#EASTER2018: Three easy and affordable recipes for Easter

Here are a few easy to make, budget friendly recipes to try out during Easter.

March 31, 2018

F.C. Pelser 4 minutes read

The Easter weekend is coming up, and for many people it is a time to spend with friends and family. Here are a few easy to make, budget friendly recipes to try out during Easter.

ALSO READ: Five rainy day recipes to warm your belly

Honey baked ham:

This is a homestyle honey baked ham, rich with the savoury sweetness of ham mixed with honey. The sauce is more of an au jus, rather than a gravy. See notes if you want a thick sauce. Spoon plenty of it over the slices of ham, and watch it disappear! Great for holidays.
From: Chew Out Loud
Recipe type: dinner, main
Serves: 12-15

INGREDIENTS
Fully cooked, spiral-sliced ham (1 – 2kg)
1 cup good apple cider
¼ cup firmly packed brown sugar
¼ cup coarse ground mustard (the kind with whole mustard seeds in it)
¼ cup honey

DIRECTIONS:

Heat oven to 180 degrees Celcius with rack on lower position.
Mix together apple cider, brown sugar, mustard, and honey in a bowl. Mix well to fully incorporate basting sauce.
Place ham in a 13×9 baking dish. Coat ham with a generous amount of sauce. Bake for 60-70 minutes, basting thoroughly every 15 minutes.
To serve pre-cut slices, arrange slices neatly on a serving dish and brush leftover sauce all over ham slices and serve. If serving ham whole, be sure to have leftover sauce available for drizzling. The sauce is what makes this ham so great!

NOTES:
This sauce is more of a saucy au jus consistency, rather than a thicker gravy texture. If you prefer your sauce thicker, simply thicken it by bringing leftover sauce to a low boil. Dissolve a bit of cornstarch (start with 1-2 tsp) in a little bit of water (about 1-2 tsp) and add dissolved cornstarch to the boiling sauce. Add more dissolved cornstarch as needed. Stir constantly until sauce is thickened to your liking. (Never add undissolved cornstarch directly to any boiling sauce, or it will become clumpy.)
This ham is amazing with cheesy scalloped potatoes or garlic butter potatoes!

Cheddar and stout meatloaf:

INGREDIENTS:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2/3 cup chopped onions

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/2 cup carrots, finely chopped

1/2 cup celery, finely chopped

3/4 cup crimini mushrooms, finely chopped

1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped

120g french bread, (about 2 1/2 cups, cubed)

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup Stout ale

2 pounds grass-fed ground beef

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

280g thin-sliced bacon (about 9 pieces)

Heat the oil in a 10- to -12 inch skillet over medium heat. Cook the onion, garlic, carrots, celery, and mushrooms until softened and just beginning to brown, about 6-8 minutes. Add the stout ale and simmer until almost all of the liquid is gone, about 4-5 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl and let cool.

Meanwhile, in a shallow dish soak the bread and milk, flipping once, until soggy but not falling apart, 5-10 minutes, depending upon the freshness of your bread. Gently squeeze the milk from the bread with your hands. You will want the bread to be moist, but not drenched. Finely chop the bread and add to the bowl of cooked vegetables.

Position rack to center of oven and pre-heat to 375°F. Begin to add the remaining ingredients to the bowl of vegetables and milk soaked bread — ground beef, eggs, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, parsley, and cheddar cheese. Use your hands and gently mix all of the ingredients until just combined — try not to compact the mixture as you do this.

Line the bottom of a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Put the meatloaf mixture on the pan and form a 10 x 4 – inch rectangular block (it will become loaf shaped as it bakes). Wrap the meatloaf with the bacon in a diagonal pattern. Leave a 1/2- inch over hang around the edges and tuck under the meatloaf. Some pieces of bacon will need to be trimmed.

Bake until an instant read thermometer inserted into the center of the meatloaf reads 160°F, 50-60 minutes. Then, broil the meatloaf 6-inches below the heating element until the bacon is brown and crisped, about 3 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

Pineapple roasted chicken:

The Grade 1 class with some of the donated food that they took to the AACL.

Slice two onions and lay on a sheet tray.
Remove the backbone and wing tips from a whole roaster chicken.

Season all over with kosher salt and black pepper. Place it skin side up over the onions.

Slice a lemon into 4-6 rings, squeeze juice over the chicken and then slide the rings under the chicken.

Repeat with lime.

Also repeat with orange. I didn’t have an orange, so I sprinkled granulated orange peel.

Place a few slice of bacon over the chicken. It doesn’t need to be completely covered, in fact, it’s better if it’s not.

Then a few slices of pineapple over the bacon.

Roast at 230 degrees Celcius for about 45 minutes, or until internal temp is 80 degrees C and/or juices run clear.
The chicken really absorbs the fruit flavour and the fruit absorbs the bacon flavour.

Serve it with the pineapples and onions, but not the bacon.