Quick and Easy Meals: Sheet Pan Dinners

January 4, 2021 Annie Hanson

I want to share with you today one of my favorite quick and easy meals: sheet pan meals. These are truly magical because they require so little time to make and I can use whatever meat or veggies I have on hand. I don’t have to make extra trips to the store. It doesn’t take a lot of thought and it’s pretty healthy as long as your vegetables aren’t swimming in oil. Even better is that you can cut up most of the vegetables in advance so that you can just dump them in when you’re ready to make dinner. So easy and good!

I don’t really follow a recipe anymore because I know the basic process, but here’s the detailed recipe and instructions I used when I first started making sheet pan meals. Once you’ve made it a few times, you’ll learn that you can use a variety of meats, vegetables, and seasonings. Pinterest is also full of sheet pan meal recipes for you to peruse at your leisure.

Here’s what I do:

Step 1: Select your meat or vegetarian central ingredient.

I start by thawing a package of Italian sausage (links). You could also just buy a package when you’re shopping and keep it in the refrigerator, but I like to have a well-stocked freezer so I don’t have to rely on going to the store so much. I love going to Fresh Thyme because their meat department often has a variety of interesting sausage flavors. I also love Aldi’s nitrate, hormone, and antibiotic-free chicken sausage that comes in a variety of flavors.

Alternatives: Sheet pan meals can be made with nearly anything. Sausage, chicken, salmon, and shrimp are quite popular, but I’ve also seen anything from mini-meatloaves, to gnocchi, to all-veggie ones with sweet potatoes.

Step 2: Select and prep your vegetables.

I almost always have onions, potatoes, and whole garlic cloves. Then I throw in anything else I have on hand, such as zucchini, sweet potatoes, green beans, broccoli, or peppers. This is a great opportunity to use up vegetables that need to be eaten soon. The trick is to add all of the harder vegetables that require longer cooking first (potatoes, onions, sweet potatoes, etc.). Add tender vegetables such as zucchini later. For peppers, green beans, and peppers it depends on how done you like them to be. I personally enjoy them when they are caramelized and crispy.

Step 3: Toss with oil and bake.

Toss the vegetables with a small amount of healthy oil and seasonings and spread on a sheet pan. You can line it with foil or parchment paper or use a non-stick sheet pan. Add the sausages and bake at 400°F for 30-40 minutes.

Step 4: Serve

You could serve this quick and easy meal alone or with anything else you have that needs to be used: bread, quinoa, salad, fruit, fresh vegetables, etc. My kids don’t love the roasted vegetables so I usually save some of the vegetables I’ve cut for the sheet pan meal and serve them fresh. And when I’m really tired or busy, I’ll just cut up some oranges or other fruit and call it a day.

Benefits of Quick and Easy Sheet Pan Meals

The point is that all of this is very flexible and customizable. It doesn’t take too long to do the prep and most of it could be done up to a few days ahead. For example, you could cut all of your peppers and onions over the weekend and save them in the refrigerator. When you have a package of Italian sausage in the freezer, you just take it out to thaw the night before and you have an easy meal that doesn’t take long to prepare.

This quick and easy meal has been a life-saver for me. When I cook I often get myself into trouble by trying to make meals that are too complicated. I’m perfectly competent at making complicated things, but it drains me mentally and I become quickly overwhelmed. So I love being able to make something like this on days when I just can’t handle anything complicated.

What are your favorite easy and quick meals to make on chaotic days?