Easy Easter Dinner Ideas (With The Best Ham Ever)

Simple And Affordable Easter Dinner Ideas

Since Easter is around the corner, I thought it might be fun to challenge myself to come up with a simple and affordable Easter dinner — decor and all! After deciding that a delicious Dr Pepper Glazed Ham would be the perfect star of the meal (seriously the best ham recipe ever), the rest of my Easter holiday menu came together quickly.

My family knows exactly what will be on the menu for Christmas, but I prefer to play it by ear on other holidays like Easter. I love celebrating ANY holiday, but I also believe it’s not necessary to spend a fortune to have a festive and flavorful Easter holiday dinner!

The Easter dinner menu and decor ideas featured throughout this post are things you can easily put together for your family, and for an affordable price too. So let’s get started!

Easter Dinner Table & Decor Ideas

Place Settings

The blue and yellow plates we found at Target, and I already had the white plates. Don’t be afraid to mix and match plates! It adds interest to the table. Check out thrift stores for fun, colorful plates.

We mixed and matched scrapbook paper we already had and used them for placemats, placed on some burlap ribbon I found at Walmart.

Table Centerpiece

We used both real and plastic eggs in our Easter dinner centerpiece, along with jars of pink tulips from Costco. They have great prices on flowers and they seem to last forever! I put them in quart-sized mason jars we had on hand.

The sheet moss was found at Walmart on the craft aisle. I ended up using 5 packages and just pieced them together. The candles are also from Walmart and the bunny votive holders are from Target.

Banners & Garlands

We found the burlap bunny banner at Target and the colorful eggs banner at Walmart. The gold eggs banner we made ourselves using plastic Easter eggs strung together with yellow baker’s twine.

On to the Easter dinner FOOD!

Easter Dinner Holiday Menu (With Recipes!)

Britta and I handled the cooking for our Easter feast and we chose fairly traditional dishes: ham, potatoes, carrots, salad, and cookies for dessert.

Every recipe we made turned out really delicious. I personally was completely smitten with the potatoes — there’s a reason they are the signature side dish of an award-winning chain of steakhouses! But, honestly, ANY of these dishes would be a wonderful addition to your Easter dinner!

Dr Pepper Glazed Ham Recipe

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients

• 1 picnic ham (5 – 10 pounds)
• Whole cloves
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 1/4 cup dijon mustard
• 12-ounce can Dr Pepper (or any cola)
• 3 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Score the surface of the ham in a diamond pattern about 1/4 inch deep. Place cloves in the middle of each diamond.

Place the ham in a roasting pan with a rack, tent it with foil, and bake for 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours, or until the center registers 100 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer — it should take about 17 minutes per pound.

While the ham bakes, bring the brown sugar, mustard, Dr Pepper, and vinegar to a simmer in a medium saucepan and cook until syrupy and reduced (about 10 minutes.)

After about 2 hours, remove the foil from the ham and brush on the glaze. Return it to the oven, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Remove from oven, add more glaze, return to oven again for another 20 minutes. Repeat until nice and glossy then allow to rest 15-20 minutes before slicing.

Leftover ham? Use it to make Hot Ham And Swiss Sliders With Poppy Seed Sauce!

More Easter Recipes To Round Out Your Holiday Meal

Fleming’s Steakhouse Signature Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 3 small leeks, white part only, sliced
• 2 medium jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely diced
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 1/2 cups half-and-half
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 3 lbs russet potatoes, thinly sliced

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Melt butter in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add leeks and next 3 ingredients; sauté 4 minutes or until tender. Add cream and half-and-half; bring to a simmer. Remove from heat; add cheeses, stirring until melted.

Add potatoes to cream mixture; toss gently. Pour mixture into a lightly greased 13 x 9 inch baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake for 1 hour. Remove foil and bake for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Related: This Is The One Thing I Look Forward To The Most On Easter

Maple Glazed Carrots

Adapted from Fifteen Spatulas

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of uniformly-sized carrots
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp pure maple syrup
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

Heat up a large skillet over medium heat (I used my dutch oven), and melt the butter. Cook it for just a couple of minutes until it turns a golden brown color.

Add the carrots and cook for another 5 minutes, tossing the carrots every minute or so.
Add the maple syrup, slivered almonds, and salt to the pan.

Cook the carrots for another 3-5 minutes until the glaze is sticky sweet and the carrots are fork tender.

Grilled Asparagus Salad

adapted from Free People Blog

Ingredients:

• 1 pound asparagus
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste
• 2 cups arugula
• 1 cup pea shoots (or bean sprouts)
• 1 tsp fresh chives, thinly sliced

For the vinaigrette:

• 3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
• Zest from 1 lemon
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 small shallot, finely minced
• 3 tsp honey
• Kosher salt and black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Preheat your grill (stovetop grill pan) on high. Prepare the asparagus by breaking off the tough ends of each spear.

Toss the asparagus with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill the asparagus for 5 to 10 minutes until browned and tender, turning them every few minutes.

For the vinaigrette, whisk together the lemon juice, zest, olive oil, shallots, honey, and salt & pepper. Layer the arugula and pea shoots (or bean sprouts) on a serving plate and top with the grilled asparagus. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the asparagus and sprinkle with fresh chives.

Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

adapted from Food Fanatic

Ingredients:

• 1 cup diced strawberries
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (I used a gluten free flour blend)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons cold butter, grated
• 1/3 cup heavy cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Hull and dice the strawberries into small pieces (approximately the size of M&M’s). Add the flour, baking soda, salt and sugar to a medium bowl and whisk together to combine.

Next, add the grated butter and cut it in to the dry mixture using a pastry cutter or two knives. You want the butter to be evenly dispersed throughout the flour mixture. Add the heavy cream and strawberries to the dough and stir until just combined.

Form 12 balls of dough (if the dough is too sticky, just add a bit more flour) and place them onto the cookie sheet. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Immediately remove the cookies from the baking sheet and transfer to a cooling rack.

I hope you enjoyed this post as much as we did putting it together! But more importantly, I hope something we’ve shared will help make your Easter celebration more memorable and delightful!

Looking for more Easter ideas? Find links to all of my Easter ideas here!

Do you have plans for an Easter feast?