9 Tasty Slimming-Friendly Easter Recipe Ideas for Good Friday Weekend
Easter is right around the corner, and even if it’s just a chance to enjoy the long weekend, it’s also a good time to enjoy lots of tasty food! From fish on Good Friday, to chocolate on Easter Sunday, there are lots of traditional meals to tuck into during the bank holiday.
As always, we’re here to help you keep things slimming friendly over Easter weekend. With our tasty, lower-calorie recipes on hand, you can indulge when you want to, or choose a lighter option that won’t make you feel like you’re missing out.
If you’re looking for more spring recipes, or buffet bites for the bank holiday, don’t miss these other handy articles:
Fish Recipes for Good Friday
On Good Friday it’s traditional to eat fish, rather than meat for dinner. Lots of people head to the chip shop for a chippy tea, but you can always rustle up the same flavours at home instead!
Our Fish and Chip Pie has all the bits of your favourite order – flaky fish, crispy chips and mushy peas. We’ve poached the fish in semi-skimmed milk, and oven-baked the chips to keep the recipe slimming friendly.
Once it’s all assembled into a pie and baked in the oven, each portion works out at only 432 calories. Far lighter than a trip to the chippy, and cheaper too!
If you’re expecting guests for Good Friday dinner, our Creamy Cod and Spinach will make it look like you’ve spent hours in the kitchen (but it really takes just over half an hour). With very little effort, you’ll turn a handful of simple ingredients into a silky garlic and lemon cream sauce for the flaky cod.
Deliciously light and flavourful, this is perfect if you’re planning on serving multiple courses – it’s super slimming friendly at 232 calories per serving, which means more room for dessert!
When we want a meal that feels a little bit meatier, we’ll often choose salmon, rather than white fish. For a Good Friday fakeaway feast, these Salmon Burgers will go down a treat.
Playing on the classic flavour combo of salmon, lemon and dill, our juicy patties are so satisfying to bite into.
In fact, these burgers make such a nice change from beef, once you’ve tried them, we’re betting they’ll sneak their way onto your meal plan long after the Easter weekend!
Easter Sunday Dinner Ideas
Everyone has their own traditions on Easter Sunday and, like all the best occasions, a big family meal is usually the highlight of the day. If you’ll be gathering everyone around the table, it’s the perfect time to crack out something a little bit special for the celebration.
Roast lamb is one of the most popular choices for an Easter Sunday dinner, but that’s not to say you can’t put a slimming-friendly spin on it. Our Lamb Steaks with Redcurrant and Rosemary Gravy is one of those recipes that feels a little bit fancy – and we’re guessing you’ll be surprised to hear it only takes 40 minutes to rustle up!
The tender lamb and rosemary are perfect partners, and a hint of sweet redcurrant in the gravy just makes everything pop. We’ve thrown in some baby carrots too, so all you need to add is a few fresh spring greens and some Creamy Mashed Potatoes.
Maybe you want to have lamb on Easter Sunday, but don’t fancy the full roast dinner. If that sounds like you, we reckon our Minted Lamb Kebabs are exactly what you’re after. Fresh mint brings out the best in lamb, so it’s only right that we’ve marinated lean lamb chunks in yoghurt and mint sauce.
Alternated with chunks of green pepper and onion, the lamb skewers will grill to perfection in just 10 minutes. We love to serve them with plain basmati rice, but a side of Nando’s Spicy Rice is always a winner.
There’s no right or wrong meal to serve for Easter Sunday, so if you want to skip the lamb, go ahead! For a hearty roast that feels a little more special than your typical Sunday dinner, why not serve our impressive-looking Beef Wellington?
A lot of beef wellington recipes can be super tricky to make, expensive and really high in calories too. You guessed it…not our version! We’ve used lean medallion steaks instead of a fancy cut of beef, and bundled it up inside ready-rolled pastry.
Once it’s baked in the oven until the pastry is golden and the beef is tender, you’ll never tell from the taste that it’s slimming friendly.
Chocolate Treats for Easter Sunday
We wouldn’t judge you if you ate chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner on Easter Sunday! For anyone who’s trying to stay on plan over the bank holiday weekend, we have plenty of chocolatey sweet treats that’ll fit into your meal plan, while still keeping your inner chocoholic happy.
At just 114 calories per serving, our Chocolate Mousse is the ultimate after-dinner treat. Rich and creamy, you’ll want to get it prepared in the morning, so it has time to set before your Easter dinner.
It has a lovely intense chocolate flavour that pairs especially well with juicy-sweet strawberries, and you could even sprinkle some crushed biscuit on top if you want a little bit of crunch with each spoonful (just don’t forget to work out the extra calories, if you’re counting).
We know Easter is really all about the chocolate eggs! There are 177 calories in a Cadbury’s Creme Egg…and just 41 calories in our Chocolate Creme Egg Cakes. They’ll give you a little taste of the sugary sweet treat, thanks to the gooey filling made from real icing sugar.
Instead of a chocolate shell, we’ve squeezed our filling into fluffy chocolate cake ‘eggs’.
Trust us, these are too good to only enjoy once a year!
Whenever anyone asks us for our chocolatiest recipe (and that question comes up a lot!) we always say our Chocolate Mud Pie. The recipe originally came from a clever member of our Facebook group, and it was too good to keep it to ourselves.
Don’t be put off when you spot coffee in the ingredients list! The finished pie won’t taste of coffee, it just helps to bring out the best chocolatey flavours of the other ingredients.
It’s the perfect slice of indulgence for Easter Sunday dessert…and yet it’s only 125 calories per serving. That’s the perfect excuse to go back for a second helping if you ask us!
What recipes will you be making over the Easter weekend?
Pop on over to our Facebook group to let us know what’s going on your Easter menu. If you’re not already a member, it’s so quick and easy to join. The group is the place to be for sharing photos, recipe tips and ideas for your slimming journey!
You can always stop by our PON Gallery for recipe inspiration too; there’s no shortage of hints, tips, quotes and photos shared by our incredible community.
And, if you liked this article, you’ll love exploring our blog. Browse for recipe ideas, kitchen equipment recommendations, money-saving tips and LOADS more.