Sheet pan meals

Sheet Pan Gnocchi

~ SL

Sheet Pan Gnocchi is a super simple and versatile recipe you can make hands-free on a busy weeknight.

Gnocchi is rested on a bed of veggies, making it soft and chewy, yet toasted, giving it a wonderful texture.

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Choosing Vegetables for the Sheet Pan Gnocchi

The vegetables I chose to include in this recipe are easy to chop quickly and have varying textures. Mushrooms can be halved, while red peppers are sliced in 8ths and eggplant is chopped into 1-inch chunks. Keeping the skin on the eggplant allows the chunks to hold up while roasting. You can use any vegetables you prefer. Broccoli, cauliflower, butternut squash and grape tomatoes are also excellent options.

Meal Prep Tips

All of the veggies for this recipe can be prepped a day or two before you need them. Chopped vegetables will last a lot longer when stored separately from other veggies, so if you’re planning on prepping them more than a day ahead of time, store them in separate containers or bags. Additionally, to prevent the peppers from getting slimy, place a folded paper towel in the bottom of the container before storing them. For a complete list of how to prep and store vegetables, see pages 43 and 44 of your Ultimate Guide.

Sheet Pan Secrets

Sheet Pan Meals are flexible. Depending on the texture you want for your vegetables, you can choose to spread the ingredients out over one or two sheet pans. Crowding makes the vegetables soft and steamy, whereas spreading them out over two pans lets them crisp up.

For this recipe, I like to use one pan so that the steam created by the vegetables softens the gnocchi. Spreading the gnocchi out on top of the vegetables, allows the gnocchi to both steam on the bottom, and crisp up on the top.

Simple Seasonings

For this Sheet Pan Gnocchi recipe, all the ingredients are seasoned simply with olive oil, Italian Seasoning and salt and pepper. The flavor boost comes once it has been cooked, with a drizzle of three-herb pesto and balsamic reduction, like Nonna Pia’s. You can of course use store-bought pesto if you want.

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Sheet Pan Gnocchi

Vegetables and Gnocchi are roasted together on one pan for a quick and easy dinner

Course Main Course, pasta
Cuisine Italian
Keyword balsamic reduction, bell peppers, eggplant, gnocchi, mushrooms, pesto, roasted red pepper, roasted vegetables, sheet pan, sheet pan dinner, sheet pan meal, yellow pepper
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Servings 6

Ingredients

  • 1 eggplant
  • 2 bell peppers
  • 1 454g package cremini mushrooms Can use white button mushrooms
  • 1 package gnocchi Find it in the dry pasta section
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
  • 4 tbsp pesto homemade or store-bought
  • 2 tbsp balsamic reduction
  • parmesan cheese for garnish

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425 F.

  2. Chop eggplant in 1-inch pieces, halve mushrooms and cut the bell peppers in 8ths.

  3. Spread out the vegetables on a parchment covered sheet pan and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning.

  4. Top vegetables with gnocchi (uncooked). Drizzle again with olive oil.

  5. Bake at 425 F for 25 minutes.

  6. Top cooked gnocchi and vegetables with a dollop of pesto and a drizzle of balsamic reduction.

  7. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Recipe Notes

You can swap out the vegetables for any vegetable you like. 

Serving suggestions for Sheet Pan Gnocchi

Serve this meal with Easy Weeknight Foccacia, cheesy breadsticks or a side salad. This makes a delicious lunch when reheated the next day.

Baked Chicken Parmigiana

~ SL ~ Leave a comment

This post was written in a paid partnership with Manitoba Chicken Producers. As always, all opinions are my own and I only promote products and services that I use and love.

Chicken parmesan beside noodles, zucchini and salad on a round plate.

Did you know that March is nutrition month? This Baked Chicken Parmigiana from Manitoba Chicken Producers More Cooking with Manitoba Chicken cookbook checks all the boxes for me in the nutrition department:

  • It covers all four food groups
  • It`s a lean source of protein
  • It`s baked instead of fried

This recipe is also amazing for meal prep:

  • It`s a virtually hands-free recipe
  • You can use store-bought shortcuts to save time
  • Your kids can help prepare this recipe
  • You can serve it with a variety of sides
  • You can serve it in a few different ways
  • It’s also a take-out fake-out recipe so you can save some money on dining out
A recipe book beside a board of ingredients in small bowls.

Baked Chicken Parmigiana Components

The main components of this recipe are breaded chicken, marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese. Traditionally it is fried, but you can achieve the same result by baking it.  A few tips to ensure that the breaded chicken stays crispy are to bread it just before cooking and to ensure that your chicken breasts are well-spaced out on the baking sheet. This allows the breading to crisp up instead of steaming, which results in a soggy breading.

Food waste/Money-saving tip: Make your own breadcrumbs! Save bread ends and leftover buns in a freezer bag.  Once the bag is full, dry them out in the oven at 300°F. Drying time will depend on the size of the pieces. Let cool completely, then grind in a food processor. Store extra breadcrumbs in the freezer.

Meal Prep Strategies

I love this breaded chicken parmesan because I can combine the breadcrumbs, herbs and spices beforehand to save a few minutes. Add the parmesan cheese to the breadcrumb mixture and you can store it in the freezer until you’re ready to use it! 

