Want to cook Valentine’s Day Dinner for 2, for under $20 in under 20 minutes? How about Ribeye steaks with a homemade spice rub, Pasta topped with a portabello marsala cream sauce, asparagus on the side and homemade chocolate pudding for dessert?
When the budget is tight, but you need a date night what do you do?? One of our favorite things to do for a special occasion is to go to Martins or Aldi and get really nice steaks and make dinner together at home. This makes for a cheap and easy date night in.
If you have kids and no babysitter don’t worry! Feed your kids something easy like pizza and then send them to their room with a movie and a crazy amount of popcorn. They’ll think they are getting a special treat and you’ll have some time alone.
Here what’s on the menu for Valentine’s dinner:
Cook ribeye steaks (or whatever is on sale) with a homemade spice rub, Pasta topped with a portabello marsala cream sauce, and asparagus on the side and homemade chocolate pudding for dessert.
You’ll be able to spend less than $20 making dinner, and it will only about 20 minutes! This same dinner at a restaurant would easily cost you $50 or more, and I personally think my steak recipe is better than most restaurants.
How to Cook your Valentine’s Day Dinner for 2:
Below you will see my recipes for the steak and pasta sauce. You’ll want to make the chocolate pudding several hours before dinner. Here is my favorite chocolate pudding recipe.
Start dinner by first prepping all your ingredients. Chop the onion and mushrooms. Trim asparagus and place on a foiled-lined baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil over asparagus. (This can all be done several hours ahead of time)
Put on a pot of water to boil for your noodles.
Next, begin cooking the steak (see recipe below). When you move the steak to the oven, also put the asparagus in the oven. Once both are in the oven, start the recipe for pasta sauce. Your pasta water should also be boiling by this point.
The asparagus should stay in the oven until the steak is finished resting. Your asparagus is done if it is floppy when you pick it up. Season with salt and pepper.
Better than a Restaurant Steak
Equipment
- Cast Iron skillet
- Meat Thermometer
Ingredients
- 2 8 oz Steaks We prefer ribeye
- Olive Oil enough to coat skillet
- Dry steak rub suggestion- smoked paprika, brown sugar, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper
- 2 tbsp butter
Instructions
- Marinade steak several hours. (Best if done night before)
- Let steak sit until room temperature.
- Preheat oven to 400°
- Place cast iron skillet over med-high heat. Coat in olive oil.
- When pan is hot, (when a drop of water sizzles) add steaks. Cook 4-5 minutes until crust forms on steak.
- Flip steak and turn off heat.
- Add 1 tbs of butter to the top of each steak.
- Put the pan in the oven and cook until the desired internal temperature. Begin checking the temperature after 5 minutes. *See temperatures in note below.
- Let rest on cutting board 5 minutes.
Notes
Portobello Marsala Cream Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 small onion
- 8 oz portobello mushrooms Babybellas work too
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup Marsala wine You may need more depending on the pan size. If you can't find Marsala wine, any red cooking wine can be substituted.
- 2 tbsp tomato paste You may need more to thicken sauce.
- ¼ cup water
- ¼ cup heavy cream ½ and ½, or milk can be substituted.
- salt
- pepper
Instructions
- Slice onion as thinly as possible.
- Cut mushrooms into bite-size pieces
- Heat olive oil in skillet. Add mushrooms and onion. Cook on med-high heat until soft. (About 1 minute)
- Pour marsala wine into skillet until the bottom is coated with about a centimeter of wine. Cook until it is almost gone.
- Put 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, 1/4 cup water, and 1/4 cup of cream (or milk or 1/2 and 1/2) into skillet. Mix well.
- Bring to a bubble then reduce heat. Add more wine, or more tomato paste to either thin or thicken the sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste.
The cost:
- Steak: 1 lb for about $8
- Mushrooms: $2.00
- Tomato Paste: $0.75 for a can, and you’ll use about $0.10 worth)
- Asparagus: $3.50
- Pudding: $2.00 (but you probably have everything you need in your pantry)
- Wine: $3.00
- Noodles: $1.00
- The rest of the ingredients you probably have on hand, and will only use a small amount. We’ll add $1.00 to the total to cover the cost of those.
Total: $19.60!!!
If we were to assume you had nothing in your pantry and had to buy every ingredient, your total would be just over $30. (I added everything to my Walmart online grocery cart)
Want more ways to save on your food budget? Read my Top 10 Ways to Save Money on Groceries.
