3 barely-any-effort trader joe's sheet-pan fall dinners

3 barely-any-effort trader joe's sheet-pan fall dinners

plus a recipe for french yogurt cake from preppy kitchen everyday baking

Caroline Chambers

Oct 14, 2026

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Trader Joe’s shines bright during fall. The butternut zig zags have a special place in my heart (my kids love them!). Their pumpkin-flavored pastas are a delight. And the holiday hash is the first sign of a new holiday season. Even the chip aisle is festive right now!

WTCer Colette Peri shared the pic on the right in the

chat

this week — it’s the white chicken chili from

WTC book #1

garnished with TJ’s “fall leaf” tortilla chips!

I know that not everyone here has access to a Trader Joe’s, so I would never send a new Saturday recipe that calls for a TJ’s-specific item. But for those of you who do

shop at TJ’s, there are some items in store right now that lend themselves

beautifully

to very quick, easy, and seasonal meals.

So today, we’re sharing three sheet-pan dinner combos using Trader Joe’s shortcuts. They’re all based on WTC recipes, so if you don’t shop at TJ’s, you can still cook a version of these dinners! You may also be able to find similar shortcut items at a different store — like I know many Whole Foods and Targets carry shaved Brussels sprouts, and it looks like some other brands make butternut zig zags now, too.

Keep reading for the dinners! We also have our weekly tour through the recipe archives below, plus a recipe for a one-bowl French yogurt cake from

John Kanell

of

Preppy Kitchen

. His new book

Preppy Kitchen Everyday Baking

(

amazon

,

bookshop

)

came out yesterday and is full of cozy and delicious treats, should you be into baking! The recipe he shared with us is a great one if you have little sous chefs in the house who like to help.

PS, have you cooked the

pork chops in creamy mushroom sauce

I sent you over the weekend yet?! Whether it’s nostalgic for you or not, and whether you like mushrooms or not, you’ve gotta try it.

Look how fun

Cometeer’s 2026 coffee advent calendar

is! It has 24 unique single-origin coffees and seasonal blends to caffeinate you through the holidays. Unless you’re new around here, you know how much I love Cometeer. They brew coffee from my favorite roasters, like Counter Culture and Intelligentsia, to perfection, then flash freeze it in little recyclable aluminum capsules. You just melt one in seconds to enjoy hot coffee, iced coffee, or a latte. The capsules are shipped in a box of dry ice — you just pop them in your freezer so they’re ready to use whenever you want barista-level coffee without a trip to a coffee shop or having to brew through a plastic machine. They also taste SO GOOD. Right now, their limited-edition advent calendar has coffee from around the world (Colombia, Ethiopia, Sumatra, etc.), so you can try a new one every day. It’d be a great place to start if you’re new to Cometeer or specialty coffee — take notes on which ones are your faves! — and would make a great gift this holiday season, too.

Click here

to get early access to the calendar (and $30 off your first order!).

Once they’re sold out, they’ll be gone for the year!

By

John Kanell

from

Preppy Kitchen Everyday Baking

This is the original snacking cake. Known in France as “Gâteau au Yaourt,” it is not only a staple counter cake and an all-occasion treat but also one of the first recipes children learn to bake because they only need to use their empty yogurt container for all the measuring. I’ve gone ahead and given you the quantities for the handful of ingredients, but it’s still an effortless cake you can offer for casual snacking or dress up with powdered sugar, whipped cream, and berries for easy entertaining.

MAKES 1 (8-INCH) CAKE / SERVES 8

Ingredients:

Baking spray or softened butter, for the cake pan

2/3

cup (160g) 5% Greek yogurt, at room temperature (see Tips & Tricks)

1 cup (200g) granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling (optional)

1/2 cup (120ml) vegetable oil

3 large eggs, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Grated zest of 1 lemon (optional)

1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 ½ cups (180g) all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

Whipped cream, for serving (optional)

Fresh fruit, for serving (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease an 8-inch round cake pan with

baking spray

, line the bottom with parchment paper, and set aside.

Combine the

yogurt, granulated sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla, lemon zest (if using),

and

salt

in a large bowl. Whisk together until well combined.

Combine the

flour

and

baking powder

in a large sieve and sift into the bowl with the yogurt mixture. Fold together with a silicone spatula until just combined and no dry streaks remain. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan. If you like, sprinkle 2 to 3 tablespoons of

granulated sugar

over the cake batter for a crunchy topping.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, tenting with foil after about 25 minutes if the top starts to brown too quickly, until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then invert onto a plate and remove the parchment paper and discard. Place the cake right-side up on a wire rack to cool.

Serve slightly warm or at room temperature with whipped cream and fruit, if desired.

TIPS & TRICKS:

STORAGE: This cake stays very moist stored in a covered container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Any neutral oil you enjoy, including olive oil, can be used in this recipe.

If you have a single-serve container of yogurt that is a little more or less than 1/2 cup (160g), go ahead and use it! Many of these smaller yogurt cups are 5.3 ounces (150g) and will work perfectly for this recipe. The cake is quite forgiving, so you can use a bit less or more yogurt with no problem.

You can also bake the cake in a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. Grease the pan with baking spray, line with a parchment paper sling (see page 28), and pour in the batter. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, if desired. Bake at 350°F for about 55 minutes (loosely covering it with foil after 30 minutes if the top starts to brown too quickly), or until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing the cake and cooling it on a wire rack.

Every week, we dig into the What To Cook archives to see what we were cooking this time in years past — the recipes worth bringing back into your rotation and adding to your meal plan for the week ahead. Here’s this week’s lineup!

1.

citrusy carnitas

, 2025

This has become a go-to meal for many of you and it makes me so happy. Also, WTCer Jessica read our “save time” note beneath the recipe and reported back with this: “The suggestion to ask my butcher to cube up the pork has had me riding a high. He gladly did it and it ended up costing $3 less because he took out the bone and trimmed some fat - but he let me keep the bone! Hello future soup!?”

2.

twice baked delicata squash

, 2024

I feel like the words “twice baked” may have steered some of you away from trying this recipe last fall, but truly, this is such an EASY and fun fall dinner. While we’re talking Trader Joe’s… they have the most perfect delicata squash in store right now. Buy some and make this!

3.

sheet-pan macadamia-crusted halibut

, 2023

Halibut is a delicious lean protein filled with good-mood-food nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids. Here, we marinate it in fresh ginger, sesame oil, and soy sauce and cook it on a baking sheet with red bell peppers and kale that get tossed with those flavors, too.

From

Molly from What To Cook

: This recipe has been back in my regular rotation for weeks! It’s one of my all-time faves.

4.

tortilla scramble

, 2022

Food journalist and author

Mark Bittman

shared this perfectly doable vegetarian dinner back when I was on maternity leave with Cashel. Breakfast for dinner is always a good idea!

5.

30-minute al pastor enchiladas

, 2021

A big skillet full of cheesy enchiladas ready in 30 minutes — what more could you ask for, really?

If you’re a Trader Joe’s shopper, here are some 30-minute-or-less sheet-pan meals to add to your rotation this fall. They’ve done all the seasonal veg prep work for us! No thinly slicing Brussels sprouts or scooping out squash seeds required.

1. pumpkin gnocchi + shaved Brussels sprouts + sliced mushrooms + Italian sausage + burrata

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