One Romantic Dinner That Won't Destroy Your Diet!

By:
Lynn Grieger

This year, make your Valentine's Day meal memorable with sensuously served aphrodisiacs. And don't worry about your waistline -- these foods are healthy as well as romantic.

Set the mood
Spread soft pillows on the couch, turn the lights down low, and put on your favorite romantic music. Settle your sweetie into a comfortable position, and then bring out a lovely crystal bowl heaped with chilled red and green grapes. Remember the ancient Romans and their emphasis on love, food and wine? Feed each other grapes as you sip a delightfully crisp white wine. Not only are grapes a decadent appetizer, they're also brimming with fiber and antioxidants to boost your health and low in calories to promote a gorgeous figure.

Prefer a savory snack? Offer each other tantalizing bites of crisp vegetables dunked in creamy, flavorful dips made healthy with nonfat yogurt or fat-free sour cream. Choose vegetables in a variety of colors for the highest nutrient content: bright red peppers, crunchy green celery, white jicama slices, orange baby carrots.

Dinner for two
What's more romantic than sharing delicious food? To carry out this theme, serve foods you can share from one bowl. Start with a minestrone soup flavored with garlic and basil, two flavorings known for their love-inducing qualities. The variety of vegetables and legumes in the soup also promotes a healthy heart, and you'll need all the strength you can get for the rest of the evening!

Show your sweetheart how much you love him by serving pasta with a hearty tomato sauce topped with diced grilled chicken breast. Cooked tomatoes are an excellent source of lycopene, a phytochemical that helps protect the prostate. And the lean protein in the chicken will help keep you awake long into the night! Serve the pasta on one dish that you'll share. (Perhaps you'll even end up with the same strand of spaghetti!)

Dessert and romance
End your meal with a sexy -- and surprisingly healthy -- dessert of chocolate and strawberries. Strawberries are an excellent source of heart-healthy vitamin C, and recent research has shown the fat in chocolate may actually be good for our cardiovascular systems if enjoyed in small amounts. Remember, anything that's good for the heart and circulation is good for love (Viagra, the popular sexual dysfunction remedy, works by helping blood go to the right places). Gently warm chocolate sauce and take turns dipping fresh strawberries into the sauce using fondue forks -- or fingers! Or, arrange fresh strawberries into the shape of a heart, drizzle with warmed chocolate sauce, and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Take turns feeding each other bite after succulent bite.

The rest of the evening
Cuddle back up on the couch to sip an aromatic and stimulating coffee. The rest is up to you. After a light and romantic meal enjoyed with the one you love, who knows what will happen next?

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