The Best Easter Basket Finds From Target and Trader Joe’s
Easter baskets can be notoriously unhealthy—an average-sized chocolate bunny has 540 calories, 32g of fat, and 56g of sugar. If you're watching your diet, you may not want that kind of temptation around—but that doesn’t mean your Easter basket has to be stuffed with baby carrots, either. At Cooking Light, we’re all about including some chocolate, gummy candies, and toys in Easter baskets (in fact, here's why our dietitian lets her kids eat their entire holiday loot in one sitting!)
Occasional treats can—and should—be a part of a balanced diet, so we’ve rounded up our favorite finds for this year’s Easter baskets. Sure, they’re a little healthier, but there are plenty of treats, too. We promise your kids won’t even miss the football-sized chocolate bunny.
Bonus? These baskets are from two of our favorite stores—Target and Trader Joe’s—so you know they’ll have great price points. To keep portions in check and make your bunny bucks stretch even further, divvy up snacks and treats among several baskets.
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Target
Everything in this basket was found at Target, and the entire thing—including the basket, Easter grass, toys, and candy—was just $52, including tax (plus, you could score an extra 5% off if you’re a Red Card member.) Here’s the breakdown so you can recreate it at home. The super-cute dinosaur basket, plus two packs of Easter grass were $17. Three packs of mini Lindt chocolate candies (we got these mini gold bunnies, little lambs, and hazelnut-filled carrots) were $12. This is probably way more chocolate than any kid needs, so we put one or two pieces of each type in our basket (you could easily divvy this up among three or four baskets, or save extras for later.)
We also picked up a bag of “Bunny Bait” trail mix for $6 (it came with 10 single-serve packs, and we only used two for our basket.) Lastly, we filled the basket with toys—bouncy balls ($3), scented bunny slime ($3), and a stuffed bunny ($4) all made the basket kid-approved.
Trader Joe’s
Trader Joe’s may not initially come to mind when stocking up for your family’s Easter baskets, but these picks would be perfect for a friend, teen, or tween. Adults and older kids will enjoy upgrades to classic candies, like adding almond butter to chocolate cups, trading fruit roll-ups for dried fruit buttons, and slipping in some ruby cacao to melt over fruit at home.
But, don’t worry, we still keep it playful with items like jelly beans, frosted cookies, and gummy candies. All together, the basket cost right around $20 after tax—but since Trader Joe’s doesn’t currently sell Easter baskets or decorations, you may have to spend a little more at another store if you want to keep the cute theme going.
Here’s the price breakdown of everything in our Trader Joe’s basket: Almond Butter Cups ($4); Mango and Strawberry Buttons (a little less than $3 for four packs); Fruit Jellies ($4); Pink and White Flower Cookies ($3); Ruby Chocolate Wafers ($3); and Gourmet Jelly Beans ($2).
