Valentine's Day Treats

With Valentine's Day being just a few days away, we are full-on taking advantage of the holiday that makes it socially acceptable to indulge in heart-shaped everything, and to turn chocolate into the star ingredient in nearly all of our favorite recipes.

We enjoyed these easy-to-make heart shaped mini pizzas for lunch today, and it had me reflecting on last year's Valentine's Day post, and what we were enjoying a year ago at this time.  So... I thought I would share the how-to for these pizza's, along with some of the treat ideas I'm loving from Pinterest and some my favorite creative bloggers.  Another holiday themed "round up" if you will. 

For these pizzas, we used Pillsbury Pizza Crust, but feel free to use your favorite dough.  Using a large heart-shaped cookie cutter, I cut as many mini pizzas as I could from the dough.  The directions on the package advise you to pre-bake the dough, but going on the assumption that these hearts were much smaller than a full-sized pizza crust, and would likely cook faster, I opted not to do that.

Instead, I arranged all of my hearts on a parchment lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart, and topped with our favorite jarred sauce, and shredded cheese. Then I baked them at 400 degrees until the cheese was slightly brown and bubbly, about 10-12 minutes (this may vary depending on your oven and the size of your hearts).

That's it, super easy, super fast, and definitely toddler friendly.  Max kept repeating, "look mama, a heart!", before gobbling one up!

Here are some of my other favorite ideas/recipes for Valentine's Day Treats...

Pink Heart Krispie Treats | Valentine's Popcorn

Nutella & Strawberry Tarts | Cookie Cups

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

What are some of your favorite recipes and treats for Valentine's Day?  Traditions?

I think we'll be having a nice cozy night at home by the fire with the kids, super romantic I know, but to be honest I'm not big on dealing with crowded restaurants and lengthy wait times.  Mike usually cooks me dinner for the occasion, and I'm thinking we might indulge in some chocolate fondue for dessert, or perhaps a heart-themed s'more buffet! We'll see.

-J