Easy Easter Dinner Menu

Appetizers: Vegetable Tray and Deviled Eggs

Main Course: Honey-Baked Ham, Potato Salad, Green Bean Casserole

Dessert: Jell-O Easter Cupcakes

Colored Egg Basket:

1 dozen hard-boiled eggs

3-4 food dyes (recipe listed below)

Clear wax crayon

Easter grass

Easter basket

Jelly beans

Use wax crayon to draw patterns on eggs before dipping in coloring to create wonderful designer eggs. Use spoon to dip eggs into different dyes and created multi-colored eggs. Take Easter basket and fill with grass. Place eggs in basket and sprinkle jelly beans into basket.

Dye recipe:

¼ tsp. food coloring of your choice

¾ cup hot water

1 tbs. vinegar

Vegetable Tray:

Baby carrots

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Green onions

Olives (green and/or black)

Radishes

Cherry tomatoes

Leaf lettuce

Sour cream

Ranch dressing mix

Arrange vegetables to your liking. Mix sour cream and Ranch dressing mix and use for dipping. You can serve in a bowl beside tray or in the center of the vegetable tray. An alternative for a bowl is taking a loaf of pumpernickel bread, hollow it out and fill with dip. Use remaining bread to cube and add to tray.

Deviled Eggs:

1 dozen hard-boiled eggs, peeled and halved

1 cup Miracle Whip

Mustard to taste

Dill seed

After cutting eggs in half, put yolks in mixing bowl and mash. Add in Miracle Whip and mustard and mix till creamy. Take mixture and place in egg halves. Refrigerate until dinner time. Sprinkle with dill seeds.

Honey-Baked Ham:

Bone-in butt half ham

1 can of pineapples in heavy syrup

Dark brown sugar

Cinnamon

Ginger ale

Rinse ham and place in baking pan. Pour in pineapples and syrup. Add in about 1 cup of ginger ale. Place some pineapples directly on ham. Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon. Bake at 325 degrees according to package instructions (approximately 25 minutes per pound).

Potato Salad:

5 pounds of potatoes - boiled, peeled and chopped into large chunks

Whole dill pickles, diced

A little bit of pickle juice

6-8 hard boiled eggs, peeled and diced

1 - 1 ½ cups Miracle Whip

2-3 tbs. yellow mustard

White onion, diced

Paprika

Mix everything but the paprika together in large serving bowl. Refrigerate until serving time and then sprinkle with paprika.

Green Bean Casserole:

2-3 cans of green beans

1 family-size can of mushroom soup

1 can of French onions

Bacon bits

Pour green beans and soup into baking dish. Sprinkle with French onions and bacon bits. Place lid on dish and bake until warm (usually 15-20 minutes at 300 degrees)

Easter Jell-O Cupcakes:

White cake mix, baked according to cupcake instructions, usually 24 cupcakes. (use foil cupcake liners)

Jell-O gelatin (2-3 different colors), made to package instructions but not refrigerated

Whipped cream (recipe listed below)

Jelly beans

Easter Bunny & Chick Peeps

Allow cupcakes to cool completely and then poke each with a fork. Pour in different color to each cupcake. Spread whipped cream over cupcakes. Refrigerate for at least an hour. Remove from refrigerator before serving and stand Bunny or Chick Peep on each cupcake then sprinkle with jelly beans. Serve immediately.

Whipped Cream:

1 c. heavy cream

¼ c. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Green food coloring

Whip cream until almost stiff. Add sugar and vanilla; beat until stiff peaks form. Add food coloring till desired shade of grass green.