🗂️Keep in Mind 13 Romantic but Budget-Friendly Meals

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There are many alternatives to dining out on Valentine’s Day, but none as classic as simply cooking a cozy meal at home. While you and your partner might find ordering Taco Bell to be meaningful and romantic (I know a couple that celebrates with chicken nuggets and champagne), if you’re interested in cooking, I’ve got some simple and budget-focused meal suggestions that are still pretty darn romantic.

Air fryer stuffed mushrooms​

These savory mushroom bites are some of my favorite things on planet Earth. They make for a great appetizer or side dish, and using the air fryer means you can have them on the table in about 10 minutes. Sausage, cream cheese, and some minced aromatics make up the stuffing, packing plenty of flavor for a lower price.

Stuffed shishito peppers​

The best way to make vegetables celebration-worthy is to stuff them with cheese. Shishito peppers are flavorful with delicate seeds, so you can eat the entire thing without it being weird or bitter. Use the recipe here for the cream cheese and bacon filling and pop them in the air fryer for a handful of minutes.

Dressed-up frozen pizza​

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Pizza for Valentine’s Day dinner is certainly romantic, but ordering a specialty pie can easily become expensive. Instead, buy a frozen pie and dress it up with a few fancy ingredients yourself. Split a ball of burrata over the top (or two, they often come in pairs), tuck some strips of torn prosciutto into the cheese, and drizzle it with truffle honey.

Foolproof cacio e pepe​

Let’s move to the pasta course. Carbs are, and always have been, the key to feeling satisfied on a budget. Cacio e pepe is a flavorful, fancy mac and cheese and there’s an easy way to ensure the sauce stays creamy without getting clumpy. (Read here to find out.) Serve this delightful dish with a glass of wine and some candles for a simple and sweet presentation.

Sheet pan gnocchi​

Crisp on the exterior with a pillowy center, sheet pan gnocchi is both easy and tasty as heck. Instead of making your own gnocchi, use the soft, shelf stable packaged kind at the store. Toss it with some oil and other accoutrements you’d like to roast, like peppers, onions, and sausages. This meal cooks entirely in the oven, needing little more than a shake every now and then to cook the ingredients evenly.

Browned butter and tomato pasta​

Here’s another romantic pasta dish that delivers on many fronts. In this dish, big flavor comes with a small price tag—all you need is a stick of butter and some tomato paste. Simply boil your favorite pasta shape according to the package’s directions. Brown the butter in a pan and mix in a helping of tomato paste. The pasta goes into the sauce and picks up all of those deeply concentrated flavors.

Ricotta gnocchetti​

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

If you thought making fresh handmade pasta at home was never going to happen, you haven’t heard of this easy ricotta gnocchetti. A paste of flour, salt and spreadable ricotta cheese gets cut into tiny pasta pillows ready for a quick boil. Stir these gems into your favorite pasta sauce and heap it onto a plate with a hunk of bread.

Feta and caper marinated chicken​

If a crispy, salty crust and juicy, tender interior sounds good to you, then this chicken recipe should be a priority this Valentine’s Day. Intensely briney, salty ingredients are blended together to make the marinade for this chicken, and the lactic acid from the cheese does double duty tenderizing the meat (the same way buttermilk marinades work). It’s a three-ingredient recipe you’ll come back to time and again.

Pork tenderloin​

An entire pork loin from Trader Joe’s might cost you less than a dozen chicken eggs these days. And once roasted, it is certainly more of a showstopper than egg salad. A quick marinade in Bachan’s Japanese BBQ sauce, oil, and a boost of MSG turn this budget cut of meat into a refined centerpiece. Serve it with some roasted fingerling potatoes or the stuffed mushrooms from above.

Easy shrimp rolls​

Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Forget lobster rolls: Shrimp rolls are the delicious year-round taste of summer you can have any time the mood strikes, thanks to frozen shrimp. Just thaw and cook a handful of shrimp per person. Toss them in a simple mayonnaise dressing and tuck them into top-split buns with a couple chives.

Mayo roast chicken​

Few main dishes are both comforting and impressive, but a whole roast chicken does it with class. To ensure your bird has a lovely bronzed coat, and succulent meat coat the entire thing in mayonnaise. Then prove to your Valentine that you’re a true grown up and properly carve that roast chicken to serve.

Rainbow cookie egg rolls​

One of my favorite dramatic desserts comes from a baseball stadium—specifically, Wok n’ Roll at Citi Field. This festive dessert involves wrapping an Italian rainbow cookie in an egg roll wrapper and then frying it until crispy. It’s fun, it’s decadent, it’s colorful. There is no better way to say, “you’ve got rizz.”

Fancy mille feuille​

Puff pastry is one of those beautiful flaky doughs that takes time and skill to make by hand. Thankfully, buying it frozen from your supermarket does not require these things. Use these instructions to bake off a flat sheet of puff pastry and layer it with vanilla pudding (a vanilla Snack Pack does the trick quite well). Finish it with a flourish of powdered sugar, and you have a sweet Valentine's Day dessert worthy of any restaurant in town.
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