Baking it in the oven is a hands-free cooking technique that allows me to do other things while it`s cooking, like reading with my kids, emptying the dishwasher or prepping a future meal. Using some store-bought shortcuts like jarred marinara and shredded mozzarella also saves prep time, which is great for busy weeknights.

Two glass rectangular dishes side by side containing ingredients.

Cooking Chicken

Be sure to use a meat thermometer to ensure the chicken is fully cooked. Boneless and bone-in pieces, as well as ground chicken patties are fully cooked when a probe inserted in the thickest part of the piece reads 165°F or 74°C. Download this card to keep in your kitchen for quick reference.

Breaded chicken pieces on a parchment covered baking sheet.

Deconstructing this Recipe for Kids

For kids who aren’t foods touching each other (chicken + sauce +cheese) simply deconstruct it and serve all of the components separately. They might also enjoy dipping the chicken in the sauce and sprinkling the cheese on themselves.

A spoonful of marinara sauce over a fried chicken breast.

How to Serve Baked Chicken Parmigiana

My favorite way to serve this is with browned butter noodles and a side Caesar salad. You can really make any side that you like.  Spaghetti with extra marinara, garden salad, roasted broccoli…Anything goes here!

Another fun way to serve this is to make a chicken parmesan sandwich! Toast up some ciabatta buns, butter them with garlic butter and top them with the saucy, cheesy chicken and eat it sandwich-style. I have also tried making this as a burger using ground chicken.  Form some patties and bread them, then bake them! 

Do you want to try this recipe? Download a PDF version of More Cooking with Manitoba Chicken here for 5 easy recipes or email ConsumerRelations@chicken.mb.ca with your mailing address and we will mail you a booklet!

How to Make a Chicken Sheet Pan Meal

~ SL ~ Leave a comment

This post was written in a paid partnership with Manitoba Chicken Producers. As always, all opinions are my own and I only promote products and services that I use and love.

Sheet pan meals are my absolute favorite quick weeknight meal because you can prep them entirely ahead of time. While they’re baking, your hands are free to do other tasks, like empty the dishwasher or prep for the next day’s meal. This Sheet Pan Pomegranate Orange Chicken recipe from manitobachicken.ca looks festive and contains warm spices like cinnamon and cumin as well as fresh orange and pomegranate.

Sheet pans are versatile

The great thing about this cooking method is that you can use any vegetable, and seasoning that you like. For example, this recipe contains squash, which we’re all not crazy about in our house so I’m swapping it for sweet potato. There are a few other substitutions you could make in this recipe if you don’t have the ingredients, for example, you can use carrots instead of parsnips, or cranberry juice instead of pomegranate juice.

This sheet pan builder shows you how to use any cut of fresh Manitoba chicken to make endless sheet pan combinations.

Choosing chicken

Depending on the cut of chicken you decide to use, your cooking time will vary. This is something to consider when you’re looking for a quick weeknight meal and want to keep the cook time within 30 minutes. Bone-in pieces such as breasts, thighs and drumsticks, wings and drumettes will take the longest to cook. Whole chicken breasts and ground chicken meatballs will cook within the 30 minute time-frame and you can even shave that down to 20-25 minutes by thinly slicing boneless skinless chicken breasts, for example for fajitas.

Prepping components

When prepping components for your meal, you can chop all of the veggies, and marinate the chicken. Combine your ingredients, marinate and store in a freezer bag or container overnight to let the marinade work its magic.

For the Sheet Pan Pomegranate Orange Chicken recipe, you will need to chop the vegetables and make the sauce, which is tossed with the vegetables and chicken prior to baking.

Alternatively, you can also use dry seasonings and spices that don’t require marinating. When I use this method, I like to drizzle a sauce on top when the pan comes out of the oven, like balsamic reduction, pesto, or a squeeze of roasted or fresh citrus like lemon, lime, or orange.

Cooking sheet pan meals

I have learned that the perfect temperature for these meals is 425°F for 25 minutes. It’s important to note that oven temperatures can vary and some cuts of chicken take longer to cook than others, depending on the size of the pieces and if they are bone-in pieces. Even if you are following a recipe, always use a meat thermometer to check for doneness. You know that chicken pieces are fully cooked when the thermometer reads 165°F or 74°C.

When cooking at this temperature, I like to cut veggies in approximately 1-inch pieces. This ensures that they don’t overcook and burn or get too mushy.

Space your ingredients out on your tray if you like crispier vegetables. If you crowd them on the pan, as shown in the image above, it will create a lot of steam, giving the vegetables a softer texture. Consider using two sheet pans if you like crispy veggies.

Different combinations

There are many great chicken sheet pan combinations on manitobachicken.ca like this Sheet Pan Lemon Chicken that we shared last week on the Cooking Comfort Facebook Live Event. You can watch it here if you missed it and would like some meal prep tips for making sheet pans.

Here are a few more of my favorite combinations:

Sheet Pan Chicken and Sweet Potatoes with Warm Spice
Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas
Chicken Teriyaki w/pineapple (chicken breasts, mushrooms, pineapple, bell peppers)
Lemon Basil Chicken meatballs w/tomatoes and pesto

Try one of these done-for-you ideas or use this sheet pan builder to create your own!