How to Make an Easter Dinner your Family Will Actually Love

Last Updated on August 19, 2021 by Katherine

If you are struggling to come up with Easter dinner ideas, this post is for you! Planning a full dinner that every single member of your family loves can seem like a daunting task; however, with a bit of forethought, it can be a snap.

First, I’m going to share with you how I’d approach hosting an Easter Dinner party. Then I’ll share some exciting ideas that you may wish to incorporate into your dinner party menu (for even more meal ideas, please check out my earlier Easter Dinner post).

Sound good? Great, let’s jump right into meal planning…

How to Plan a Meal Without Losing Your Mind

Before you rush out and start shopping, I recommend sitting down with a piece of paper or a planner of some kind. You’ll want to map out for yourself the following things:

• How many people will be eating dinner with you? (side note: with Covid-19 this may just be your household, and that’s okay!)
  • It will help you avoid either having too little or too much food.
  • You’ll also want to note out any allergies in your crew. Writing it down, so it’s staring you in the face, is helpful for when you start researching the dishes you’ll want to prepare.
• Are you going “traditional” (think ham, lamb, or even turkey), or do you want to do something completely off the beaten trail like a salmon?

Once you have the basics, next, it’s time to figure out your ingredients for each dish you intend to prepare!

I like to write down every single ingredient that I need for all the dishes I want to prepare. Then I go through my pantry and spice drawer and cross off the items I’ve already got!

Another sweet tip, sign up for my mailing list today and snag a FREE pdf copy of my Meal Planning for Busy People checklist!

Now that you’ve got some great planning tips for your Easter dinner, let’s look at some mouthwatering dishes that you’ll want to whip up!

Appetizer Ideas

Whether you have a small or large crowd, sometimes it’s nice to have a little arrangement of pre-dinner “snackies” laid out. I like these three ideas mainly because they are light and shouldn’t fill you up before you get to the main event!

Bunny Fruit Tray

I love fruit trays, mainly because they are colorful and healthy for you. Worth Pinning added a very Easter-like twist to the classic fruit tray. You simply arrange the fruit into a bunny head shape! Simple and tasty!

Cherry Tomato Tulips

One Little Project created a delicious whipped feta filled idea using tomatoes. Relatively simple to throw together, these little tomato tulips can be the perfect lead up to your easter dinner!

Carrot Veggie Bars

Garnish and Glaze is where I found this delicious bar creation. You just need some crescent roll dough, a creamy spread (recipe included in the link), shredded carrots, and broccoli. Yummy!

Side Dish Ideas

So usually, your turkey or your ham steals the show during an Easter dinner, but sometimes a side dish can become the new family favorite. These are some of mine.

Broccoli Salad

If you’ve never had broccoli salad before, I’m sorry, you’ve missed out on some magic. I’ve tried numerous recipes, and you can find all kinds online on Pinterest or even a quick google search. By far, though, the best recipe I’ve found is from Sugar Spun Run. I’d never tried this salad with dried cranberries before, and it just adds something delicious to an already great recipe!

Garlic Parmesan Brussel Sprouts

Brussel sprouts are a “fancy dinner” staple in my family. They aren’t my favorite, but The Love Nerds came up with an ingenious idea to roast these bad boys up with some garlic and parmesan (and a few other ingredients). It just adds a little more oomph to these veggies!

Roasted Potatoes And Asparagus

I love potatoes – except mashed, it’s a texture thing for me – and asparagus, so this recipe sounded like a match made in heaven. I found this recipe courtesy of Five Heart Home, and the very idea of adding some garlic and cheese was a delicious and savory twist.

Honey Butter Pull-Apart Rolls

There is no better smell in the world than fresh bread (or rolls) baking in the oven. High Heels and Grills is where I found this yummy recipe for dinner rolls; the addition of honey makes them just the right amount of sweet!

Main Dish Ideas

There are heaps of traditional easter dinner recipes out there on the world wide web, so I choose to focus more on recipes that are not traditional – for those of us who want something a little different! Some of these are completely off the rails in terms of easter dinner ideas, but most of them are just a unique twist of a classic hit.

Dr. Pepper Glazed Ham

I would have never thought cooking with pop (or soda) before, but I’ve been introduced to rootbeer pulled pork previously. This recipe from Jam Hands uses Dr. Pepper instead of root beer. It’s quite a delicious recipe and, like the rootbeer pulled pork, produces a deliciously moist ham.

Reisling Peach Ham

Peach jam and Reisling (which is a light-tasting sweeter white wine) combine in this yummy recipe from Real Housemoms. 

Bacon-Brown Sugar Pork Tenderloin

If you’re looking for something ham ‘adjacent,’ pork tenderloin might be a great option for you. The Kitchn has an amazing bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin recipe which proves that most of your dinner problems can, in fact, be solved by bacon!

Roasted Rosemary Garlic Leg Of Lamb

Many people have lamb as well at Easter and I love this healthier recipe from The Wooden Skillet. Rosemary is a nice herb if you’ve ever tried it because of its close relation to mint and it pairs nicely with your leg of lamb.

Desserts

No easter dinner ideas post would be complete without a dessert section, so don’t worry, I’ve got you covered!! Dessert is easily my favorite dish of the night on account of my massive sweet tooth.

Easter Crack

This is similar to a Christmas crack recipe I tried last year and it’s as delicious as it looks! You can find the full recipe at Passion for Savings. I love the toffee and the chocolate topping is just an added bonus!

Jell-o Peeps Cups

If you like peeps, this recipe is so cool! You can find all the details at The First Year so you can make your own really cool blue Jell-O peep desserts!

Cinnamon Sugar Bunnies

I love making things with puff pastry sheets, most recipes I’ve found to be quite simple to throw together and taste amazing. This cinnamon sugar bunny recipe from It’s Always Autumn is no exception.

Bunny Butt Cheeseball

Cheeseballs are usually an appetizer thing, but this adorable recipe from Emily Enchanted is a sweet twist on the classic cheeseball. The fact that you form it into a little bunny butt just makes this recipe super stinking cute.

Wrapping It All Together

I hope these 15 easter dinner ideas help inspire you to make an amazing Easter dinner for your family. Once you’ve decided on what you’ll be making, I recommend looking at the recipes and deciding if there are any that you can make ahead of the day (a lot of desserts can be) and get those done and ready ahead of time. Then you’ll want to plan out when you’re going to want to get started based on when you want to be sitting down to eat dinner. 

I recommend giving yourself enough time so you aren’t rushing around like a madwoman throwing everything together at the last second!

Alright, my friends, that’s this week’s blog post. I hope you enjoyed it! If you did, please share it with your network using the share button or pin this content to Pinterest! Also, I’d love to hear all about your favorite Easter recipe – drop your ideas in the comments!

Be sure to check back on the blog next Sunday for a post all about creative vases! Until then, stay crafty my friends!