Quick and versatile recipes are the bread and butter of summer eating. We're all busy and by the time dinnertime rolls around, we're often also tired and dirty! The last thing any of us wants to do is start in on making an elaborate meal consisting of 37 steps, 41 ingredients, and over 3 hours of prep time. So before you toss a frozen pizza in the oven, consider spending just a little time slicing up some sausage and veggies and prepping some shrimp to make a very tasty sheet pan dinner.
Sheet pan dinners are great because you put all of your ingredients onto a big sheet pan, pop it in the oven, and a bit later a complete meal emerges from the oven, ready to be enjoyed by you and your family. This one happens to boast a great cajun flavor, but the concept is vast and the options are nearly endless.
If you cleaned the shrimp and sliced the sausage, zucchini, pepper, and red onion in advance and kept it all refrigerated until ready to go, this recipe could easily fall into the Weeknight Shorts category with a prep time of a half hour or less. Even with doing everything at baking time, it still takes less than an hour to prepare, with much of that time being hands-off baking time, so I do consider this a pretty quick and versatile recipe.
If you wanted to put together some rice or pasta, you could easily serve this over either. Heck, even some toasted pita or naan would be great with some of this spooned over it. Then again, you could just grab a fork and call it dinner and, some days, that's exactly what I do!
Cajun Sausage & Shrimp Bake
- 1 lb. medium shrimp, shelled and deveined
- 1 lb. smoked sausage, sliced into ¼ inch pieces
- 1 medium zucchini, sliced into ¼ inch pieces
- 1 large yellow pepper, cored and sliced into strips
- 1 large red onion, sliced into thin wedges
- 2 T. olive oil
- 2 T. cajun seasoning - I like the one from Penzeys
- 1 tsp. fennel seeds
Preheat the oven to 400° F.
Place the shrimp, sausage, zucchini, pepper, and onion into a large bowl. Drizzle with the olive oil and cajun seasoning; Toss to coat.
Spread the mixture evenly on a large baking sheet and bake for 18-20 minutes or until the shrimp is cooked through and the vegetables are tender. Serve over rice, pasta, or on its own.
- Yields: 4 servings
- Preparation Time: 45 minutes