❤️ Chocolate Date Hearts

& other date recipes

I’m not very into V Day but I do like any excuse to share food with people I love. And I reckon in (mostly) grey February, any treat or edible gift or hint of any kind of joy should always be grabbed with both hands.

Here’s what I’d make my Valentine this week

• Chocolate Date Hearts, scroll down for the recipe

• burrata, black rice and broccoli, recipe

• chocolate almond cake, recipe

• Butternut squash mac n cheese, recipe

• Crispy sage & hazelnut cauliflower cheese, recipe

• French onion & mushroom gnocchi, recipe

• Sardine spaghetti puttanesca, recipe

• A lazy lasagne, recipe

In all honesty, I probably won’t be making any of these though but don’t let me stop you from digging in (!) ….as I’m suddenly feeling very pregnant and very tired. I have about 2 months to go and I’m feeling ecstatic and grateful to have got this far in the pregnancy but also panicked, scared, worried, emotional, sick (STILL!) and anxious about the birth (did not enjoy the last time or the subsequent surgery infections). I hear this is normal! I’d love to be a super chilled - go - with- the- flow - Earth Mother but I’m starting to accept me for me more and more and even though I’m so far from my own out there fantasy, what’s important is that my daughter seems to think I’m more than alright….her new saying/ shouting (everything is shouted at the moment) is ‘my mummy is my bestest friend in the WHOLE world’

Henry got the dad bike of his dreams, I’m too big to fit in it but Nelly and Summer are loving the cycling adventures and they’re enjoying staying dry on soggy days

I’m almost at the let’s get ready for postpartum freezer batch cooking stage but not yet as first need to do a bit of urgent life admin and track down all the newborn onesies and little hats and breast pumps and playmats that I’ve lent to friends since last giving birth in 2023 ( I have really loved the camaraderie in the parent swapping and sharing baby bits space. My daughter has inherited most of her clothes, rockers, books, toys, potties, wellies and cribs and now her little sibling will take over and we get to enjoy everything all over again).

Let’s get onto recipes and sweet treats.

Earlier this year a food editor from The Times asked me to write about dates as she knew I loved them…..here’s an extract and a shout out to, what I (and many others rate) as the best dates out there - these Fairtrade and Great Taste award winning Palestinian medjool dates which you can find in the shops and here and here.

Chocolate heart dates ❤️