Hello sweethearts! I hope everyone had a nice Valentine’s Day. I’ve had an ever changing affection for Valentine’s Day every since I can remember. In high school, when I was single and when Valentines was like, the biggest deal ever, I hated it!! Then I got a boyfriend and it was cute and fun and exciting. Then I got a husband and it was still cute and fun but nothing to go crazy over. We’re way too mature for that you know. Cue Facebook on Feb 14, 2011 and it was a montage of people’s pictures of flowers, gifts, chocolates, balloons, surprises, etc, etc, etc.  While my husband and I always do a nice dinner at home or bring out some bubbly or bake some heart shaped cookies or something different than a regular night, I wouldn’t exactly say we go crazy and celebrate. I can’t remember the last time we went to a restaurant for the holiday. It’s just too hectic. But after the Facebook montage last year, I remember telling my hubby that next year I wanted the oversized stuffed animal, chocolates (which I likely won’t eat because I’m not into sweets), jewelry I don’t need, expensive flowers delivered to my work, a card with a beautiful hand written message and so forth! I think my exact words were “Some of that first-year-together, still-trying-to-impress-me type of crap”.

I was, of course, kidding (mostly kidding) and whether it stuck unconsciously in his head this year I don’t know because while I (thankfully) didn’t get the stuffed animal or the chocolates, I did get a quite incredible and memorable Valentine’s Day. This year, apparently, we celebrated for real.

But before we get to his celebration, I did a little SusyHomemaking of myself on Sunday morning. I of course got the inspiration from the only place I get inspiration from these days, Pinterest! Ah, my beloved Pinterest. I decided to make a recipe for Heart Shaped French Toast. Don’t they look pretty?!

Well of course mine don’t look exactly like those but close enough! These were actually pretty easy to make though I will admit, my hubby did help in order to speed up the process. I had never made french toast before so I was excited to take on the challenge!

Here’s the recipe.

I started with slicing the Italian bread.

Using a heart shaped cookie cutter, we cut the bread into heart slices. I almost ran into a problem when we realized the cookie cutter was bigger than the length of the bread but we made do.

I whipped together the Half and Half,  eggs, and vanilla extract. Then we were ready to dip the bread into the mixture.

The recipe also calls for strawberry butter which is basically butter and strawberry preserves blended with sugar. This was a nice twist to plain butter. I used Brummel and Brown nonfat yogurt “butter” as my butter. If you haven’t tried this stuff, its awesome. Tastes great but much better for you than real butter. The strawberry preserves were Smuckers, my fav! The Half & Half was Land O Lakes, since they were the originators of the recipe, thought I owed it to them buy at least one product!

Of course, while one is cooking any sort of long meal (read: anything more than pouring cereal) one should have a tasty beverage to keep them entertained. Bring out the mimosas! Ever since my half marathon, I’d had a bottle of champagne chilling in the fridge that I never got around to so we popped it open and made some mimosas. I’m a huge fan of orange juice (Tropicana is a favorite) and a big fan of champagne so you can imagine my love for mimosas.

Back to the food!

After letting them little heart shaped breads soak in the mixture, we “buttered” up the pan and cooked them on each side for a few minutes. I topped them with some raspberries (was out of strawberries), spread some of the strawberry butter on them and voila, breakfast!

I’m personally not the biggest french toast fan because just like pancakes, I find them a little bit repugnant after a while. So while my hubby had like 5 of them ( he doesn’t share my repugnancy problem), I had one….AND some bacon I decided to make on the side!

This was also a recipe I got off Pinterest but its from Martha Stewart. It’s called Less-Mess Bacon and here is the recipe. Makes sweet, easy, delicious bacon. Vegetarians, look away…now!

Yes it was as delicious as it looks! Way I see it, I had protein (bacon) and vitamin D (OJ) with my breakfast while my husband had most of the carbs. Who says dieting isn’t easy?!

Valentines breakfast was a hit and I recommend the french toast, heart shape optional, to anyone wanting to spice up a weekend breakfast.

As far as my Valentines night, my husband basically turned our backyard into a romantic little bistro complete with table settings, champagne, sushi, music, and candlelight. We had an al fresco dinner under a beautiful sky and I couldn’t have asked for anything more. I don’t know what I did to deserve such a beautiful night and wonderful partner but I’m in awe of him and this life every day and eternally grateful for both.

I wish I could go back to 15 year old, high school me and let myself know how much better my valentine would eventually become! Even if its not a significant other, we all have someone to love. While some say its a silly holiday and they may be right, it’s almost like Thanksgiving in the sense of…you are supposed to be thankful everyday and not just the 4th Thursday in November. Well, you’re supposed to show the people you love that you love them everyday, not just the 14th of February. But sometimes a little invented holiday gives us the excuse we need to show a little more love. And there ain’t nothing wrong with that.