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Quick and Easy Sheet Pan Meals

By Ann Hattes
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Sheet pan meals allow you to cook several individual components all at once, making cleanup a breeze. Most of the recipes take very little time to prepare.

A new cookbook, 200 Best Sheet Pan Meals (Robert Rose Books), combined with a single sheet pan and a hot oven makes getting dinner to the table a snap. Sheet pan meals allow you to cook several individual components all at once, making cleanup a breeze. Most of the recipes take very little time to prepare.

Author Camilla V. Saulsbury, a busy wife and mother, uses readily available, affordable ingredients, to create simple, fresh, delicious meals with ease. Foods are simply prepared with chicken, fish or cuts of meat sprinkled or rubbed with seasonings. Vegetables are cut up, oil is drizzled, salt and pepper shaken, and then everything bakes, broils or roasts, until the entire meal emerges from the oven with crisp-tender textures and oven-intensified flavors. As an endurance athlete and fitness instructor, Camilla’s recipes are healthy and nourishing as well as delicious.

Camilla’s fitness philosophy mirrors her cooking philosophy: balanced, practical and simplified. She loves motivating and encouraging people to find fitness activities that help them lead happy, healthy, productive lives and that foster an appetite for great food. Her recipes include everything from pantry and meatless meals, to meat and seafood meals, to sheet sweets.

Try the following recipes from Sheet Pan Meals.


 

California Fish Tacos with Cucumber and Pineapple

Makes 4 servings.    

Preheat broiler, with rack set 4 to 6 inches from the heat source.    

Line an 18- by 13-inch rimmed sheet pan with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.

 

4 skinless cod fillets (each about 6 oz.) or other mild, lean white fish, such as orange roughy, snapper, tilapia, tilefish or striped bass.

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon chipotle chile powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup diced fresh pineapple or thawed frozen diced pineapple, or substitute fresh diced mango

8 6-inch corn tortillas

1 cup diced cucumber

 

Place fish on prepared pan, spacing evenly. Lightly brush both sides of fish with oil, then sprinkle with chile powder and salt. Broil for 3 minutes. Open oven door and scatter pineapple around fish. Close door and broil for 1 to 3 minutes or until fish is opaque and flakes easily when tested with a fork. Flake fish into small pieces.

Fill tortillas with fish, broiled pineapple and cucumber. Serve with any of these suggested accompaniments as desired: fresh cilantro leaves, lime wedges, guacamole


 

Roast Chicken Quarters with Lemon-Dill Spring Vegetables

Makes 4 servings.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F.

Prepare 18- by 13-inch rimmed sheet pan, lined with foil

 

4 chicken leg quarters (about 3 pounds), patted dry

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 package (12 oz.) frozen pearl onions, thawed

1 package (1 pound) peeled baby carrots

1 pound yellow-fleshed fingerling or baby potatoes, halved crosswise

2 cups trimmed radishes, halved lengthwise

¼ cup chopped fresh dill

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

 

Place chicken, skin side up, on prepared pan, spacing evenly. Brush with 1 tablespoon oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Roast in preheated oven for 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, gently toss together onions, carrots, potatoes, radishes, the remaining oil, ¾ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper.

Remove pan from oven and nestle vegetables around the chicken pieces. Roast for 20 to 25 minutes or until vegetables are tender, chicken skin is crispy and an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of a chicken thigh registers 165 degrees F.

Transfer chicken to a serving platter or individual plates. Sprinkle vegetables with dill, lemon zest and lemon juice, then toss to coat. Serve with chicken.


 

Berries and Cream Pavlova

Makes 8 servings.

Preheat oven to 225 degrees F.

Prepare 18- by 13-inch rimmed sheet pan, lined with parchment paper.

 

Meringue

4 large egg whites, at room temperature

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

1 cup granulated sugar

 

Pavlova

1 pound strawberries, quartered and 1 cup raspberries – or substitute other diced fresh fruits, such as peaches, apricots, plums, mangos, blueberries or blackberries.

2 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided

1 cup heavy or whipping (35%) cream

¼ cup sour cream

Fresh basil or mint leaves, thinly sliced (optional)

 

Meringue: In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat egg whites until foamy, about 1 minute. Add cream of tartar and beat for 60 to 90 seconds or until soft peaks form. Gradually add 1 cup sugar, beating constantly. Increase mixer speed to medium-high and beat for 4 to 6 minutes or until meringue is glossy and stiff peaks form.

Spread meringue in a 10-inch circle on prepared pan, mounding it slightly higher at the outside edge to create a nest shape. Bake in a preheated oven for 2-½ to 3 hours or until firm and dry. Turn oven off and let meringue cool in oven for 1-½ to 2 hours or as long as overnight.

Pavlova: In a medium bowl, combine strawberries, raspberries and 1 tablespoon sugar.
In another medium bowl, using an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat cream, sour cream and the remaining sugar, until soft peaks form.

Carefully transfer meringue to a serving plate. Top with whipped cream, berries and basil (if using). Serve immediately.

 

Ann Hattes has over 25 years experience writing about both travel and food for publications both in the US and internationally. A senior living in Wisconsin, she’s a member of the International Food, Wine and Travel Writers Association and the Midwest Travel Writers Association.

Meet Ann