A moment of quiet in New York City

I have always been a bit advocate for VALENTINE'S DAY. Singles Awareness Day- haha! I always liked that play on the holiday too :)

From a young age, I decided that I was NOT going to let V-Day get me down!

I know that this cute Chicagoan may seem like she always had it goin' on in the boyfriend department...but NO WAY. I feel like so many of us in our small town suburb of Chicago made it our prerogative to compete about almost everything. One of them was who had the most boyfriends.

As I was rarely able to compete in this category, so I always made it MY day, my day to relax, eat chocolate, watch rom coms, and not care that I was single. The past few years have been different, boyfriend in tow. Although Andy is less inclined to make Valentine's Day a big deal, he knew to schedule his NY trip to be close to February 14th. Smart guy!

So now my few pointers and tips for a FUN Valentine's Day!!!

1) Watch a romantic comedy- duh! :D

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These are just a few of my faves! Of course I had to throw in 2 Natalie Wood movies- because she's awesome!

2) Recipe hunt, and try something wonderful!

I love that people are beginning to branch out with new uses for dishes with typical foods/drinks. For example, this fabulous strawberry shortcake recipe (from none other than The Barefoot Contessa herself!) uses martini glasses for strawberries! Don't forget that you can easily use this with gluten free, vegan, or allergen-free biscuit recipes!

As an only occassional drinker, I swoon at the opportunity to utilize the classy use of flutes, Tom Collins glasses, red wine glasses, etc. for non-alcoholic class. The best use recently that I saw was Bestselling author Kris Carr utilizing wine glasses for green juice- genius!

Of course you could also whip up a cute martini, too! Betty Draper loves her gimlets ;)

Don't forget that Martha Stewart's Living magazine has one of the best Valentine's Day recipe issue. This year, however, I might splurge and buy an issue of Donna Hay's Australian cooking magazine. FABULOUS!

3) Write a love letter. Even if it's to your mom, your sister, or yourself. Pen pals are the best! Share the love! Everyone loves to get mail!

4) Wear something red or pink! :) I also like the idea of eating something red at every meal. Lots of "red" foods are really good for you, from the vitamins in strawberries, to the lycopene in tomatoes. (remember...red meat is brown when you cook it- so that doesn't count!!)

Try something like a strawberry smoothie, caprese salad, beet soup/borscht (hey Polish people!), rooibos tea (swoon), ruby red grapefruit (huge bags of deliciousness at Trader Joe's!), red pepper and spinach sandwiches, and of course, red kale ! There is so much to do with food- make it a day for you!

5) Just LOVE yourself! Seriously, do NOT fall into the commercialism trap. This is the one day you can be filled with love for everything and blame it on a holiday! :)

MUAH! xoxo!