romantic at all, I tend to avoid Hallmark holidays like Valentine's Day. However, this past week while volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club we really delved into the positive side of this cheesy holiday - appreciating the people around us and showing that love. Anyways, this lead to me making plans with my mom to cook her dinner on Friday, hiking with my cousins on Saturday morning, and having lunch with a friend who's recently gone through a breakup on Saturday. And the night my boyfriend has planned a nice evening out. But I am really loving extending my Valentine's Day into a much more meaningful weekend. 

Here are some pictures of the dinner I made my mommy <3 I made glazed salmon, lemon garlic shrimp, pasta, and garlic toast. To top it all off I also made creme brulee in little cups, so they look like shots of deliciousness!

Lemon Garlic Spicy Shrimp

- 12 oz no-shell, deveined, tail-on medium shrimp

- 1/4 tsp salt

- a dash of pepper

- 2 tbsp unsalted butter

- 3 cloves garlic, minced

- juice from half a medium-sized lemon

- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper [more if you want a dash on top for presentation points]

- 1 tbsp chopped parsley leaves

1. Rinse the shrimp with warm water.
2. Mix in salt and pepper to your liking into the shrimp, put it aside. 
3. Heat up the butter in a pan, add in the garlic until it's golden brown and making the whole room smell amazing!
4. Add in the shrimps and cook until the shrimps have all turned pink. 
5. Add in the lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and parsley leaves. 
6. Cook for a couple more of minutes when the sauces have thickened to your liking. 
7. Ta-da!

Glazed Salmon

- 4 salmon filet

- salt and pepper for taste 

- olive oil 

- 4 tbsp honey

- 4 tbsp all-purpose flour

1. Run the salmon filet through warm water.
2. Add salt and pepper for taste to the salmon.
3. For each filet, cover it with 1 tbsp of flour and drizzle it with 1 tbsp of honey.
4. Pour enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan and wait for the oil to heat up. Sear each filet of salmon in the pan until golden brown. 
5. Pre-heat the oven to 400^o F to bake the salmon until the salmon is cooked thoroughly all the way through. 
6. Serve the pieces of healthy deliciousness! 

Pasta

- 1 Pastaroni box of Garlic & Olive Oil Vermicelli 

- 1 3/4 C. water

- 2 tbsp butter/margarine

1. This box was heaven-sent while I was stressed out trying to coordinate and cook everything! 
2. Follow the instructions on the box, you really can't go wrong with any of their products!

Garlic Toast

- 1 box of New York Texas Toast Garlic

1. My go-to for any special dinner occasion. Sooo good! No words to the describe the buttery guilt gliding down my throat as I eat this.
2. Follow the instructions on the box and you should be good to go!

These tasted sooo good! But the sugar did not melt and caramelized the way I wanted to, I will keep continue tweaking my recipe and methods. I will post my success story on here soon.