We just had a wonderful (cold weather) outdoor experience with our family! We decided to get together, build a fire, and have tinfoil dinners around the fire. Since there were people of various ages, and knowing that each person had a particular preference for food, we decided to have our tinfoil dinners cooked in the coals of the fire. It was super easy and fun! From meat lovers to veggie lovers, everyone from toddlers to adults got what they wanted.
We truly had a great memory making experience!
Here’s how to do it!
Prepare by precutting all of the ingredients ahead of time so there’s no waiting around by the impatient little ones. We had our precut veggies in baggies which was easy to transport and easy to serve from. The meats were laid out on separate sheets of foil. (the temperature kept everything cold)
Veggies
Use whatever veggies you enjoy eating. These are the items we chose.
- Cabbage – all ingredients will be wrapped in cabbage leaf’s which will add moisture and prevent the other ingredients from overcooking
- Onions – diced
- Peppers – chunked (we used red and orange for color)
- Carrots – sliced
- Potatoes – sliced or chunked (potatoes will brown quickly in open air so you may want to prepare these just prior to assembling your ingredients)
- Sweet potatoes – sliced or cubed into bite sized pieces
- Mushrooms – thick sliced
Meats
Prepare the meats you enjoy.
- Ground beef
- Steak – sliced
- Bacon – cut into 2” strips
- Sausage
- Chicken breasts
Spices
Use your favorites. Here’s what we chose.
- Salt and pepper
- Garlic powder
- Steak seasoning
Now comes the fun!
After the fire had burned down to provide coals (learn types of fires here!), we demonstrated how one tinfoil dinner was made and then let everyone make their own. We literally laid out all of the ingredients out on a picnic table and each person chose their own ingredients. Even the small children loved helping to make their foil dinner. When their tinfoil dinner was made, it was placed (and covered) in hot coals. The kids carefully watched to make sure their dinner was undisturbed until it was time to retrieve them!
OK, here’s the process!
- Lay out a piece of foil .
- Next comes a cabbage leaf to lay the ingredients on.
- Layer veggies and meat as desired.
- Top with another cabbage leaf.
- Wrap the foil around the meal being sure to seal the edges.
- Place in the coals and make sure it is covered with coals.
- Cooking time is about 20 minutes depending on the size of the dinner you have made!
- Remove the foil dinner (we used long tongs) from the coals and carefully open it.
- We just placed the foil dinner on a paper plate, opened it, and ate from the foil.
- Many times, the cabbage leaf’s will be charred. This means they have done their job of providing moisture and protecting the dinner from burning.
- Enjoy your tinfoil dinners!