Whether you love to cook or not, making dinner for a loved one should be a joy and not a gruesome task. Once in a while, it can be the most refreshing thing to just stay indoors and share a good meal together in the comfort of your home. Here are some easy dinner recipes for two that you can try out every day if you want, every week or on those special occasions like Birthdays, Valentines Day, Christmas, anniversaries, etc. You can easily prepare these dishes alone or together and have fun while at it!
1. Chicken Stroganoff with salad and bread
(Prep time: -40 minutes only)
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 2 pieces chicken breasts, cut in strips
- 2 cups mushrooms
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 4 cups noodles
- Extra butter for bread
Cooking instructions
- Heat 1 tablespoon butter in a pan, add the chicken and let it cook until ready. Remove and put aside.
- Warm the other 1 tablespoon butter the same or another pan and stir fry the onions and mushrooms.
- Add the chicken soup and sour cream and let it boil for a few minutes.
- Add the chicken and let it boil, just for a few minutes until the chicken and the rest of the ingredients are well blended.
- Serve over noodles, tossed salad and buttered bread.
For the salad, you will need
1 leaf lettuce, chopped, 2 green (spring) onions, sliced, 1 cucumber, 1 cup of fresh and chopped coriander, fresh basil, For the dressing; 2 tablespoons fish sauce or 1 table spoon soy sauce for vegetarians, 1 clove minced/crushed garlic, ½ cup coconut milk, 1 tea spoon sugar, lime juice, crushed chilli (optional).
To prepare the salad, mix all the salad ingredients together except the spring onions and basil. Separately mix the dressing ingredients, together in a separate bowl until the sugar dissolves. Pour the dressing over the salad and stir until well blended. Sprinkle the spring onions and basil over the mixture. This is now ready to serve. Note: this should take you only 10-12 minutes to prepare.
Prepare the noodles as instructed on the package. This takes only a few minutes.
2. Apple cherry- Pork chorps
(Prep time: -30 minutes only)
Ingredients
- 2 boneless pork chops (½ inch thick)
- ¼ tea spoon dried thyme
- 1/8 tea spoon salt
- 1 table spoon olive/ vegetable oil
- 2/3 cup apple juice
- 1 small red apple, sliced
- 2 table spoons dried cherries
- 2 small onions, nicely chopped
- 1 table spoon cold water
Cooking instructions
- Rub pork chops with thyme and salt.
- Heat oil in pan and fry pork chops for about 8 minutes once turning Remove and let the meat stand for 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in a separate pan, mix the apple juice, apple, cherries and onions together. Bring to a boil. Add the water, cook and for 1-2 minutes or until thickened.
- Pour over pork chops and serve.
3. Peppered beef with pasta or mashed potatoes, with orange and avocado salad
(Prep time 40 minutes only)
- 1 lb sirloin beef (boneless), cut into 2 pieces about ½ inch each
- ½ tea spoon coarsely ground pepper
- 3 table spoon tomato sauce
- 1 table spoon red wine vinegar
- 1 table spoon freshly chopped thyme
- ¼ table spoon sugar
- 1 onion nicely chopped
- Cooking oil
- 3 table spoons wine: – pinot grigio or chardonnay (optional)
- 12/3 cups pasta or 1 kg peeled potatoes (for potatoes: milk, butter and crushed basil)
Cooking instructions
- Rub both sides of the beef pieces with the ground pepper
- Heat oil in pan
- Add the beef and shallow fry both sides for about 8 minutes turning once until almost ready
- Add the rest of the ingredients except pasta, reduce heat to medium low and cook until almost ready to your liking; (soft or medium rare).
- Meanwhile, if using pasta, boil it according to instructions on the package, drain and put aside. If using potatoes, boil them until soft, drain, add milk (optional), and butter, sprinkle crushed basil and mash.
For the salad, you will need:Lettuce, 2 oranges, peeled and sliced, 1 avocado, peeled and sliced, for the dressing: ¼ cup vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1 tea spoon spoon lime or lemon juice, 1 tea spoon grated orange peel, 1/4 cup orange juice, pinch of salt, ¼ tea spoon ground mustard. 2 red onions nicely sliced into rings. To prepare the salad, mix the salad dressing together. In a separate bowl mix the dressing ingredients until combined and the sugar and salt have dissolved. Pour the dressing over the salad and stir until well blended. Note: this should take only 10 minutes to prepare.
Some wine ideas to go with the above dinner recipes
Romantic dinners for two go well with a nice bottle of wine, so don’t let it end with just the plate of nicely cooked food and salad. The wine can be served together with the meal. If you love champagne, which is quite ideal for romantic dinners, is best served chilled but for the high end champagnes, leave the bottle to warm up a little. This will help bring out the hidden flavors. The best wines to serve with chicken are sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Dry Riesling or pinot Grigio, while Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabernet, Zingandel or shiraz go well with beef dishes. For pork chops, use Chardonnay or Sauvignor. If using white wine, take it out of the fridge 20 minutes before dinner, because if it is too cold, it will most likely be almost tasteless. Red wine should be put in the fridge 20 minutes before dinner because it is too warm, it will taste alcoholic, even vinegary and if too cold it will have an extreme tannic flavor bite and will be almost tasteless.
You can use this recipes when preparing meals for your loved one during special occasions and give him a treat of his live,by making him a very romantic meals and also remember the mood that you create while serving the meal will also mean a lot i.e you can create a romantic mood by serving the meal in a candle lit room adorned with flowers. It could be when you just need to try out something new and unique for your partner.
So just go and prepare that sexy meal for someone special in your life.