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The Official Whole Foods Market® Blog
Tell Us Your Recipe for Romance
| Meet the Blogger | More Posts by Elizabeth BealThey say the way to a lover’s heart is through the stomach, and while that looks unappetizing in print, we know it’s true. Would your sweetheart be by your side if you’d plunked down a frozen burrito on your first let’s-do-dinner-at-my-place? Didn't think so.
Looking to sway cupid in the kitchen? We recommend this gorgeous Peppered Steak with Mushrooms, Seafood Risotto, Chicken Marengo or Romantic Rice Bowl, finished off with our ever-popular Flourless Chocolate Cake or Red Wine Strawberries and Cream. Warning: the aforementioned recipes could all lead to swooning — or spooning.
Tell us: Have you ever cooked for love? Did someone make you a meal so romantic it made your heart sing (and did it sing Al Green)? What did you cook to win the love of your life — or the love of last month?
Let us know in the comments below by Wednesday, February 13. One winner will be chosen at random to receive a $100 Whole Foods Market® gift card. Use it to buy the ingredients for your next luscious feast! UPDATE: Thank you to everyone that entered. Congratulations to our randomly chosen winner, Rachelle W. from Oakland!
The fine print: No purchase necessary. Promotion ends February 13, 2013, 11:59 PM CDT. Must be a legal resident of the US or Canada (except in Quebec, where it is void) age 18 or older to participate. Taxes on prize, if applicable, are the responsibility of the winner. Employees of Whole Foods Market, Inc., are not eligible. Void where prohibited.
841 Comments
Comments
He said it was the liver and onions and corned beef.
02/01/2013 8:06:09 AM CST
After dating my traditional Italian boyfriend for about 8 months or so, I decided to make my healthy version of meatballs and pasta from scratch, sauce included! He loved it so much, he said ever so sweetly, now I know I can marry you, not only were those meatballs amazing, they are good for me! We just celebrated our six month wedding anniversary!!!
02/01/2013 8:08:24 AM CST
Dark chocolate mousse. Never fails.
02/01/2013 8:10:25 AM CST
as sad as it I cooked fried chicken, mash potatoes, fried okra, and corn bread. I had him hook line and sinker.
02/01/2013 8:12:16 AM CST
I'm a baker who recently just started working for your company at the Lake Grove, NY location! I baked and decorated giant sugar cookies for my sweetie to win him over. He had only 3 requests, that they be huge, soft and beautiful! And when I brought him his cookies he hugged me and kissed me and was so excited! It's a silly sight to see a 6'7" man swoon over sugar cookies decorated as flowers! :)
02/01/2013 8:12:21 AM CST
It was our third date. At my condo in downtown Chicago. I had a Calico cat named Spanky who hated everyone. I made my Grandmother's homemade spaghetti and meatballs. I prepared the sauce the day before with the pork neck bones as so lovingly instructed by Grandma. Then spent half the morning mixing and rolling out the meatballs on the day of the date. I made sure all was simmering on my tiny stove before he arrived. I think the whole floor could smell it! Needless to say he arrived with flowers and a smile since he could smell it when he got off the elevator. He LOVED it! And my cat who hates everyone jumped into his lap!! That is the day I knew I would marry my husband!
02/01/2013 8:13:48 AM CST
I made my husbands favorite dish that his mom makes. When he said it tasted exactly like hers I knew it was a winner. (And if it didn't he lied for love ha)
02/01/2013 8:14:17 AM CST
My (now) husband was driving from Virginia (where he lived) to have weekend dates with me in Philadlephia (where I lived.) I had to keep his attention somehow! I stopped by WholeFoods on my bike ride home almost every day and before he arrived one Friday night I got all the ingredients for my signature dish: GUINNESS STEW. Grassfed chuck beef, red wine, Guinness, organic potatoes, onions and tomatoes, soup bones to make beef broth, and grassfed butter.
I'm pretty sure it's why he proposed soon after. Thanks for my marriage Whole Foods and Guinness Stew!
02/01/2013 8:17:09 AM CST
I made him braised chicken with mushroom sauce, green beans and apple tarte tatin! and he ate them even though he wasn't feeling well!!!
02/01/2013 8:20:39 AM CST
I made homemade potato samosas the night I proposed to my wife. It was labor intensive but SO worth it. She did say yes, so the samosas worked some magic!!
02/01/2013 8:27:32 AM CST
In the beginning of our dating relationship, I had my then boyfriend over to my house for cilantro chicken and grilled zucchini. After that he was hooked! Even today, years later, it's still one if my go to recipes!
