Sheet Pan Supper

 

Sheet Pan meals are the new easy supper with little mess and a variety of foods and flavors. Choose a combination that suits your family's taste and size. Most are ready in 30 minutes or less. But consider the time each food needs to roast, you may want to cook part of the ingredients before adding others. 

Our favorite is Sausage, Potato & Cabbage.  It takes precooked sausage or cured sausage (like Kielbasa, smoked sausage, or andouille), potatoes (red are best, but I've made this with russet), cabbage, red bell pepper, garlic powder and dried basil and dried oregano. Amounts to suit your family's size. We did 14 oz. sausage, 4 potatoes, ½ head cabbage, and 1 red bell pepper. That made 4 (generous) - 5 servings. 

The ingredients ready for the oven.

Directions: 

1. Spread sausage (sliced into coins), chunked potatoes and slim wedges of cabbage on a rimmed baking sheet. For less mess to clean up, line the baking sheet with foil before filling. If your potato chunks are very large you will need to pre-roast them for a few minutes. 

2. Drizzle with olive oil; toss to coat.

3. Season with salt and pepper, along with the garlic basil and oregano.

4. Place in a preheated 425 degree oven. Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes until all ingredients are golden brown and potatoes are tender. 

Serve from the sheet pan (easy clean up!). Add a salad and roll and you have an easy complete meal. 

An easy and quick complete meal. 

Special Treats for Special Friends

With a 'back to fall routine', many organizations I belong to have resumed meetings. These are a time to enjoy seasonal refreshments, visit, and spend time together. And we get some worthwhile community work done too! Recently I helped co-hostess a light supper for our P.E.O. Chapter when a state officer was visiting. We enjoyed the program, refreshments and evening together as a break from a hectic fall schedule.
Egg salad sandwiches, ham and cheese rollups, ham on ciabatta buns, deviled eggs and relishes made a tasty 'light supper'.

Then the dessert! Rich chocolate brownies topped with a bit of green frosting and a candy pumpkin were arranged in a checkerboard design with Oatmeal Carmelitas. This chewy bar cookie was a recipe everyone wanted.

 Oatmeal Carmelitas

Crust:

1-1/3 c. flour

1 c. quick cooking oats

1 c. brown sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. soda

1 c. (2 sticks) melted butter

Filling:

1-1/3 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 c. chopped pecans

1 jar (1 c.) caramel ice cream topping

3 tbsp. flour

Pre-heat oven to 350^o. Spray 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray. Combine crust dry ingredients: flour, oats, brown sugar, salt and soda in a wide bowl.  Add melted butter and stir until combined. Using half of dough, press a thin crust into the bottom of the baking dish. Bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with chocolate chips and nuts. Combine 3 T. flour with the caramel ice cream topping and drizzled over the chocolate and nuts. Crumble remaining crust over the top and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

 Note:  Regular oat cereal can also be used…resulting texture will be a little coarser.

At this meeting Kansas State Chapter Organizer, Rita Nienstedt, told of the Sunflower Grant project and her own family’s experience of being helped by this P.E.O. project. The Sunflower Grant provides one-time grants to Kansas residents (men, women, or children) in financial distress and unable to find help from other sources. 

Besides the refreshments, the group enjoyed a program
by a state officer.