Get the Family Together for a Traditional Easter Dinner
Easter is an excellent reason to get the family together for dinner. The kids can have an Easter egg-hunting game while the adults enjoy cooking the meal together. Every family has an Easter tradition to follow—some give Easter eggs while some bake hot cross buns. No matter the kind of tradition you have in the family, having your loved ones together under one roof is a memory to treasure.
A traditional Easter dinner will comprise roasted meat, side dishes, salads, and desserts. Ham is usually served during Easter since it is readily available and can be picked up in your grocery of choice. However, it is also not unusual to see lamb, pork, and roasted beef on the table. Many will also opt for roasted turkey because it is more festive.
How to Prepare a Turkey Dinner for Easter
Fortunately, turkey is so versatile that you don’t need any special culinary skills to turn it into something delicious. The most popular way to prepare turkey is to roast it. If you aren’t comfortable making your own marinade, you can get a pre-marinated turkey from the grocery. As for the stuffing, you can stick with classic ingredients such as dried bread cubes, sausages, and vegetables, or you can invent something of your own. To impress your guests, you can go all out with the side dishes—mashed potatoes, greens, coleslaw, and gratin-style vegetables.
After-dinner Drowsiness
But is it true that turkey can make people drowsy? It is often pointed out as the culprit for why families feel sleepy after eating it during Easter and Thanksgiving. The truth is that it is not the turkey itself that causes sleepiness. Instead, it contains an amino acid called tryptophan, which is essential in producing serotonin, the hormone that regulates sleeping and waking.
Since the human body does not naturally produce tryptophan, it gets it through eating turkey, eggs, milk, cheese, pumpkin, and legumes. But contrary to popular belief, it is not the tryptophan itself that makes you tired. Eating tryptophan-rich foods with many carbohydrates, such as bread, rice, potatoes, corn, sugary drinks, and desserts, is what makes you feel drowsy.
How to Get the Family Up and Running
What’s an Easter dinner without a few games for the family? Traditional Easter games would comprise Easter egg hunting and the Easter egg bunny toss. But if you want the games to be more entertaining, you should include more movements and use the backyard. Since the weather is usually agreeable around Easter, put a long table in the backyard and play ping-pong for the kids or beer pong for adults. Another fun game is to fill plastic eggs with flour and have two teams toss them to each other. Whoever drops the most eggs will lose, and not to mention, they’ll have flour all over them. If you have board games at home, you can also use those for indoor entertainment.
Conclusion
Don’t waste the Easter weekend without seeing your family. It’s nice to keep in touch with them from time to time. Don’t let Thanksgiving or Christmas be the only reason you spend time together. Seeing them during spring is a nice way to welcome the season and a good excuse to enjoy good food and quality time with loved ones.
Sources:
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nutrition/what-is-tryptophan
https://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/the-best-traditional-easter-dinner-ideas/