A one-pan meal for $3.66

Plus 6 other easy dinners saving my sanity right now

Sep 06, 2024

∙ Paid

Bowl: Cauliflower Rice with Sausage, Mushrooms., and tomatoes with pesto aioli

This is the final new-recipe-Thursday before Make It Easy is in the world and in your kitchens!

Today’s Sheet Pan Sausage and Blistered Tomato “Rice” Bowls with Creamy Pesto is an effortless, no-chop, one-sheet pan meal. It was inspired by your requests in our CHAT last week for recipes to use up your summer garden produce, and my need for super easy in this crazy busy season. It highlights blistered juicy tomatoes, savory sausage, and roasted vegetables, finished with a rich pesto mayonnaise for a satisfying, fuss-free dinner.

And bonus: I got all of the ingredients at Trader Joe’s (minus the pine nuts which they do sell, mayo and oil because I already had those!). I calculated the cost and prorated the things I had for the amount I actually used, and this meal came out to be $22! I used up the leftover basil for a freezer batch of Pesto, and we even had leftovers that Ryan enjoyed for lunch—so really, it made six meals!

Simple Sheet Pan Dinner - all from Trader Joe’s!

Years ago (2016, maybe?), I created a Sweet and Sour Shrimp sheet pan meal with frozen cauliflower rice, bell peppers, and shrimp. Everything was baked in my sweet and sour sauce and finished with cilantro. That sauce later appeared in my Sheet Pan Sweet and Sour Pork in Healthy in a Hurry, and I thought I had shared the shrimp recipe on my blog, but it’s nowhere to be found! It might have been part of a preorder bonus PDF or included in my online course. I often wonder how many recipes I’ve developed that never got published. I have about 20 filmed and ready-to-go recipes on my iPhone, but they still haven’t seen the light of day. I’d love to say I’m as organized as Ryan, but I’m definitely more of the creative type.

I’ll track down the shrimp recipe for you and share it soon, because I clearly remember photographing it and typing it up in my old office kitchen!

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Back Pocket Dinners

In Make It Easy, there’s a chapter called Back Pocket Dinners. These are meals where, hypothetically, if your freezer and pantry are stocked according to the list at the beginning of the book, you shouldn’t need any additional groceries. Maybe just some fresh herbs or a salad on the side, but otherwise, they’re the kind of meals you can rely on when you’re short on time. There are four skillet sausage dinners (page 241) in that section, and I use them all the time. There’s also a Baked Pesto Sausage and Gnocchi on page 245. Sausages are so easy to use for easy dinners. They’re pre-cooked and pre-seasoned, so it lessons the need for additional spices, herbs, or seasonings!

2 dinners- both with sausage and vegetables and a sauce, one in a skillet and one plated. — Easy sausage dinners from Make It Easy

This sheet pan sausage meal is a variation on those, and it’s been a lifesaver for me as I head into book launch week, finalize the logistics for the tour, and take care of my family. Stick it in your back pocket - for those inevitable, crazy days to come!

Enjoy the recipe this week, friends!!

Danielle