3 Reasons To Love Sheet Pan Suppers

The content and photography of this post was provided courtesy of local cookbook author and chef, Carla Snyder. Learn more about Carla and discover her recipes at Ravenouskitchen.com.

Each season offers a traditional or optimal method to making dinner.  Winter has its stews or one pot meals cooked on the stove, spring responds with lighter meals or vegetable sautés in a skillet, summer cooking is reflected in outdoor grilling and for fall, there’s nothing quite like heading back indoors with oven-baked sheet pan suppers. What makes the art of the sheet pan dinner perfect for fall? Check out a few of the many reasons below.

1. ” Fix It and Forget It”
   There is a “fix it and forget it” element to a sheet pan meal. Simply toss all the ingredients onto a sheet pan then roast for 30 minutes. This hands-off method of cooking allows you to do other things like getting the kids homework started or tossing the laundry into the dryer or even pouring a glass of wine and chatting up your significant other before opening the oven door to find a complete, ready-to-eat meal
2. Easy Clean-Up
   The great thing about the sheet pan supper is that clean-up is just as hands-off as the cooking. No longer are you scrubbing and washing a kitchen’s worth of bowls, dishes and boards. Just toss your ingredients on one pan and roast to perfection. To make clean-up even easier, line the pan with foil. When dinner is done, simply throw the foil away and it’s as if clean-up never even happened.
3. Endless Options
   A sheet pan easily accommodates enough food to feed a family and a hot, hot oven is perfect for roasting fall root vegetables like parsnips, carrots, Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes and rutabagas and for fruits such as apples and pears. I love to add a touch of fruit to the vegetables and kids like it as well.

Cooking Note: As far as prep goes, keep in mind that some vegetables cook faster than others. You can toss an assortment of vegetables and fruits together on one pan.  If you cut them accordingly, apples and pears will soften and cook faster than carrots or sweet potatoes, so cut the harder, more dense veggies into smaller pieces so they will all finish cooking at the same time.

Feeling inspired? Get started on your sheet sheet pan supper journey with a few of my favorite fall recipes. Deviled Roast Chicken with Bacon and Brussels Sprout Hash is even more quickly assembled if you use Recipe Ready shaved Brussels sprouts from the Heinen’s produce section. I love the bacon-tossed sprouts and mustard-spiced chicken and the splash of beer that pulls all the flavors together on the pan. The second recipe of Pork Chops with Sweet Potatoes and Apple Glaze combines all the flavors we love with pork; sweet potatoes, pear, ginger, thyme and sweet pepper jelly. It’s essentially the flavors of fall on a sheet pan and a recipe my family enjoys on a weekly basis during this season.