Hearty Beef and Vegetable Tin Foil Dinner

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There is something so special about sitting around a campfire with people you love!

We find it therapeutic for us to sit around a campfire roasting marshmallows together and enjoying whatever beautiful landscape we find ourselves in.

I grew up camping often and I want to pass on that love of being outdoors to my children.

Smart Families Prepare!

Now that our youngest two have started sleeping through the night – finally- we have been practicing all things camping this summer.

We have practiced setting up our tent and sleeping in the backyard.

We have researched several destinations and additional camping gear we will need.

And most important (to me), we have started to practice cooking various types of meals with camping gear so I know how best to prepare and plan for my family’s meals while camping.

I am a HUGE mealtime planner and have been searching for ideas about how to make meal prep and cleanup easier while camping with a large family.

One of the easiest ways to prepare food ahead of time and have essentially NO cleanup is to prepare tin foils dinners ahead of time.

Some of them can be made and frozen ahead of time if you are camping for a longer time but all of them can be prepared and tossed in the cooler for shorter camping trips.

The Reviews Are In

This recipe was a HUGE success, especially because my children saw me making it and were complaining the entire time it cooked.

“We don’t LIKE gravy. That looks disgusting. Do I have to eat it if I want to roast marshmallows?”

Yes. Yes you do!

Once it was served every single child had nothing but glowing feedback!

“Mom this is SO good! This tastes awesome! Can I have more?”

The icing on the cake was my eldest daughter sweetly apologizing for her complaining before she had even tasted it.

I love it when they start maturing and realizing it’s possible that Mom could be right as well as how their actions affect others.

So whether or not you have picky eaters, this recipe is perfect!

A Little Preparation Goes A LONG Way!

Start with chopping your potatoes into sixteenths (see pictures) so that they are similar in size and density to your baby carrots.

Add baby carrots and small onions with skins removed, both chopped in half.

Toss with seasoning mix to coat all veggies.

Spray non-stick spray on heavy duty foil rectangle (do NOT use regular foil, trust me!).

Place about a cup and a half of veggies for small packet or three cups veggies for larger packet.

Mix second seasoning packet into ground beef and form 3 inch thin patty for small packet or 6 inch thin patty for larger packet; put on top of vegetables.

Make sure your patty is not more than about one half inch thick if you want it to be well done when the vegetables finish cooking.

Whisk soup and milk and pour over beef patty and vegetables.

Add salt and pepper over top and fold tin foil packet tightly.

I placed the food on one end of the packet, folded the other side over it, and then folded the three edges over until they were pressed tightly against the food inside.

I found a great tip from Amy at Little Dairy on the Prairie to wrap the folded foil packet of food with WET newspaper and then a second layer of heavy duty tin foil.

This seals in and adds moisture so that the food is basically steamed inside.

It was SO good cooking it this way!

It does make it a little harder to open all the layers to check and see if the food is done cooking but the taste was so worth it!

Practice Makes Perfect

We decided to try these in our oven the first time so we baked them on baking sheets for 70 minutes at 350 degrees for the smaller packets and 90 minutes for the larger packets.

We will update this when we have tried it over an open fire grill but cooking time would be very similar from what I have researched.

We ate them right out of the tin packet sitting on our back porch on a beautiful summer night and enjoyed each others’ company as we ate them and then made s’mores.

The best part?

Cleanup was as simple as folding the empty tin packets and tossing them.

If we prepared these at home and tossed them in the cooler on our way out of town to camp, we would have no prep work to do when we got to our campsite and virtually no cleanup after.

THAT is my idea of an easy camping dinner!!!

We hope your family enjoys this delicious meal as much as ours did!

Hearty Beef and Vegetable Tin Foil Dinner

savannahsal

This tin foil dinner is a crowd-pleaser for large and small groups. Prepare them before you leave and you will have no prep or cleanup work at your campsite, leaving you more time to enjoy your trip with your loved ones.

Print Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Servings 8 people

Ingredients

  

• 8 medium golden potatoes
• 1 pound baby carrots
• 4 ounces white pearl onions
• 2 packets Lipton Onion Soup Mix
• 1 pound ground beef
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

 

• Wash and cut potatoes into sixteenths (see picture above).
• Wash and slice baby carrots in half.
• Remove pearl onion skins and cut in half.
• Toss vegetables in one packet of Lipton Beefy Onion soup mix.
• By hand mix remaining packet of soup mix with ground beef and shape into thin patties.
• Spray heavy aluminum foil with non-stick spray and place 1 and 1/2 cup vegetables on one side of foil rectangle.
• Mix one can of Campbells Cream of Mushroom soup with one can of milk.
• Place a beef patty on top and pour about 2/3 cup of mushroom soup over top of patty.
• Add salt and pepper over top if desired.
• Bake in oven or on campfire grill until beef patty and vegetables are cooked through, usually 45 minutes to 75 minutes depending on temperature of heat source.
• Enjoy this delicious easy dinner with those you love!

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