Creative Easter dishes for quarantine when your normal ingredients can’t be found

Can’t find your normal holiday recipe ingredients at the store? Don’t miss these easy Easter recipes to make during the quarantine this year.

You might be worried that Easter is going to look a lot different this year than in the past. Big family gatherings and an extravagant feast will be hard to pull off between social distancing and shortages at the grocery store.

We just need to get a little more creative than usual. I’m here to help.

Easter meal planning is the place to start. I’ve pulled together several festive Easter recipes and listed all the possible substitutions to help you create an elegant meal around whatever you can find in stock at the store this month.

Don’t worry, these recipes are very forgiving and you can easily swap just about any of the main ingredients as needed. 

You can hunt for some of these items now and add them to your freezer or pantry just a little at a time. The chances of finding them all at once isn’t guaranteed right now but with a little prep work you may be able to find everything you need.

PLEASE, purchase only what you need. We can all have a lovely Easter feast if we shop at our normal pace and add just a few ingredients to the pantry at a time.

The most important thing this Easter is to celebrate the special day with your family. Now, more than ever, our loved ones are what matters most of all.

And though it may feel weird, it is absolutely ok to plan a special meal for your family to enjoy on this holiday. It is the perfect reminder for us that things will get better.

Sending hugs to each of you,

How to plan an easy Easter dinner during a quarantine:

Remember, just buy what your family needs. A little at a time between now and Easter and everyone can get what they need to enjoy the day.

1. Ham and cheese slab pie:

For the meat: You can use chopped up ham steak or deli ham for this recipe. If you can’t find them, chopped bacon would also be delicious. Ham steaks have a much longer shelf life than deli ham will, so you want to shop the deli meat until closer to the holiday. Bacon and traditional ham can be purchased now and frozen. 

For the cheese: Ideally you’d use a shredded Swiss cheese or gruyere. If you can find them, a shredded cheddar or even mozzarella and parmesan mix will absolutely work. Cheese can be frozen but may have a slightly different texture once thawed and melted.

For the pie crust: The recipe I linked to calls for puff pastry but you can purchase and freeze a prepared pie crust from the store as well. If you can’t find those, making a homemade crust is very, very easy. Check out my all-butter pie crust recipe here. (Coming soon.)

Shelf Stable pantry ingredients you’ll need: Honey, Mustard, Salt & Pepper

Get the recipe here.

RELATED: If you can find a whole ham, don’t miss my favorite mustard glazed pineapple ham recipe. It uses canned pineapple and other simple pantry ingredients. You’ll have tons of leftovers to stretch out the food, too.

2. Mix & Match Quiche:

For the filling: You can mix and match a total of 1 – 2 cups of chopped up fillings. Use whatever you can find or have on hand:

• asparagus
• peppers
• onions
• broccoli
• peas
• chopped ham
• chopped sausage
• chopped deli meat (turkey or ham)
• shredded cheese (any flavor)

For the pie crust: You can purchase and freeze a prepared pie crust from the store. If you can’t find one, making a homemade crust is very, very easy. Check out my all-butter pie crust recipe here.

Dairy products you need: Eggs, Milk (any kind from whole milk to fat free)

Get the base quiche recipe for tweaking here.

3. Spring Salad:

Start with a base of whatever greens you can find. Then top your salad with a mix and match combo of any of these ingredients:

• Sliced radishes
• Sliced pea pods or sugar snap peas
• Sliced cucumbers
• Chopped green onions
• Mandarin oranges
• Sliced strawberries
• Chopped almonds or pistachios

Salad dressing options: Poppyseed dressing is usually made by several brands at the store. Raspberry or Mustard vinaigrettes would work lovely, too.

4. Potato side dishes for Easter:

If you have a giant bag of potatoes in your pantry, this will be the easiest thing to use for Easter side dishes. 

• Simple roasted potatoes: This will use the least amount of ingredients, just olive oil and seasonings make them extra delicious.
• Mashed potatoes: If you have butter, milk, or sour cream to spare, this would be easy to do.
• Potatoes gratin: With some milk and cheese, these are an extra-easy Easter treat.

RELATED: Our family also loves these sweet and spicy roasted sweet potatoes if you can’t find regular white potatoes at the store. 

5. Hot Cross Biscuits:

It’s not an Easter feast for me without these! I had a spare box of currants in my pantry from my Christmas shopping. If you can’t find currants, you could swap raisins in a pinch. Get the hot cross biscuits recipe here.

Easy swap: If you don’t want to make them from scratch, you could also stock up on refrigerated biscuits or crescent rolls.

6. Deviled eggs:

As I’m writing this, eggs are currently hard to get at the store. Unless that changes, we may skip this dish this year. But for those of you with access to plenty of eggs, this is a super-easy Easter side dish to prepare that only uses a few ingredients and is full of protein.

Bonus: Make egg salad with any extra hardboiled eggs you have.

7. Simple Easter fruit platter:

Play with the presentation and make a pretty platter of your favorite fruits:

• fresh pineapple
• fresh strawberries
• grapes
• sliced apples
• cantaloupe

To make it extra-special, you could also make a simple fruit dip for dunking. A pretty pink strawberry dip or this Pina colada fruit dip would both be perfect for Easter. 

8. Canned pineapple and cheddar casserole:

This is a new-to-us dish we discovered thanks to a friend just this year. If you’ve got butter, canned pineapple, cheese and butter crackers, you can whip this together in no time. It’s a huge hit with the kids. Get the recipe here.

9. Small batch carrot cake:

With your Easter guest list looking a whole lot shorter than usual, you won’t want a GIANT multi-layer carrot cake to go to waste. Check out my super small batch 8×8 single-layer carrot cake recipe with cream cheese frosting. It is perfect for a small family to enjoy this holiday.

10. No bake Butterfinger pie:

If you’re used to having tons of help with all the holiday baking but find yourself on your own in the kitchen this year, take your shortcuts where you can. This easy Butterfinger pie is a no bake recipe you can easily make the day before to save the work. Get the kids involved and make it fun. Get the Butterfinger pie recipe here.

If you didn’t stock up on Easter candies and treats before the quarantine hit, you can likely order them online for pick-up via the Target web site. If you can’t, it isn’t worth exposing yourself to needless germs. You can use whatever chocolate you’ve got in the pantry: M&Ms, chocolate chips, or broken up chocolate bars all work in a pinch.

RELATED: Don’t miss these extra-easy Easter treats for your kids to bake.