Holiday meals can be scary when you’re feeding kids. Easter brunch is no different.
Kids bring with them picky palates and changing preferences every day of the year. Throw in an unusual meal time, family members they don’t see very often, and uncomfortable clothes, and you have real potential for disaster to ensue.
I can’t help you make your kids comfortable with family members they see twice a year or clothes that have a lot less give than their typical shorts and t-shirts, but I can help you make a meal that your kids are more likely to eat. A kid-friendly Easter brunch may not be a silver bullet that removes any risk of meltdown from your holiday celebration, but it can at least take hanger out of the equation.
These ideas for a kid-friendly Easter brunch are also easy for you, mom, to make happen. For many families on Easter, your big meal will take place after church in the morning, so you won’t have tons of time to prepare elaborate dishes for brunch. To prevent you from having the meltdown you’re hoping to avoid for your kids, it’s best to keep it simple.
Although I’m focusing on a kid-friendly Easter brunch that will likely take place mid- to late-morning, my most important tip is to feed your kids before this meal. I can’t wait until 11:00 am to eat, so I’m certainly not going to expect my kids to be able to wait this long. Have a bowl of cereal, a yogurt cup, or a bagel ready for them to eat before church. This little bit of food will set your Easter up for success and give the rest of my kid-friendly Easter brunch ideas a chance to work.
Kid-Friendly Easter Brunch Ideas
Ham
My kids absolutely love ham, and it’s a meat that most other kids I know will tolerate too. This is good news for you, momma. Ham is exceptionally easy to prepare and needs almost zero hands on time to make delicious. Of course, you can go the Honeybaked Ham route, but I like to make my own in the Crockpot. No recipe needed, just follow what I do.
Pineapple Crockpot Ham
Pick up a pre-sliced ham at the grocery store, making sure you get one that will fit in your slow cooker. My favorite brand is Kentucky Legend. These hams hare a bit pricier, but man are they delicious!
Remove the ham from its wrapping and slide it into the Crockpot, juice and all!
You can take a few tablespoons of brown sugar and rub the ham at this point. This step is completely optional. It depends if you want a bit more sweetness or not. I probably omit this step more than I include it.
Take a 20 oz can of pineapple tidbits in 100% juice and dump it over the top of the ham. Don’t drain the pineapple! If all you have is crushed pineapple, that works too.
Set your slow cooker to low and let it go for a few hours. The ham is already cooked, so we are just trying to warm it.
Voila! You have a delicious Easter ham that your kids will devour!
Eggs
Another food my kids love is eggs. And what goes better with ham than eggs (at least according to Sam-I-Am)!? My kids’ favorite way to eat eggs is scrambled with a little cheddar cheese, but for a big holiday meal, it’s undoubtedly easier to make an egg casserole or egg cups to serve a crowd. I typically go the egg cup route, which again does not require a real recipe.
Baked Egg Cups
Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray a muffin tin or mini muffin tin with cooking spray.
Crack a bunch of eggs into a bowl and whisk. Add milk to slightly thin. Season with salt and pepper.
Add any mix-ins you want to the muffin tin. You can keep it simple and leave the egg cups plain or you can add cheese, veggies, meat – the options truly are endless.
Pour the egg mixture evenly into the muffin cups.
Bake for 20ish minutes, until the eggs are set. Mini muffin size egg cups will cook a bit quicker, so start watching them after about 12 minutes in the oven.
Grits or Potatoes
I am a girl from the South living in the North with a Northern husband. We are truly divided over this brunch side dish option. Even our kids are split. My son typically prefers some sort of breakfast potato and my daughter typically prefers grits (although she is a garbage disposal and will eat basically anything).
If you want to go the grits route, you can make my favorite grits casserole and kill the grits and eggs birds with one stone. This recipe is slightly adapted from a faded, beat-up newspaper clipping from 1990 that lives in my mom’s recipe binder.
Grits Casserole
Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray a 2 qt casserole dish with cooking spray.
Bring 4 cups water and 1 tsp salt to a boil. Slowly stir in 1 cup quick grits and cook 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.
Stir a small amount of the grits into 4 eggs, lightly beaten. Return the egg mixture to the grits. Add 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese, 1 cup milk, and 1/4 cup butter to grits mixture.
Pour mixture into casserole. Top with additional shredded cheddar cheese to cover.
Bake 1 hour or until mixture is set.
If you decide that potatoes are the way to go, I highly suggest making a batch of oven roasted breakfast potatoes. They are so ridiculously easy and you can start them the day before. Again, no real recipe here, but this is how I make them.
Roasted Breakfast Potatoes
Cube potatoes (I like red potatoes) into 1” pieces.
Parboil the potatoes in a pot of salted, boiling water for a few minutes. If you’re doing this part in advance, store the parboiled potatoes in a food storage container until you’re ready to roast them.
When you’re ready to roast the potatoes, toss the parboiled potatoes in olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and smoked paprika, to taste.
Roast the potatoes in a 450° F oven for 15 minutes. Flip the potatoes and let them roast for another 10 or so minutes. You’re looking for crispy on the outside and tender in the middle.
Fruit
No gathering with kids is complete without fruit. Every kid I know is a bottomless pit for fruit. Pick whatever is in season and looks best at the store. My best advice is to buy twice the amount of fruit you think you’ll need. It always goes fast!
Salad
I guess it’s probably a good idea to include a vegetable in your Easter brunch, but making vegetables kid-friendly can be a bit tricky sometimes. I like to include a salad in my kid-friendly Easter brunch menu. Start with a pile of your green of choice. My kids seem to find romaine lettuce to be the most approachable green, but if your kids aren’t averse to spinach, go ahead and throw some of that in the salad too.
Top your greens with bite-sized veggies – cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes, matchstick carrots, and bell pepper slices are all good options. I like to do a variety of these veggie add-ins because if the kids aren’t feeling the salad that day, they can pick out their veggie of choice and still get some nutrients.
I also like to have some croutons available on the side. This way those brunch guests who are gluten-sensitive can still have the salad.
Finally, have a variety of salad dressings available. You can be fancy and make your own dressings, but I 100% go the easy route here and buy my favorite bottled or jarred versions at the grocery store. I typically do at least one oil-based dressing (like Italian) and one creamy dressing (like Ranch) so that everyone can find something that appeals to them.
Biscuits
The Southern in me is showing again here, but really who doesn’t like a biscuit? Homemade biscuits are always superior, but if you don’t have time to make them, please go with frozen biscuits over canned biscuits. Canned biscuits are trash.
Along with biscuits, I like to serve a variety of spreads at my kid-friendly Easter brunch. Kids and adults all like being able to choose what they want. Offer a few varieties of jam, fruit butter, and honey.
Dessert
No kid-friendly Easter brunch is complete without a Spring dessert. If you have a traditional Easter dessert, go with that. Some common Easter desserts include carrot cake, coconut cake, and lemon anything. If you aren’t anti-jiggly foods, Jello eggs are a fun touch that my husband’s aunt always includes in her Easter spread. The kids love them!
Happy Easter, and happy brunching!
Yum! All sounds good Sara. I’ll be sure to have ham, potatoes, fruit, and salad. “kielbassi” isn’t on your menu but it gets added to mine. Kids love it, especially the grown ones!