Post By : 2025-05-21"

Why a sheet pan is the secret to make every meal easier than ever"

Throughout more than two decades of developing new recipes as “Hungry Girl,” Lisa Lillien has amassed quite the collection of appliances. Her kitchen counter is lined with an air fryer, slow cooker, Instant pot, blender, toaster and more. But if you ask Lillien, who says, “I’m not a dietitian, I’m not a nutritionist, I’m just hungry,” there’s one tool she comes back to again and again: the sheet pan.

“Why sheet pans right now? I hear from my email subscribers often, and nearly everybody wants easier and faster options,” Lillien said. “Sheet pans really are an MVP of the kitchen because you can place something on the pan, pop it in the oven and you can go about your day.”

Unlike some of those other tools, it won’t take up precious counter space and often is available for less than $20.

“I’m not a cooking snob. I don’t think you need a certain pan, and it certainly doesn’t have to be expensive,” Lillien said, noting that the sheet pan she swears by has been in her arsenal since 1999.

Cookbook author and Hungry Girl Lisa Lillien thinks sheet pan recipes will help streamline and simplify your time in the kitchen. 

St. Martin's Press; Nathalie Gordon

The ingredients you cook on it need not be exclusive, either. “We’re not promoting that you go buy every grocery from a boutique grocery store,” she noted. “Hungry Girl is more Walmart than Vanity Fair. I mean that in the best way possible; it’s just for everybody. As am I. I want to make smarter, better food choices, but I also love food.”

That’s the philosophy behind her entire Hungry Girl empire, which includes free daily emails with recipes and healthy cooking tips, a magazine, a podcast (that often reviews products available at major online and in-person retailers), and 16 cookbooks. In the latest, “Hungry Girl Sheet Pan Cookbook: One-Pan Wonders Under 400 Calories,” Lillien shares under-400-calorie recipe ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, sides and desserts — all made on a sheet pan.

“Sheet pans can do it all: baking, roasting, broiling and even serving,” Lillien wrote in her book. They’re “a breeze to clean. Plus, the raised edges help contain oven spills and drips.”

Taking a cue from popular fast food restaurant menu items, viral food trends and beloved comfort foods, the cookbook includes one-pan tricks to make every meal easier. We asked Lillien to coach us through an entire day of sheet pan eats.

What’s for breakfast?

When flapjacks are doctored up with a big pat of butter and generous shower of maple syrup, “pancakes are not always the healthiest. They’re not always easy to cook evenly, either,” Lillien said. “When I make pancakes with a skillet or griddle, I often end up burning the later batches because the heat of the pan can be challenging to control.”