What do you do in your little canoe when the moon is shining all around?You talk and you talk ’till the stars grow dim;You tell him he can kiss you or get out and swimAnd that’s what you do in your little canoe when the moon is shining all around.Well I took him out in my little canoe when the moon was shining all around.
We talked and we talked ’till the stars grew dim,
I told him he could kiss me or get out and swim;
And now I’m alone in my little canoe with the moon shining all a, moon shining all a, moon shining all around.
Ahhhh….good girl’s camp memories. Campfires in the nighttime, singing and telling dumb stories and making our way back to our tents with flashlights in hand. And the ever present burned on one side and underdone on the other side tin foil dinners.
One of my favorite sounds as a kid was the unmistakable rattle and zip-tear of aluminum foil in the kitchen. At my house it generally meant that mom was making tin foil dinners. I loved those things and it wasn’t until I was in my teenage years that I realized that tin foil dinners were usually made in a campfire. Mom had always baked them in the oven and if you want my personal, private, biased opinion, oven baking produces outstanding results.
Summer time camp food doesn’t have to end just because camping season is about over. Tin foil dinners are great kid food and clean-up is a breeze. Plus, could making them get any easier?
The recipe that I am using here is pretty basic, but flavorful in a simple way. It’s a good all in one fill-you-up meal and can be designed per personal preference and appetite. Whenever I baked these for my kids, I would write their name on the outside of the foil with a Sharpie maker. Once the name was on the packet, the person to whom that packet belonged became pretty territorial about it. Funny how that happens.
Tin Foil Dinner
Ingredients
- 4 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 8 whole carrots, sliced crosswise in ¼-inch thick pennies dice larger ends
- 1 large onion, sliced crosswise in a generous ¼-inch and separated into rings
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 pound ground beef
- 2 slices bread, torn into small pieces
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon parsley
- seasoning salt, to taste
- smoked paprika, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400-degrees F. Tear off four large sections of heavy duty aluminum foil. Set aside.
- In a bowl, toss together the cubed potatoes and the carrots. Sprinkle with seasoning salt and smoked paprika. Set aside.
- Put torn bread into large mixing bowl. Pour milk over bread and let stand until bread has absorbed the milk. To the bread, add the ground beef, egg, Worcestershire sauce, parsley flakes and seasoning salt. Mix well.
- Divide hamburger mixture into fourths and form each fourth into a patty. Place a hamburger patty into the center of each of the four pieces of foil. Divide the potatoes and carrots evenly into fourths. Place one fourth on top of each hamburger patty. Dot each vegetable mound with a tablespoon of butter. Place a few onion rings randomly on top of the vegetables and butter.
- Gather two opposite edges of the foil together and fold securely together several times until resting on top of the vegetables. Gather each end together and fold towards vegetables, making a packet for each dinner. Place packets on a large baking sheet and bake at 400-degrees F for 1 hour.
- Remove from oven and allow to sit for a few minutes. Carefully unroll the foil edges. WARNING: The contents will be very hot and steam will escape. Be very careful when handling. Place the opened foil packets on a plate for stability. Eat right out of the foil.
Nutrition
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mmmm….I LOVE tin foil dinners! I am going to have to try your meat mixture! It sounds way better than what I do! and by the way, I love the girl’s camp song 🙂 I’ve never heard that one!
Andrea–it was one of our favorite songs. We had actions to go along with it. Great fun!
Love, love, love this recipe!! So easy and so yummy!! Thank you for making a busy day a little easier. 🙂
Thank you! I’m so glad that you enjoyed it. This was one of my very favorite dinners when I was growing up and my mom often made it on her busy days.