02/01/2013 8:35:06 AM CST
My husband was raised vegan and I definitely was not, but I love to cook. So one day while we were dating I made him a mostly vegan lasagna. I used spaghetti squash in place of most of the cheese (had to have a little mozzarella and ricotta, it just isn't lasagna without it), lightly fried eggplant, broccoli puree in with the tomatoes, spinach thrown in...he had a foodgasm. After the first bite, he got up, have me a huge kiss and left me there laughing while he scarfed down the rest of his plate and went back for seconds. He ended up moving in within the week and now we're happily married with three wonderful kids. We still use variations of the recipe, sometimes with meat, sometimes without. Our friends will come over of they know we're making it, and he still gives me a kiss after the bite (unless it's burned, and then he just glares at me.)
02/01/2013 8:35:56 AM CST
I was vegetarian at the time and made a spaghetti dinner made with a grain-based meat substitute, whole wheat noodles, and spaghetti sauce I had canned the previous fall. I also served whole wheat garlic bread, made with flour I ground myself. Doug (now my husband) normally lived on hot dogs, white bread, and Mountain Dew. He complimented me on the spaghetti but didn't take seconds. He did eat six pieces of bread, and my home made lemon cheesecake was amazing. He ate three pieces of that! He married me because he said he could taste the potential.
02/01/2013 8:37:57 AM CST
In 1980, I knocked on the door of my boyfriend's apartment loaded with the ingredients for a surprise Beef Stroganoff dinner. He was bowled over. Every anniversary for the past 29 years, we recreate that dinner using the tattered handwritten recipe card. Some couples have “Our Song". We have “Our Dinner".
Food is love- it’s as simple as that....
02/01/2013 8:38:33 AM CST
My husband and I were long distance for a while before getting married, and at the time i was living in Jacksonville and he was in south Florida. He was up one weekend and I decided to surprise him with a feast. I made mussels in an herbed chorizo broth, a seared Ny strip steak smothered in onions and mushrooms, and for dessert my version of red velvet cheesecakes ; homemade red velvet cake unto a piece of cheesecake. That was the day he told me has falling in love with me. So it has now become our meal of choice on Our anniversary of the day we said I love you to each other.:)
02/01/2013 8:40:10 AM CST
I made a curry mayo, mango, and grilled chicken cutlet sandwich for our first date at governors island. She was so surprised! Now it's our little dish, and I add a new desert every time.
02/01/2013 8:40:29 AM CST
I could never go wrong with homemade gluten free pizza and some gluten free brownie bites for dessert!
02/01/2013 8:50:52 AM CST
Halved roasted Brussels sprouts with turkey bacon & spicy sriracha sauce! He loved it!
02/01/2013 8:54:21 AM CST
When I made my husband a roast, potato & carrots and good ol' southern cornbread (no sugar), that sealed the deal!
02/01/2013 9:05:08 AM CST
When we first met, I told my boyfriend that cooking was my passion and that I'd love to cook for him. So, a few weeks in I decided to make him spinach, moz cheese and sun dried tomato stuffed chicken. No problem, right? Well I had never made it and it was a Rachael Ray 30 minute meal. So, they squeeeeeze the cooking time to 30 minutes but in real life the chicken doesn't cook that fast! He took one bite, realized it wasn't cooked, and I could tell he questioned whether cooking was really my "passion" or a ploy to get him to like me. I've made up for it since :)
02/01/2013 9:07:06 AM CST
I made Chicken Parmesan for my husband on one of our early dates.
02/01/2013 9:12:25 AM CST
I whipped up a pan fried venison tenderloin, gouda smashed potatoes drizzled with truffle oil, sweet peas and mushrooms in garlic-brown butter sauce, and blood orange sorbet with almond biscotti. This is in my top 3 favorite meals of all time category.
02/01/2013 9:14:32 AM CST
My story is filled- for our first valentines together my husband made me a whole tin of pumpkin muffins- I immediately realized that a man who could bake was a man worth pursuing! Needless to say we've now spent 5 valentines together!
02/01/2013 9:17:35 AM CST
My husband & I had been fighting but we tried to sort it out for Valentine's Day. He made me a big wonderful salad, vegan lasagna (my fav) and got us a bottle of wine. we just sat at the dinner table and talked for hours. Best Valentine's day I ever had.
02/01/2013 9:24:03 AM CST
My guy fell in love with my chicken tortilla soup, and later me as well (haha!). The super fresh ingredients and herbs in the soup were flavor fireworks!
02/01/2013 9:24:56 AM CST