No-bake recipes to gift to your Valentine

A handmade food gift for your Valentine says more than "it's the thought that counts." Hopefully, it will say "yum," too!

There’s something about gifting someone with homemade food that makes everyone feel good. I love to prepare food gifts with the five-year-old, and when we give them to loved ones, it’s that much more special because we did it together and made it by hand. That goes way beyond “it’s the thought that counts” in my book.

Heck, we even tried to make never-fail fudge this Christmas, but we all know how that turned out. In that case, it was only the thought that counted, because that’s all we ended up with (besides that pile of crusty chocolate crud).

This Valentine’s Day, my food gifts will be of the no-cook variety, with maybe some of my famous zucchini chocolate chip cookies thrown in for good measure. Who can resist a cookie with hidden veggies? Even Owen, who loathes all things squash, will gobble up these cookies.

I’m thinking of packaging up a variety of these treats in cute cello bags I grabbed in the Target one-spot (I know it’s no longer called that but I forgot the bargain words they renamed it) with some homemade Valentine cards. It’s amazing how cutesie one becomes when you have a kid to do projects with….

The kids in your life may appreciate these semi-healthy truffles-for-kids, chocolate earth balls. I really don’t know why Whole Foods Market named them that, because they sound kind of gross, when in fact they are basically chocolate, peanut butter and honey, with a few seeds and some coconut added in for good measure.

Chocolate and nuts? Sign me up for these fruity, nutty, chocolate Valentines. Basically, you melt chocolate, stir in some heart-healthy trail mix and then eat it all before you can wrap it up all pretty, like in the picture. I got some heart-shaped rubber ice cube trays and I’m thinking I could make these very adorable.

I know I said no-cook, but these crispy skillet cookies look too good to pass up — and they’re still no-bake. We’ll health them up with organic brown rice puffs, no added sugar (that amount of dates should be enough, although I’ll just use a little agave syrup if not) and carob powder instead of powdered sugar.

I might even throw in some chocolate-dipped mango, or instead choose some dried fruit that has no added sugar. Banana chips maybe, or apple rings or apricots. Hmmm… now I’m thinking about dipping some honey spelt pretzel sticks in chocolate too.