A whole dinner all on one sheet pan! The kids will love these sweet, sticky teriyaki meatballs and sweet roasted veggies!
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Real life, real food
For those of you who have followed me for a while on social media, you know that our family has been in the building and moving process for the last year – with the last 5 months living somewhere other than “home.” I haven’t overly talked about it, as I like to keep things zeroed in on our real food goals in this space, but let me just be real for a minute! Having a family, moving, cooking in someone else’s kitchen, and trying to keep “normalcy” for the kids…its a stressful, full-time job! While life has been a little extra busy, I’ve found it harder to blog, but what I *have* found, is that you all do enjoy these simple, everyday meals that are the only thing I have had time to write up for you, and that makes me super happy. It tells me that you are real people, not just looking for the fancy shmancy “health” food treats…you are looking for real food for everyday life!
Momma’s secret weapon for a busy weeknight…
Sheet pan dinners! Oh sure, the Instant Pots are all the rage. And quick skillets are great too. But seriously…dump it all onto a sheet pan and it cooks while you tend to other matters in the house or with the kids? Sign. Me. Up. I cannot tell you how much I adore that whole “kill two birds with one stone” thing – and sheet pan dinners allow me to get dinner in the oven, and be hands free for other things while it cooks.
What is teriyaki?!
In short, this sweet, sticky sauce is Asian inspired, and it usually used to toss with simple stir fry. I have found over the years that it is a great way to get veggie hesitant kids to try a stir fry, and it couldn’t be easier to make. Traditional teriyaki sauces or those that you find in the store will be soy based, which we avoid in our house, so years ago I developed a teriyaki sauce that we could enjoy in our house. I hear from you all frequently that your little ones adore it!
The Method :: The 5-Minute Teriyaki Sauce
Making versus buying this sauce may seem like a redundant extra step, but not only can the teriyaki be whisked up in 5 minutes, it can be made days in advance. Simply add all of the teriyaki sauce ingredients to a small sauce pan and whisk until thickened. Primal Kitchen does have a soy free, great teriyaki sauce if you prefer to buy it! It doesn’t usually fit in my budget, so I tend to just make my own.
The Method :: The Veggies
The sky is the limit here! For this dinner, I used what I had left in my veggie bin this week. I would definitely encourage you to try the purple onion and cabbage – they both get so sweet and kid friendly with roasting! It is a great budget saver as well! Get all the veg cut up into slightly larger than bite-sized pieces, and just toss them on the sheet pan with some olive oil.
The Method :: The Meatballs
These meatballs are SO delicious, and you can just roll them up and place them right on the sheet pan with the veggies! It doesn’t get any easier than that! The meatballs can also be made in advance – you can even freeze them if you have a prep day and want to stock up. That way on a busy weeknight you just have to pull them from the freezer.
The Method :: Brushing the Teriyaki Sauce, and Roasting
Once your meatballs are rolled up, brush some of the teriyaki sauce on each of the meatballs so their tops are covered – we aren’t looking for perfection here by the way! Then drizzle the rest of the teriyaki sauce over the veggies in the pan and roast the sheet pan off for 20 minutes.
Serving suggestions
We love to serve our teriyaki stir fry over rice, but if you prefer grain free, it is absolutely delicious over a baked sweet potato (or regular potato). I also think a little rice ramen (Costco carries this brand btw) would be incredible! Another way to serve would be to add another sheet pan of veggies to roast right along with this sheet pan and just have extra veg.
Prep ahead tips
While the actual roasting of this dinner is just a quick 20 minutes of hands free time, there are a couple of steps to get to that point, and you can do some of it ahead of time. You can make the teriyaki sauce days in advance so that part is done – you could even chop the veggies on a prep day so that it dumps in the pan fast. The meatballs are definitely something that can be rolled up ahead of time and frozen on a prep day. This sheet pan meal would also make a great meal prep for mom’s lunches all week to pull from. Make it up on a Sunday, and warm it up everyday for lunch!
Sheet Pan Teriyaki Meatballs & Roasted Veggies :: Gluten Free, Soy Free, Dairy Free, Nut Free, Refined Sugar Free
Ingredients
For the 5 Minute Teriyaki Sauce ::
- 1/3 cup coconut aminos
- ¼ cup water
- ¼ cup raw honey
- 2 tbsp blackstrap molassess
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp tapioca starch
For the Veggies ::
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 purple onion cut into ½ inch thick strips
- ½ small head of cabbage cut into ½ inch thick strips
- 2 bell peppers cut into 1 inch strips and then halved to make them bite sized
- 2-3 cups broccoli florets
- 1 medium/large carrot peeled and julienned (or bite sized pieces in the shape you like)
For the Meatballs ::
- 1 lb grassfed ground beef
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup GF panko bread crumbs or GF flour blend
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp sea salt
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees and get a large sheet tray out. The sheet tray does NOT need to be lined with parchment or greased.
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees, and get a large sheet tray out. The sheet tray does NOT need to be lined with parchment or greased.
Make the Teriyaki Sauce ::
- Put everything into a small sauce pan, and bring the heat to high.
- Use a whisk to stir every so often until it comes to a simmer, then continually whisk for about 1 minute until the sauce thickens. Turn the heat off and set the sauce aside.
Get the veggies ready ::
- Toss all of the veggies with the olive oil on a large sheet tray so that the veggies are coated evenly.
Make the meatballs, assemble, and bake ::
- Mix all of the meatball ingredients in a small mixing bowl until combined evenly.
- Roll 1 – 1 ½ inch meatballs and place them on the sheet tray with the veggies – they can rest right on top of the veggies or on the sheet tray.
- Brush each meatball with the prepared teriyaki sauce, and then drizzle the rest of the sauce over the veggies on the sheet tray.
- Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.
Notes
- If you don’t have access to good GF Panko crumbs, you can use any GF Flour Blend, or something simple like rice flour or even cassava flour if you are grain free.
- Meal prep tips! You can make the teriyaki sauce days in advance so that part is done – you could even chop the veggies on a prep day so that it dumps in the pan fast. The meatballs are definitely something that can be rolled up ahead of time and frozen on a prep day.
- The overall consensus for my kids is that the teriyaki sauce as written here is overly sweet for them – I think it tastes like a normal teriyaki you’d buy in the store which is why I left it as is. If you have little ones at home that aren’t trained toward sweet yet, I’d pull the sweet back a bit!
- Change up the veggies to what is in season!
More real food recipes you might like! ::
- 20 Minute Hawaiian Sheet Pan Dinner
- 30 Minute Sheet Pan BBQ Chicken Thighs & Roasted Veggies
- 10 Minute Sheet Pan Fish Tacos
- Sheet Pan Chicken Nuggets
- Sheet Pan French Fries
- 20 Minute Sheet Pan Steak Fajitas
- 30 Minute Sheet Pan Roasted Veggies & Mini Meatloaves
- Sheet Pan Honey Mustard Crusted Salmon & Roasted Veggies
- Sheet Paleo Pan Fish ‘N Chips
