Hobo meals are worthwhile!

Whatever name you call this meal deal; be it Hobo or Campfire, this recipe has a lot going for it! It’s tasty, easy to prepare, nutritious and cost effective! As an added bonus, cleanup is a snap! Wow!

Ingredients (per packet):

1 hamburger patty

1 strip of bacon

1 med potato cut up

2 carrots cut up

1 onion, quartered

1 wedge of cabbage

Salt and pepper
Heavy aluminum foil

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Using heavy foil, make a square about 12” by 16” in size (just eyeball this). Form a small patty out of the hamburger and wrap it with a strip of bacon. Cut up the veggies and arrange them along with the meat in the center of the foil. Use salt and pepper to taste. Carefully bring up the sides of the foil and make an airtight seal leaving some airspace on top. (Note: The steam generated during the cooking process helps to cook this meal). Place the meal into a shallow oven safe casserole dish (to help prevent leaks) on a center rack in the oven.

After about an hour and fifteen minutes, carefully remove the meal(s) and allow it or them to cool for at least ten minutes before opening. Open the top to vent and watch out for any steam! Place the packet on a plate and dig in!

Nutrition

Assuming that you take care to keep that ground beef patty down to a reasonable size and that you 86th the bacon, this meal turns out to be quite nutritious! (Hey! Throw out both meats entirely and I'm sure Mrs. Obama would embrace you in a fast and furious fashion….:)

A word about cost…

At the time of this post, our Nation is still basking in the warmth that was President Obama’s re-election! A man who was once is said to have said that ‘there’s no country I can’t bankrupt given enough terms in office.’ I have this to say about cost...

To wit, this meal contains only one truly ‘expensive’ item and that would be the ground beef. No problemo! You can save money by either cutting back on the size of the patty or by substituting whatever it is you can track, kill and grind up!

At right is a breakout of the per serving cost of this meal as of the end of 2012. So, for about two bucks per serving you can still enjoy a decent dinner at home!

Also, please note that all of the veggies can be grown right in your own backyard for very little cost and so can really help out the family budget for those of us living in a post financial cliff world!