Easter Celebration at Home + Secret Basket Project is a joyful service project plus ideas for a creating a simple Easter celebration at home with your family this year! In partnership with Kroger, we’re helping spread some Easter love this year by serving families in our communities. Kroger has also helped us create an amazing and simple Easter at home! A lovely Easter dinner with ready-to-serve Ham, Fresh Bakery Rolls, & Asparagus from Kroger plus our Twice Baked Potatoes and Orange Rolls is what we’ve got goin’ on for our Easter dinner! We also have Easter basket ideas for your kids, for the elderly, and for service AND an Easter egg hunt for the kiddos in your very own home! You guys… we had SO much fun. 

How my family did Easter at home. . .

So, I’ve been taking this social distancing very seriously and have been using online pickup from my local Smith’s (I also used grocery pickup before because it’s the best thing ever). I love Smith’s! They have done a fabulous job. I put in our big Easter order of 220 items with all the food, candy, and gifts I’d need to make this Easter thing possible, and Smith’s killed it.

I pull up to the parking lot, call the number, and they bring out all these cute brown paper bags full of my groceries and put them in my trunk. And seriously, I just thought to myself, “I just saved so much time and I didn’t have to get my kids out of the car and I didn’t have to be worried about anything.” Wow. What a relief! So… my first step to a fabulous, quarantine style, Easter is to stay extra safe and use the amazing tools we have available to us– ! 

Even in states that have a “shelter in place” Kroger is staying open and doing their best to safely serve communities in-store and online.

Just because most things are cancelled… doesn’t mean that Easter is! 

The ready-to-serve ham and asparagus (comes in a steam bag) just needed to be heated up in the oven and microwave and the fresh bakery rolls were simply just added to the table before meal time. These Kroger ready-to-serve options helped me so much because with how different life is right now… working and going to school full time while trying to watch my two littles, doesn’t leave me much time to do all the baking! The hubby was super impressed with the flavorful ham and I must say, the rolls tasted like my grandma made them (and I’m a big homemade roll snob). So tasty!! 

I did squeeze in a little time for baking and only made Gram’s Orange Rolls and Twice Baked Potatoes. Fun Fact: I, Madeliene, am named after my great grandma Louise–my middle name is Louise. Cooking with Ruthie is also in honor of her. Gram (Louise), had a cooking show in the 60’s called “What’s Cooking with Louise”! We love to honor her through Cooking with Ruthie and to share her mouth watering recipes, too. These orange rolls do not disappoint and we also try to add a generational recipe into every holiday meal. Make sure to grab the recipe below! 

First, the Easter Bunny came and brought the littles some goodies!

My Carter boy keeps saying, “Mommy the Easter Bunny come!” Carter loved the Easter baskets and especially his dino stuffed animal. All of the Easter basket goodies came from my Smith’s grocery pick up order too (so simple to order and pick up everything at once)–even the adorable baskets!! Kroger is having a half off Easter sale so if you’re looking for supplies, act now and grab these amazing deals! 

For Carter (2.5 years), the Easter bunny brought him a few of his faves… bubble bath, peppa pig finders keepers toy, dino stuffed animal, peeps, a mini monster truck (it was .80 cents and he thinks this thing is gold), and kinder joy eggs!

For Charlie (8 months), the Easter bunny brought puffs, bunny stuffed animal, baby shark small ball, and a light up rubber ducky! Charlie loved the Easter grass so much. hahaha!

I like to keep my little’s Easter baskets simple by buying things that the kids love and that are useable in every day life; such as the bubble bath, puffs, stuffed animals, and small toys.

Next, we had an at home Easter Egg Hunt on our front lawn

I did a smaller Easter egg hunt for Carter of 25 plastic eggs with candy in them (also ordered from Smith’s). Since Charlie isn’t quite to the Easter egg hunt age yet, this was the perfect amount for my Carter! He had such a blast running around and picking up the eggs. 

Charlie did manage to get his hands on one easter egg, with the help of daddy, that was too high for Carter to reach. 😉 

The Secret Easter Basket Project was a great way to spread the Easter love and serve our community! 

With the help of Kroger, we were able to put together these festive Easter baskets and deliver them to our neighbors and families in need. There is nothing that helps me get through troubling times more than serving others does. This was such a joy to do with my little family and to remind some families around us that they are cared about. Isn’t that what we all want in life, to just be loved and to be cared for? Sometimes the simplest things, can make the biggest difference. There are many ways to serve during this hard time and this is just one way we chose to say, “Hey, you are remembered and loved. Hang in there.” 

The take care Easter basket was stocked with Kroger Chicken Noodle Soup, Kroger Saltines, Honey Chamomile Tea, Easter bunny mug, a candle, and candy! These baskets are great for families in need, elderly neighbors, or anyone who might need a pick me up during these unsettling times. 

For the kiddo Easter basket, we used a small tin basket that says, “some bunny loves you” on it with an adorable plush lamb wrapped around the back, holding the basket. The lamb is held on by the tin basket handle that goes across the lambs back and holds it in place. Inside the tin basket we have candy, plastic Easter eggs (with… you guessed it… more candy), a Reese’s carrot package, and a kinder joy egg (toy inside).

We loaded up the babies and the Easter baskets in the stroller and delivered some to our neighbors. We were able to gift 12 Easter baskets with Kroger’s amazing support. Kroger has also recently donated $3 million to food banks nationwide, through their Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Foundation. How inspirational! 

Although, we can not come and physically put an Easter basket on each of your door steps and remind you that you (and I mean, YOU), are remembered, loved, and cared for, please know that you are. This is us saying that you are remembered, loved, and cared for! Hang in there, with us. We can get through this. 

We genuinely hope that this post brings some hope and light into your lives. We also hope that it can give you and your loved ones some fun Easter ideas. Remember, although everything else may be cancelled, Easter isn’t! Thank goodness for that. Cherish this Easter with just your family at home… make it special, make it memorable. 

Enjoy our Grandma Louise’s Orange Roll Recipe as part of your Easter Celebration too! 🙂

Enjoy this opportunity to Celebrate Easter completely at Home this year!

We love to hear about your magical cooking moments. If you get a chance to make our recipes then leave us a comment or tag us on Instagram @cookingwithruthie, pin us on Pinterest, or follow along with us on Facebook so we can share in the joy of cooking with you! Please reach out if you have questions or comments via our email: ruthie@cookingwithruthie.com. We’re excited to see you again soon!  

One more thing before you go…

We love creating recipes and sharing our adventures with you, so if you can do us a huge favor it’d really support us! It’s easier to stay motivated to share our best with you when we hear from you!! We adore our readers and it really makes our day to get comments, social tags/shares, or pins that you save for later to share with your family and friends! Our hearts sing when you do. We SEE you and we do our very best to respond to all the love! It also amps up our mo-jo so we get lots of awesome things done around here.   

Cooking with Ruthie on Instagram

Cooking with Ruthie on Pinterest

Cooking with Ruthie on Facebook

Thanks for sharing in the CWR blog-love!

Love Always,

Ruthie & Madeliene