Dinner When The Power Is Out: Tin Foil/ Hobo Dinners / Foil Packets

We grew up with these for camping, but they are a great way to make a healthy and filling dinner when the power is out too! Everything listed below is 100% suggestion. You can customize any of it to what you have on hand. All you really need is some clean tin foil and food you have on hand. Some of the great things about these dinners is that there is very little, if any, dishes to clean up, and your meal can be different every time you make them. Don't like one version? Try a different one. This is a guide to make 4 tin foil/hobo dinners:

Photo byChelsea

Ingredients:

• 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced (sub dehydrated or omit)
• 2 ears sweet corn, cut into 1-inch disks (sub 1 can of corn)
• 3/4 cup finely diced yellow onion (substitute 1-2 Tbl dehydrated flakes)
• 2-1/2 cups diced red potatoes (substitute a different potato, use 1-2 cans of potatoes, or use dehydrated/ freeze dried potatoes)
• 1-1/4 cups zucchini, sliced (sub a carrot or another veggie or omit)
• 1 package (13 oz.) smoked sausage (sub whatever protein you have on hand)
• 5 tablespoons olive oil (sub butter, another oil, etc)
• 1 tablespoon each: dried oregano, dried parsley flakes
• 1 teaspoon each: paprika, garlic powder
• Salt and pepper
• 4-6 pieces of tin foil, cut a little bigger than a piece of paper

Prep your veggies and protein of choice into small 1" pieces. Spray or oil each foil piece, then divide your prepped veggies, meat, and seasonings amongst each.

Carefully fold the foil piece in half over the filling and match the sides, then roll the ends well so it traps in the steam and juices. (You can also make the packet stading up so it looks almost like a purse. Either way is fine).

If you have access to a grill, set the grill to 400-450 degrees and cook for about 25-30 minutes, flipping halfway thorugh.

You can also do this over coals by lighting a fire in a fire pit. Once your fire has died down enough that you can separate out some hot coals (no active flame), use some tongs to carefully place the foil packets directly on the coals. You will need to start checking the food with this method after about 12 minutes to make sure that it's not burning, coals will run different temperatures, so just be aware of that. However, it can make the BEST food with litte crisp carmelized ends.

Remove from heat and enjoy!!

If you have had these before, what was your most favorite food combination? Mine was sweet potato, kilbasa, and onion with a little bbq sauce.

*Notes:
If using dehydrated or freeze dried foods, make sure that you have enough liquid to rehydrate them. Some thing will need to rehydrate prior to cooking, some won't, so just be aware of that going into these foil dinners.