Sheet pan dinners to keep you warm and your evenings easy

The past week in L.A. has felt, at least to me, unseasonably cold for this time of year. And I happen to live in one of those apartment complexes with old gas heaters that mean you either leave it off and freeze or turn it on and suffocate under a wave of oppressively hot air.

So my coping strategy is to use my oven for all my meals — it’s enough to take the chill out of the air but not generate so much heat that I feel like it’s summertime again. I throw everything I want to eat on a sheet pan and let it all cook together in the oven until it’s ready, a.k.a. a sheet pan dinner.

Here are some of my favorite sheet pan dinners from our archives that I turn to again and again for inspiration, or when I just want everything done at once.

Recipe developer Susan Vu came up with this Sheet Pan Shrimp “Broil” last year, and I make it all the time. It’s a mashup of Cajun and Vietnamese shrimp boils, where Vu adds fresh ginger and fish sauce to shrimp and potatoes and, brilliantly, employs dried kimchi seasoning instead of Cajun seasoning for that characteristic lip-tingling spice. This and a cold beer on a Tuesday is transporting.

Author Dawn Perry has two of my favorite sheet pan dinners. Her first is a dish of Sheet Pan Sausages With Cherry Tomatoes and Onions that roasts the aforementioned ingredients until bubbly and browned, so all you have to do afterward is scoop everything onto a slice of toast and dig in. I often swap the cherry tomatoes for halved green grapes for a sheet pan version of salsicce all’uva.

And her Sheet Pan Pizza is a brilliant way to use up all your leftovers from the week, piling them onto some store-bought pizza dough and baking until everything is crisp and hot, revived and renewed. To end a week with pizza but basically not have to pay for it is an extra win right now.

And for another “we’re eating out but not” dinner from the oven, I love to make a pan of Oven-Baked Nachos. I pile cooked beans or leftover shredded chicken over chips, some chopped onions and chiles with shredded cheese and let the whole thing melt in the oven until it’s as toasty as my apartment now feels.

Sheet Pan Shrimp Broil

Dried kimchi seasoning stands in for Cajun seasoning in this sheet pan version of a shrimp boil where the ingredients, instead, get broiled until hot and tender. Look for kimchi seasoning at H Mart or other Asian grocery stores.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 45 minutes.

(Lindsay Kreighbaum / For The Times)

Sheet Pan Sausages With Cherry Tomatoes and Onions

All the cooking for this dish takes place in the oven and couldn’t be easier. You can even prepare the onions on the baking sheet in advance and refrigerate them for a day so you can throw them directly into the oven when ready to start cooking.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 40 minutes.

(Silvia Razgova / For The Times)

Sheet Pan Pizza

The best way to use up leftovers is to throw them onto a big pizza. You can top this finished pie with whatever bits and pieces need eating or just enjoy it as a classic Margherita. Bake it with just the sauce first; that way the crust will be perfectly cooked (all the way through and crisp on the bottom) by the time the cheese is melted and bubbly on top.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 1 hour.

(Lindsay Kreighbaum / For The Times)

Oven-Baked Nachos

If you want to make the nachos vegetarian or vegan, substitute the beef with a couple of cans of your favorite beans or 2 pounds of Beyond Beef, then use vegetable stock and vegan cheeses and sour cream.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 45 minutes.

(Ben Mims / Los Angeles Times)