A Valentine's Menu Inspired by the West Coast

Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting a menu every Monday for Valentine's Dinner in. Of the past nine February 14th's Ryan and I have spent as a couple, many were enjoyed at own kitchen table, over a meal we made together. No distractions from waiters, no reservations... just you, your own playlist, a bottle of something delicious, and a great recipe. These menus are intended to take you from cocktails through dessert. I encourage you not to take yourselves too seriously...find opportunities to play along the way. Set your own pace for cooking your Valentine's dinner and have fun teasing, encouraging, and helping each other in the prep work.

Making sushi at home totally had a moment when I was in college as a fun date-night-in. Ryan and I even tried our hand at it. We practically survived on sushi back then, so we figured, why not save a few bucks and have fun in the kitchen together making it, ourselves? I don't know if you've ever tried that at home but it's a much better idea in theory than in practice. It still stands though, that sushi is a sexy date night food. So you could go out, or you could make sushi's sexier cousin, poke, instead!

Poke is kind its own craze right now, and with good reason. It's super healthy, easy to make, and damn delicious. I thought, let's take that idea of making sushi together and give it a twist -- one that keeps all the fun of making a gorgeous, West Coast-inspired, restaurant-worthy meal together, but leaves out the annoying parts like fanning rice (I mean, come on... sushi rice is so high maintenance) and bamboo rolling mats.

I used red quinoa in this recipe because it was festive for the occasion, but you can use any quinoa. Feel free to leave out the grain, if you wish, and simply use more cucumber and carrot as the base of your poke bowl.

I've provided two different sauce options and two different fish options. Ryan and I love food that encourages us to taste and talk about what goes best together. Make your own combinations of flavors and then take turns serving assembled forkfuls to each other.

Have your fish counter person trim the skin off for you, if you choose to use salmon.

One of our favorite things to do when we were dating was make milkshakes with our favorite candies blended in, and play Mario Kart for hours. It was cheap, it was so fun, and it inspired this dessert. No one ate the best in college, let's face it. So, I took that idea and spun it into a guilt-free superfood! This raw gelato beats the heck out of the other stuff, and, when there's a bowl of melted chocolate at your fingertips (pun intended), things are bound to heat up in the kitchen, making this the perfect treat to enjoy making together, whether or not it ends up becoming the chocolate bark for which it was intended.

Valentine's Poke Bowls

1/2 Carrot, peeled

1 Large regular cucumber, peeled

1/4 Cup plus 1 Tbsp Rice wine vinegar

1 Tbsp Sesame seeds

1 Cup Red quinoa

1 Sashimi grade tuna steak

1 Fat filet wild caught salmon

1 Avocado, diced

Lime wedges

2 Tbsp Sliced scallions

Cilantro, for garnish

1/2 Sheet nori

Classic Poke Sauce

2 Tbsp Tamari

1 Tbsp Rice wine vinegar

1 Tsp Sesame oil

Sriracha Mayo Sauce

2 Tbsp Mayo (or veganaise)

1 Tsp Sriracha

1 Tsp Sesame oil

Cook quinoa according to package instructions.

Use a spiralizer fitted with a thin spiral or noodle attachment to spiralize the carrot and the cucumber into a bowl.

Add the sesame seeds to a dry frying pan and toast gently until golden. Do not take your eyes off them, as they overcook quickly. Remove from pan.

In that pan, toast the nori until crispy, 30 seconds to a minute. Set aside.

Add 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar, half the toasted sesame seeds and the red pepper flake to the spiralized veggies. Allow to marinate until you're ready to assemble your bowls.

Dice the tuna and the salmon into 1" chunks.

Assemble the bowls. Drain the cucumber and carrots by lifting them out of the liquid with your fingers and allowing the liquid to drip back into the bowl until they're no longer soaking. Create sectioned portions in your bowls of the veggies, quinoa, avocado, and fish. Sprinkle with nori, more sesame seeds, scallions, cilantro, and garnish with a lime wedge. Drizzle with your choice of sauce.

Raw Banana-Coconut Gelato

2 Bananas, frozen

1/3 Cup Coconut cream (the solidified fatty part from the top of a can of full fat coconut milk)

1/8 Tsp cinnamon

1 Tsp Vanilla

Blend all the ingredients until completely smooth. Transfer to a loaf pan and freeze until you're done eating dinner. It doesn't have to be completely solid, like ice cream. I like it on the softer side, which is why I called it gelato!

Dark Chocolate Bark

1 Bar or dark (70% cacao or more) chocolate

1 Tsp Vanilla

Favorite toppings -- I used gogi berries, chopped pistachios, toasted coconut and fleur de sel.

Find a glass bowl that will rest on the top of a saucepan. You don't want the bowl to be able to touch the bottom of the pot. Chop the chocolate and add it to the bowl. Add enough water to your saucepan to where the water won't touch the bottom of the glass bowl when it's boiling. Put the pot on the stove and bring the water to a boil. Place the glass bowl with the chocolate in it, on top of the pot of boiling water. Stir with a rubber spatula until completely melted, adding the vanilla about halfway through.

Spread the chocolate out on a piece of parchment paper. Don't spread it so thin that you can see through to the paper. About 1/4 inch thick is fine. Add your toppings while it's still hot so they sink into the chocolate a little. Transfer the parchment to a shelf in your refrigerator and allow to harden for about an hour.