Celebrating Valentine’s Day as a couple is challenging once you’re parents. Unless you have a trustworthy babysitter that is somehow actually available on Valentine’s night, you’ll probably find yourself celebrating at home with your loved one. It’s definitely different from the traditional thinking of what makes for a romantic date night, but it’s possible. After all, romance doesn’t necessarily need to be big – it just needs to be thoughtful.

As I thought about how to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year and how to make a date night at home different from any other night in, I was inspired by a recent conversation with Jai from Mami’s Time Out. She suggested having a candle-lit dinner at home, which is so simple, yet something I had not thought about. Candles – what a nice and easy way to create a different atmosphere!

I decided instead of focusing on the main meal, I’d focus on creating a nice dessert for two. I don’t often bake, so this automatically gives my date night a special meaning. Plus, I wanted to make my husband’s favorite dessert, carrot cake, but a sugar free version to keep in-line with our attempt at eating healthier. So, with a plan in mind, I headed to Walmart to pick up some necessary ingredients, supplies, and browse their Valentine’s section.

My plan was to set our table for two, using Valentine’s Day colors, and highlight the (heart-shaped) cake with some candles. I added a nice card to further the message of love (you can never go wrong with a card and hand-written note). When my husband walked in from work last night, he was surprised to find an early Valentine’s treat with a candle-lit table for two, and a sugar free carrot cake with home-made cream cheese frosting. Most of all, though, he came home to a celebration of love, kids included.

If you want to try a sugar free carrot cake this Valentine’s Day (or for any other celebration), try this recipe, which I slightly modified from this one I found on the Pillsbury website. The main difference is that I omitted the raisins, as I found they are pretty high in sugar. Be sure to scroll further down for even more ideas for a fun Valentine’s Day date night IN!

Sugar Free Carrot Cake & Home-Made Cream Cheese Frosting

*Adapted from Pillsbury’s Sugar Free Carrot Cake recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 package Pillsbury® Sugar Free Classic Yellow Cake Mix (prepared according to box with oil, eggs, and water)
• 2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Nutmeg
• 1 cup Chopped Walnuts
• 2 cups Carrots (4-6 medium), shredded

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 1 1/2 cup Cream Cheese
• 3 Tbsp Butter
• 5 Tbsp Splenda
• 2 tsp Vanilla
• 3-4 Tbsp Milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix Pillsbury Sugar Free Yellow Cake Mix according to directions on box.
2. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, walnuts, and carrots. Mix together with wooden spoon or spatula.
3. Grease heart-shape cake pan and pour cake mixture into pan. (Or you can also use two 9-inch cake pans as specified in the original recipe.)
4. Bake for 55 minutes until tooth pick comes out clean. (The original recipe says to bake for 40-45 minutes, but the heart-shaped pan required more time.)
5. Prepare cream cheese frosting while cake is cooling.
6. Mix room temperature cream cheese and butter with electric mixer until creamy.
7. Add Splenda and vanilla. Mix.
8. Add milk as needed until frosting is of spreading consistency.
9. Frost cooled cake and serve.

More Ideas for a Valentine’s Day Date Night At Home:

• Have a fondue night. Check out this wonderful Mexican Chocolate Fondue recipe for a lovely dessert for two!
• Hire a chef to treat you and your loved one inside your home! Get inspired by reading this personal chef’s story of being hired to cater a date night for a friend and his girlfriend.
• Keep it simple. Blogger and stay-at-home-dad, Peter Mullen, suggests: “…a comforting, casual homemade dinner: smokey tomato bisque, caprese and prosciutto panini with arugula and walnut pesto, and mini lemon cakes with a raspberry couli. That, a card, and a bottle of nice wine.”
• Reminisce. Remembering all the fun you’ve had together as a couple is a great way to share a date night in. Check out these ideas for reminiscing on a date night at home, plus a few other V-Day ideas.

How will you be celebrating Valentine’s Day with your spouse or partner?

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I received compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

All photos © Melanie Edwards/modernmami™

Today officially marks the beginning of the month of love, otherwise known as February. If you talk to my 7-year-old, though, you’d think Valentine’s Day is the only day in February. She loves celebrating everything about Valentine’s – love, friendship, pink, red, chocolates, flowers – you name it, this holiday was made for my girl! In past years, we’ve picked out Valentine’s cards so she could hand out to her classmates. This year, I thought we might try something a little different and test out Brach’s Create Your Own Conversation Hearts, a new product exclusive to Walmart.

Using the kit that we were sent by Walmart and Brach’s, my baby girl and I sat down to create some nice hearts for her friends and write encouraging messages using the food-safe pen that’s included. She decided to write her classmates cute messages such as ‘U are the best,’ ‘U R my BFF,’ and ‘U R #1′ – she also made her teacher a special heart, as you can see in the photo below.

I really like that the hearts are large and have ample room for kids to write their messages, since they typically write bigger than an adult. I also like that these Create Your Own Conversation Hearts take a long-standing fun Valentine’s tradition and adds an element of personalization. Now you can write whatever message you want for your Valentine instead of digging through the standard conversation hearts to find an appropriate message. No more awkward moments of handing your classmate a heart that says ‘Be mine’!

My girl decided to try a few of the extra hearts in a home-made ice cream sundae to see how they’d taste. While she didn’t think the conversation hearts mixed well with her ice cream, she did have a lot of fun writing her friends special messages for Valentine’s Day. In turn, I enjoyed spending a little one-on-one time with my girl and talking about each of her friends as we created the hearts. We even made a couple of extra special hearts to give to her daddy and baby brother!

How do your kids usually celebrate Valentine’s Day with their friends?

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I received a sample and compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

All photos © Melanie Edwards/modernmami™