Tin Foil Dinners: Cowboy Meatballs Meal

My neighbor and dear friend Shauna is amazing. We’ve become great friends in the sort time I’ve lived in the neighborhood. She’s taught me SO much about, well, everything. As of late, we’ve been doing a lot of talking about recipes and cooking.

When word got out about an upcoming church campout, we got right on that opportunity to plan and prepare a delicious dinner for our families. We both instantly thought TIN FOIL DINNERS! I’ve also hear them be called Boy Scout Dinners and Cowboy Dinners. No matter what you call them, they’re delicious!

Neither of us had made them for years, so we got to thinking of what recipe we’d want to make for the tin foil dinners. Shauna suggested some delicious meatballs with vegetables. So we divvied up the groceries and got together.

 I have to admit, this is pretty much 100% Shauna’s mastermind recipe, but she is so gracious and made me feel like it was mine too:) She’s the best!

 I will be doing a series of tin foil dinners throughout the summer, so make sure to check back for more!

 Also, these are super easy! You can improvise as well. If you don’t have rosemary, just do butter! If you don’t like mushrooms, leave them out:) Make it how you like it.

Yields: 2 very large dinners

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup cooked rice
5 red potatoes
1 large onion
3 carrots
1 cup fresh sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup butter
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
2 cloves minced garlic
1 rosemary sprig, chopped, or 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
kosher salt
pepper

Homemade BBQ sauce ingredients:

8 oz can tomato sauce
1/2 can tomato paste (3 oz)
1/2 cup brown sugar
spicy mustard to taste
pepper

 heavy duty tin foil (or double up regular)
parchment paper

Wash and partly peel the potatoes. Half, then fourth them, making them bite sized. Par boil them for about 4 minutes, just so a fork can poke into them, but still firm. This will help them cook quicker in the foil.

Cut up onions and carrots. Separate potatoes, onions, mushrooms and carrots into their own bowls. Set aside.

Mix in a large bowl worcestershire sauce, garlic, and a few shakes of salt and pepper. Add ground beef and cooked rice, combine with hands. Roll mixture into about 1.5″-2″ meatballs. Be careful not to pack the meatballs too firm, because if you do, the meatballs will dry out and be tough. This will make about 5-6 meatballs, depending on how big you make them.

Make the BBQ sauce by combining all of the ingredients together.

Mix together softened (not melted!) butter and rosemary with a spoon.

Now it’s time to assemble! Tear off about 24″ of tin foil, and just about the same amount of parchment paper. The parchment paper helps the food not stick to the foil.

Lay the parchment paper inside the tin foil, and put the onions, carrots, potatoes and mushrooms on top of the parchment paper. Add the meatballs, and spoon on a couple tablespoons of BBQ sauce, then top the whole thing off with a few dollops of rosemary butter! Sprinkle generously with salt.

Fold up the foil, making sure it’s completely sealed around all the edges so no steam can escape.

When you are ready to cook your tin foil dinners, make sure the coals and fire are really hot! You don’t want to place your dinners directly in the flames, but off to the side in a nice hot nook, with possibly some hot coals on top. After about 30-40 minutes open them up to check and see if the meat is done. If it is, great! Of not, try ten more minutes!

Serve with the extra BBQ sauce.

This recipe does NOT disappoint! Make sure to check back for more great tin foil dinner recipes!

Enjoy!