Valentine's Day Dinner

I'll confess that I'm a romantic. It's nice to have a special occasion to cook a meal for someone you love, and last night I took advantage of the holiday to make an extra special (and healthy) dinner for my sweetie. I made an adaptation of this recipe from epicurious, substituting kale for snap peas, since we didn't have any snap peas in stock at the Co-op. The pistachio pistou was delicious on the salmon, and I think it would be great as a topping on any steamed vegetables.  You can make a simple pistou out of a number of different herbs/oil/nuts by mixing together the following:

Basic Pistou
1/3 cup finely chopped herbs
1/3 cup finely chopped green onions, onions, shallots, or garlic
1/2 cup toasted nuts, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil
 Pistous provide an easy way to add a lot of concentrated flavor and a small amount of healthy fat to dishes that need a little sparkle, and it can be really fun to experiment with different flavor combinations.

Overall, this Valentine's Day dinner turned out very nicely, and it felt great to make a meal that kept my goals for healthier eating in mind. I will add a P.S. that we did enjoy some tasty Chianti and mini cupcakes that Zach brought home after dinner, and they were delicious as well. Sometimes splurging is nice too!