CAMPING FOIL PACKS
Good day to you my Galley friends. For your reading/culinary/camping/RVing/boating pleasure, I have a very easy dinner idea for you. These are a complete meal in one shot. Quick to throw together and the big bonus is so little clean up. Some foil. Tasty meatballs. Veggies and some seasoning. That’s it. Cooking time enough to make sure your meat is cooked through (160 deg), vegetables all nicely tender and bathed in cooking juices with a coating of rich melted cheese.
Use your own recipe for meatballs if you wish but I subscribe to the blenditarian movement, meaning, most of my ground meat is mixed with minced mushrooms…extending the portion amount. Less meat consumed, more economical for sure and you are helping our beautiful planet. Win/win! Chose the type of meat you wish too. Ground turkey for this meal but beef, pork or lamb or a combination is great as well.
I have the luxury of a small freezer in our little RV…and I mean LUXURY! On the boat, our cooler, if well packed, could stash a week’s supply of perishables. The only ‘freezing’ was what I brought onboard, made in advance and frozen rock solid to gradually thaw day after day.
When making this, I prepared the uncooked balls, froze them on a baking sheet until very firm, then decanted into a freezer container. Three balls per packet is more than enough…along with veggies of course…for four servings. For us that’s two meals.
For this I used carrots and parsnips, some chopped onion, white potatoes and added a handful of frozen green beans, all chopped in pieces about 1” to cut down on overall cooking time. Feel free to change up the veggies. A great alternative to white potatoes is peeled chopped sweet potatoes. Maybe some chopped green or red peppers, sliced zucchini or chopped mushrooms, tomatoes…keeping in mind that these softer veggies add liquid to your packets as they cook.
For the cheese, mozzarella gave a wonderful gooey result (as in pizza topping), aged cheddar added a lot to the flavour profile and Swiss gave that extra touch of richness. Don’t you just love choices?
I would suggest you grease the foil. The first time I made these, I didn’t and the cheese stuck a bit. Butter or oil is fine but my go-to always in my pantry GOOP PAN RELEASE has never failed me…yet. Works great when making cakes and muffins too.
The recipe for today’s offering can be found below and for your browsing pleasure I have included some of my more popular meatball recipes…
RITA’S ROMANIAN MEATBALLS w/TOMATO SOUP SAUCE
TURKEY and STUFFING MEATBALLS (plus my fave appetizers)
GINNY’S BUTTER CHICKEN MEATBALLS
ASIAN-INSPIRED MEATBALLS with CUCUMBER SALAD
Are you as excited as I am to get this camping season started? Please drop by again soon to discover what this Galley Kat has come up with for easy summer cooking.
…peace and love…
CAMPING FOIL PACKS
Equipment
- Mixing bowl
- Omnia stove top oven For the ovenless *important to note that you will have room for only 2 packs*
- baking sheet For oven users
- Aluminum foil Heavy duty is best
- BBQ or grill or campfire If camping ‘al fresco’
Ingredients
- 1 Lb ground turkey or chicken
- 2 Tbsp onion soup mix see Galley Kat Notes below for homemade version. Always great to keep on hand for seasoning this and that.
- 1 Cup mushrooms minced
- ground pepper, dried herbs (thyme, tarragon, oregano, chili flakes etc) optional
- 1 Cup chopped potatoes
- 1 Cup chopped carrots
- 1 Cup chopped parsnips
- 1 Cup green beans
- 1 Cup chopped onion
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste. Add other seasonings if you like. Thyme, maybe some dried chilis, paprika.
- 8 Slices mozzarella cheese Cheddar or Swiss or gruyere is wonderful too or a mix of two. Shredded is fine too but that’s just one extra step.
- cooking oil or butter to smear on foil
Instructions
- In mixing bowl combine ground meat, onion soup mix, mushrooms and extra seasonings if using.
- Form meat into 12 balls
- Lay out 4 pieces of heavy aluminum foil and grease them with butter or cooking oil or my Galley Goop
- Clean out mixing bowl that was used for meatballs, add veggies and toss with a bit of oil and seasonings of choice
- Divide vegetables amongst the 4 pieces of greased foil
- Lay 3 meatballs on top of each pile of veggies, close the foil over the top and fold in the sides
for Omnia stove top users (*room for 2 packs only)
- Place place two packs in baking pan, lid and place on preheated base plate
- Cook on high for five minutes then reduce heat to medium low and continue to cook for about 45 minutes or until veggies are cooked to your liking and meatballs have internal temperature of 160 °
- Carefully open top of packs and place two cheese slices over meatballs. Place lid on baking pan and continue to cook for another 5-10 minutes or until cheese has melted
for conventional oven users
- Place packs on baking pan and cook in preheated 375 ° and cook for about 45 minutes or until veggies are cooked to your liking and meatballs have internal temperature of 160 °.
- Open top of foil and place two cheese slices on each. Return baking tray to oven and continue to cook until cheese has melted.
serving
- Enjoy straight from the foil pack or decant your complete meal onto dinner plates.
Galley Kat Notes:
Nutrition
