Sheet pan meals are the way to go. They’re simple, delicious, and cut down on so much cooking time. One meal, one plan gets dinner on the table quickly, efficiently and with less stress. All you need to do is prep your ingredients, assemble them on a sheet pan, and wait for your oven timer to go off. The best part? There is less clean-up involved. This week, we shared 5 different sheet pan recipes on our Nutritious Family Eats Newsletter.
4 Tips To Making Family Meals A Little Less Stressful:
At McDaniel Nutrition, we are all about making tasty, nutritious, and most importantly, stress-free meals for you and your family. Check out these helpful tips below:
- Give everyone a task.
Someone can set out plates and silverware, someone can set napkins (a great job for young children), and everyone can wash their hands and sit down at the dinner table. Kids can help chop up vegetables and arrange them on a sheet pan. Giving children a sense of responsibility about the meal that they are about to eat leads to greater mealtime acceptance, and it helps parents get meals on the table.
- Serve food family-style.
Letting kids serve themselves is one of the best ways to encourage children to try different foods. Letting them decide if and how much of a food goes on their plate will go a long way towards acceptance (plus a much less dramatic family mealtime).
- Let kids eat as much as they want (or don’t want).
Kids who are resistant to trying new foods are more likely to reject them when they feel forced. Kids also have an impeccable sense of hunger and fullness. It’s normal for their hunger to fluctuate dramatically, so trust your kids to know when they are full.
- Take the focus off the food and onto family.
When parents accept that it’s not their job to “make” their kids eat, it can open up so many opportunities for quality family time during meals. Ask kids what their favorite part of the day was, what they wish they had done differently, etc.
We’re here to help you make the most of family meal times. Interested in making your first appointment with one of our Registered Dietitians? Click here.
5 Sheet Pan Meal Ideas:
We’ve all been there. Rushing from picking up the kids from school to soccer practice or band rehearsal and making it home to have hungry kids ask what’s for dinner is just a normal Tuesday evening for a lot of us. Sheet pan meals are the solution to all of your problems. Bringing dinner to the table becomes a stress-free and also delicious opportunity. Plus, while the food cooks in the oven, you can tend to the ten thousand other things you have to do.
Sheet Pan Curried Tofu with Vegetables
We love a good sheet pan meal and this curried tofu with vegetables is one of our favorites. It tastes delicious and cooks so quickly, enabling me to get dinner on the table in under 30 minutes. Plus, this recipe is perfect for a “meatless Monday” meal.
Sheet Pan Sticky Sesame Ginger Chicken
If you’re looking for something fresh and healthy-ish for dinner, this is the perfect recipe for you! If you’d like, you can double the recipe and save the leftovers for quick and easy lunches, like chopped salads or rice noodles.
Sheet Pan Steak Fajitas
These steak fajitas are absolutely delicious! Switch up your protein, you can use chicken or shrimp and have an easy dinner. Serve with rice or tortillas.
Sheet Pan Pork with Balsamic Vegetables
The variety of veggies makes for a great family meal. Between the roasted apples, parsnips, onions and Brussels sprouts, there is something for everyone to love!
Sweet Potato and Chickpea Sheet Pan Dinner
This vegetable bowl is absolutely delicious! Switch up your vegetables and make it your own. Brussels sprouts, butternut squash, cauliflower, or broccoli all make good options.
Incorporating one of these easy, sheet pan meals to your dinner menu will help you save so much time during the week. Let us know which sheet pan recipe was your favorite and what new recipes you would like to see in the future!