Oven Tin Foil Dinner

It's the end of May and we officially had our first family camp out of this year a few weekends ago!... in California. Yeah, it's still a little too cold here in Utah for our regular 1-hour-away spots. And with the rain we've had this last week, all of the mountains are dusted with snow again. Looks, like we may have to wait a little longer for our next family camping trip.

However, one thing we don't have to wait for is making it feel a little like we're camping without leaving the house. And the way we do this is through tin foil dinners!

We like to make these using the coals in our fire pit when we're camping, but at home we just use our oven. It's especially good when it's a little cold or stormy outside!

First, butter the bottom of a 13x9 pan. Peel and slice potatoes until you have enough to layer them in the bottom of the pan (usually about 4 or 5 medium potatoes). Next, sprinkle some salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder on the potatoes.

After that's done, repeat the steps using carrots (usually about 5 or 6 carrots).

Depending on how much food you want, you can add another layer of potatoes and carrots (like I did) and then add ground beef to the top. Usually, you'd add uncooked beef, but I only had cooked this time around. The meat can sometimes end up a little more dry if it's already cooked, but it still works fine and doesn't usually burn.

Next, slice up about 2 Tablespoons of butter and spread the pieces out as evenly as possible over the food in the pan. Cover the pan with tin foil and cook it for 45 min to an hour at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. The amount of time it cooks depends on how big you cut up your carrots and potatoes. To check if it's done, just poke a carrot and potato with a fork and make sure they're soft.

And with that, it's done! My kids like to dip their's in ketchup but I usually just add a little extra salt.

The only food that's more "camping" than tin foil dinners is s'mores. And thankfully, with the s'more maker my grandma gave us at our wedding and the fire pit my parent's gave John for his birthday, we can enjoy those year round as well!

Now all that's left to do is set up a tent in our living room... if it will fit... Haha!