How to be a hero on Valentine's Day without breaking the bank

So I thought I'd save you some relationship pain by reminding you that today, Feb 14, is Valentine's Day! So here are some awesome tips to be a hero...

Here's the first tip: ​​​​​​​Don't spend a fortune on flowers.

Sorry florists, but you're charging people FAR too much for their laziness.
​​​​​​​
Instead, pick a flower somewhere and tell the story of how you sourced it. You'll get 100 bonus points and save over $50-$150.

No flowers this Valentine's Day - Tim Wade
This sign means don't BUY flowers... you CAN pick them though...but only on Valentine's Day

Second tip: Don't spend a fortune on an extravagant restaurant on Valentine's Day.

It's nice, easy and costly, but it's nonsense when you think about it. Because paying someone ELSE to be awesome doesn't make YOU as awesome as you can be. Don't throw money about to show love. Be lovingly creative instead. That brings YOU into it. The desire is then for you and not for some chef somewhere, or your battered wallet, or a panicking florist trying to milk one of their big moments of the year... BLEARGH. Do this instead...
​​​​​​​
... message this to your loved one:

Hi love, happy Valentine's Day. PS I'm cooking something special for you at home tonight.

Go ahead, cut and paste. Just send it now.

Sent? Good. Continue.

Once you've sent it you have locked in your heroic awesomeness, and:

You kinda have to cook something. But...
a. If it's awesome, you become a hero for being an awesome cook.
b. If it's a disaster, you become a hero for trying.

That's it. Either way you're a Valentine's Day hero.

Oh...​​​

...Kids?

No probs:

Kids Tip 1: Outsource them

If you have kids, ship them off to your parents or your out-laws. They're either done with V-Day or, if they're super cool, they will show your kids how it REALLY should be done, and how romance can be awesome.

Kids Tip 2: Exhaust them or recruit them

If you can't ship them off, get them to either:
a. Run around for at least an hour at a playground until they exhaust themselves to sleep, or...​​​​​​​
b. ... get them to help you with dinner by being the waiter in your home restaurant (so they learn how to be romantic and creative, and maybe earn some pocket money). Nice, right?

Valentine's Day Dinner Hero

Oh, and want a recipe that is easy to prep and takes no more than 60 minutes to make, looks like you're burning the house down (which creates MASSIVE bonus points for effort and extra affection), and tastes AMAZING?

Here's a fish and a steak option with veggies and salad, and I'm going to assume you don't know anything but also that you're not an idiot:

Cod and broccoli on Valentine's Day shows that you care for your health... and you can cook... and you're awesome.
The cod I'll show you how to cook doesn't look like this.

Fish option:

Buy some frozen cod pieces. Okay that didn't sound right, ESPECIALLY for Valentine's Day. Ahem... Buy some frozen pieces of cod. I'm assuming you have everything else I'll mention.

Grab a cast iron pot with a lid. I have a Le Creuset which I love. Pour some olive oil in the bottom. Put the fish in, even if it's frozen. Turn the fish pieces over so both sides have oil on them. Chuck in some salt and pepper. Squeeze half a lemon over the top. Chuck on a spice or herb if you want but totally not necessary. Put the lid on and put the pot in the oven for 60 minutes at 160 degrees C (320F).

That's it.

Prep veggies or salad (see below) and then go and do something else.

60 minutes later take the pot out of the oven and put it on the dining table (the pot will be ridiculously hot, so to protect the table I use a wooden cutting board between the pot and the table). Pray it's awesome, open the lid with a big reveal, and serve like you would a slice of cake.

Eye fillet, you Tarzan - Happy Valentine's Day. Raw.
If your steak looks like this after cooking it, it means you forgot to turn on the stove.

Steak option:

Buy two pieces of eye fillet steak. About one and a half inches thick. If frozen, thaw them. Otherwise leave them out on the counter to get to room temperature. (Unless you have dogs. Then you might want to leave them somewhere safer.) With 20 minutes to go before serving, pop the steak in a bowl. Pour on some olive oil. Rub in some salt. Grind on some pepper. Splash on some Worcestershire sauce if you have some. Rub on some herbs and spices if you have some.

