A Valentine's Day Everyone Will Love

This Valentine's Day, my boy and I wanted to do something simple-- cook a really lovely dinner together.  Sure, flowers and candy are wonderful gestures that every girl loves, but nothing replaces a little bonding time in the kitchen.  We each picked a few things we liked and put them all together on one plate.  We ended up with a sirloin steak, tuna steak, zucchini, and sweet potatoes.  These main ingredients totaled about $10.50, thanks to a family-owned meat market and an outdoor market.  Please take the time to Google these kinds of places near you-- they really make a difference in your wallet.

 

We didn't end up following any particular recipe, we just took the ingredients we had, used our imaginations, and catered them to our tastes.  As for the sirloin steaks, we each seasoned our own.  While I only seasoned mine with salt before cooking (I later added lemon juice and butter), Adam chose salt, pepper, and Old Bay, which was equally tasty.  The tuna steaks were marinated in a mixture of soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, minced garlic, lemon juice, and lime juice.  I really recommend this, as the sugar caramelizes when you sear the steak and is absolutely delicious.  The sweet potatoes were boiled until soft and then mashed with brown sugar, cinnamon, and just a bit of butter, and the zucchini was sauteed with onions, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika.  All in all, it was an incredibly lovely (and easy) dinner made with a little extra love.