When school is back in session, the weather starts to cool off, pumpkins start coming out, it’s time for fall sheet pan dinners to hit the menu. In the busyness of life, sheet pan dinners are super convenient to make mealtime happen. One pan, less cleaning, and we have a protein, starch, and veggie ready to go.
Flavors of Fall
Once the fall season hits, I start gravitating towards warm, comforting meals. I tend to use more roasted potatoes, carrots, brussels sprouts, beets, winter squashes, apples, pears, cranberries, sage and warm spices (like cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg). The benefit to eating seasonally is it helps increase variety, therefore providing a larger array of micronutrients. Additionally, when these foods are becoming more available locally, you are likely receiving fresher produce which tastes better and has higher nutrient content as it spends less time being transported and stored (1).
How to Make Sheet Pan Meals
Sheet pan meals are easy because they prepare all components of a meal on a single pan at (mostly) the same time. You throw it on the pan, put it in the oven, and dinner is ready. While recipes are great (see below!), you can also keep it simple and just choose a protein, starch, and veggie, and make an easy meal.
Now you may need to adjust the timing for your fall sheet pan dinners depending on your ingredients. If you have heartier ingredients like potatoes or butternut squash, these may need to go in first, let them cook for a period of time, and then add the ingredients that cook quickly or just need to be heated (like softer veggies, precooked chicken sausage, thinly sliced or small chunks of raw proteins, small meatballs, etc). You can also decrease the cook time by covering in foil so the ingredients steam. You can bake with foil until they are starting to soften, then uncover and add remaining ingredients to finish it off.
Options for your Fall Sheet Pan Dinners
Protein
- Chicken – raw, cut into bite size pieces if you want to decrease cook time
- Chicken or turkey sausage precooked
- Pork sausage links
- Beef – raw, cut into bite size pieces if you want to decrease cook time
- Meatballs – beef, pork, chicken, or turkey; raw or precooked
- Fish – salmon
- Shellfish – shrimp, scallops
Starch
- Potatoes
- Sweet Potatoes
- Gnocchi
- Winter Squash
- Corn on the Cob
Nonstarchy Vegetable
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Green Beans
- Cabbage
- Brussels Sprouts
- Carrots
- Beets
- Mushrooms
- Snap Peas
- Peppers
- Onions
Chicken Sausage, Gnocchi, and Butternut Squash Sheet Pan Dinner
The fall flavors are strong in this sheet pan meal, and gnocchi is a favorite carb choice of mine. The fresh nutmeg is just the perfect spice to make this a flavorful and satisfying dinner.
Chicken Thighs with Butternut Squash and Cranberries
As the bags of cranberries hit the grocery store shelves, you may wonder what to do with this tart little berry, outside of cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving. I love throwing them into a sheet pan meal as they can really brighten up a dish and pair well with butternut squash.
Harvest Hash
Breakfast for dinner! I also love using warm spices in savory dishes. This breakfast hash has cinnamon which pairs well with the apple and chicken sausage.
Sheet Pan Chicken and Oven Ratatouille
While zucchini and eggplant are more summer vegetables, warm and roasted with tomato and spices are still perfect for fall weather.
Looking for More Fall Flavor Inspiration?
An award winning recipe developer, Dietitian Kaitlin’s mission is to empower others to reach their health goals by encouraging them to get back into the kitchen. Co-author of Nourished: 10 Ingredients to Happy, Healthy Eating and Cooking with Diabetes.
