A Slice of Smith Life: Saint Valentines Day

10 Simple Valentine Food Ideas for Those You Love

Today we celebrated Saint Valentine's Day with friends from our local homeschool group. It was a beautiful day to celebrate Saint Valentine, a servant of God, who was persecuted for his Christian faith and beheaded (yikes!) on February 14, 270.

To read a lovely post and and prayer to Saint Valentine written by a friend's husband, be sure to visit Cecily's post at Cloudy Symbols of High Romance. Aren't her daughters homemade Valentines the sweetest?!? Such beautiful, heartfelt traditions the lovely Lowmans have!

I was inspired by this video that I found via Facebook that had lots of simple food ideas for Valentine's Day. So I brought out my heart-shaped cookie cutters and a few of my kids and I prepared 10 simple foods for our Valentine's Day party!

When the guests arrived my kitchen table was decorated with a plastic red tablecloth under a plastic lace tablecloth. On the table I had the food set out and a bouquet of red roses my sweet husband gave me. We read the book Saint Valentine that is a family favorite during our morning Couch Catechism time and I printed out a Saint Valentine graphic from Shining Light Dolls Facebook page onto white cardstock.

#1 Valentine Food: Heart Pancakes

We made heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast before the party using our cookie cutters as molds. We added some heart-shaped strawberries.

#2 & #3 Valentine Food: Heart Strawberries and Rose Strawberries

I've been making the heart-shaped strawberries for awhile now, but then I saw how to make roses from strawberries (see this video). I loved this idea that is really easy to do once you get the hang of it! My 9 year old even made a few. One of our packages of strawberries had a huge strawberry buried in the container. It reminded me of Jesus' Sacred Heart.

#4 Valentine Food: Strawberry Jam Sandwiches

Bread + Strawberry Jam + Heart Cookie Cutter = these cute and simple sandwiches (see this video)

#5 Valentine Food: Heart Clementines

These were so easy and fun to make. Healthy too! (see this video)

#6 & #7 Valentine Food: Heart Watermelon/Pineapple and Heart Candy Canes

I only made a few of the heart-shaped watermelon/pineapple (because my cookie cutter wouldn't cut through and it's messy) and cut up the rest and put it into a bowl (see this video). I had a small box of candy canes leftover from Christmas so I just laid them in a heart shape as part of the table decorations.

#8 & #9 Valentine Food: Heart Ham and Cheese Sandwiches with Heart Cherry Tomatoes

Easy to do and I love how they turned out! (see this video)

#10 Valentine Food: Sweet Pretzel Treats

I've made these pretzel treats year round for Christmas and Easter using the corresponding holiday M&Ms. They are a family and friends favorite any time of year!

When the guests arrived they decorated homemade Valentine's Day cards for friends family using coffee filters with a cut out heart in the middle like we did several years ago. The children also made their bags to collect Valentines from friends.

We then ate lunch and one of our teens made a beautiful chocolate cake and a family brought bags of popcorn in decorative bags. One of my daughters and I made treat bags with M&Ms, Hershey kisses and decorative straws.

When the eating was done and the bags were decorated, it was time to deliver Valentines to our friends!

It was a blessed day to remember such a faithful and strong witness to the Catholic faith!

Saint Valentine, Pray for Us!

To see more Valentine posts from years past, be sure to visit my A Slice of Liturgical Life page!

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St. Valentine's Lunch for My Valentines

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A few weeks ago our family celebrated Saint Valentine's Day a little differently than in years past. Since St. Valentine's Day fell on a Sunday this year, my husband and I thought it would be fun to plan a special Valentines lunch for our children vs. giving them packages of candy.

Sunday, February 14, 2016 happened to also be World Marriage Day so we incorporated this special day into our Valentine's lunch by lighting a candle we received as a wedding gift on July 12, 1997. As stated on Catholic Mommy Blogs, World Marriage Day received a special blessing from Pope John Paul II in 1993 and is celebrated annually on the second Sunday of February. This year, it falls on the same day as Valentine’s Day.

When I saw Lacy's post at Catholic Icing with her Saint Valentine's Day Poetry Tea, it inspired me to use her idea and change it up a bit for our own family fun.

On the menu we had cheese and heart shaped pepperoni pizzas (I lovingly cut out pepperoni slices in the shape of hearts and I was smiling when I saw my husband cutting out a heart in a white American cheese slice. :) ) The small pizza crusts were bought in a package at a grocery store so we just added the sauce, cheese and pepperoni.

We also had sliced strawberries that I cut into heart shapes and yummy Valentine pretzel treats. These pretzel treats are very easy to make and make great Christmas treats too!

Here is our wedding candle we lit and used as a center piece on our table. Our wedding invitation is trimmed and glued to the front of the candle with a beaded border. It is one of our most treasured mementos from our special day! I used a heart shaped sandwich cutter that I found at a local store recently to make the heart sandwiches. We also drank strawberry milk.

While we were eating, I read from the picture book Saint Valentine by Robert Sabuda. This is a beautiful book that tells the story of Saint Valentine and the illustrations throughout the book are mosaics like on the cover.

Here is my family enjoying the Valentine's lunch minus our oldest daughter who wasn't able to join us since she was coming home from a church retreat.