Cooking your steak:

Put a skillet or pan or steak griddle pan on the stove on high to heat it up. No need for butter or oil as that's on the steak. Once super hot place the steaks on the pan. There will be steam and smoke and maybe even a burst of flame. At the thickness I mentioned you'll need 4 minutes on each side to get to about medium. Don't flip it from side to side. Set a timer and wait 4 minutes. If it begins to burn, turn the heat down a bit after about 2 minutes but crank it up again with 30 seconds to go so it's hotter for the other side. After the 4 minutes, turn the steak over.

If the sides need a bit of attention, hold the steaks vertically for a bit to cook the sides. Only 20 seconds or so for each bit on the pan. Then cook the other main side of the steak for another 4 minutes.

Rest your steak

After that's done, take the steaks off the pans and put them on a wooden cutting board that looks cool enough to serve on. Leave the steaks on that for 10 minutes before serving. Finish up prepping the salad or veggies, and serve. Put the board with the steaks on the table between the two of you. Be careful of juices dribbling off the board. Don't put a steak on each plate, instead carve pieces off the steaks and serve each other. It's more togethery like that.

Baked potatoes on Valentine's Day is a tradition somewhere... probably
These potatoes are not what I'm showing you how to cook. But they are potatoes.

Veggies:

We're going with steamed broccoli and baked potatoes. Wash the broccoli and two potatoes. Dry the potatoes. Don't peel them. Pierce them with a fork all over and chuck them in an open bowl in the microwave on high for 5 minutes.

Take them out of the microwave and pour some cooking oil on them. They'll be super hot but you need to get some salt all over them too. So play hot potato while rubbing them with salt and coating them with oil. Or use tongs.

Then chuck them in an airfryer for 25 minutes or an oven for about 45 minutes. No bowl, just free on the rack. And if you're cooking steak, you do the potatoes first. When ready to serve cut open and slather with butter.

Broccoli a la Valentine's Day
This is what broccoli looks like.

To steam broccoli, break the washed broccoli into edible sized pieces. Chuck them in a pot of half an inch of water, but sit them above the water, like on a wire baking rack, or use a baby bottle steamer, or a pasta cooker, or whatever will hold the broccoli above the water. Cover the pot and turn on the heat and let it steam for about 7-10 minutes. Pierce with a fork to test if done. Be careful that the pot doesn't run out of water.

So, do the broccoli about 10 minutes before serving. Drizzle olive oil, lemon juice or butter on the broccoli too. Sprinkle with salt. Or grate some cheese over the top. Whatever.

Salad on Valentine's Day is great so long as you don't get it stuck between your teeth all night.
This is a salad.

Salad:

Now in case someone really doesn't know how to make a salad, I'll explain this too. To make a salad, grab some lettuce, a cucumber, a couple of stalks of celery, some cherry tomatoes. Wash everything. Shake off the water as best you can. Rip up the lettuce and chop up everything else that needs chopping. Chuck everything in a bowl, lettuce first, then everything else. Done.

Almost.

Just before serving, add some salad dressing or just olive oil, a sprinkle of balsamic vinegar and the juice of half a lemon. I made this today with a japanese Sesame Dressing that is brilliant.

If you have pine nuts or dried cranberries, chuck them on top too. Actually any chopped nuts or some pieces of fruit like a chopped apple or pear. Whatever. Not important.

Wine is nice on Valentine's Day. I like wine. Wine.
Which wine is nice on Valentine's Day? All of them.

Wine:

Easy: open a bottle of wine and serve.

White with the fish (like a 2017 New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough), red with the steak (like a nice 2012 Tempranillo from Rioja in Spain), or whatever you prefer.

If you don't know which ones are nice, buy 3 bottles and keep opening them until you find one you like. You can use the horrible ones for the liquid base in a slow cooked beef dish tomorrow or the next day.

Done.

There. You plucked, you cooked, you conquered. And unless you went out and bought a cast iron Le Creuset pot, you didn't break the bank, and instead you scored a billion bonus points.

Easy. If the dishes are a failure, you have a funny story you both can share, and you can order takeaway.

And if you hate my idea, you can always keep your reservation, make a florist happy and say goodbye to $300.

Happy Valentine's Day!

- Tim Wade

--------

Tim Wade is a global conference speaker helping organisations get creative, find solutions, and motivate their teams to embrace and lead change. He is super creative: he has co-authored 4 business books, written a children's book about potty-training, created a Promotion Payrise program to help people advance their careers, and has created over 2.5 million giving impacts for families in need around the globe through his Foundation. Plus he likes to cook. Find out more about Tim Wade at www.wade.global

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