The first time I had a Hobo Din­ner was when I was 12. Mom, Dad, Mike & I were camp­ing in the sum­mer in CO. Once the tent was sent up, the camp­fire wood was gath­ered and the camp­fire was built, mom and I start­ed the meal prep. I remem­ber wash­ing my hands with water from our jug, mak­ing sure not to waste it! If some­thing dropped on the ground, I would do a quick rinse and try to make sure it became part of my brother’s meal ((haha­ha))!

Each person’s uncooked meal was placed on a foil square and fold­ed up–like a hobo’s sack and placed on the fire. Dad and Mike man­aged it from there. My favorite part of the meal was when I opened up my very own pouch after a long, hard day of “rough­ing it” breath­ing  in that home-cooked aro­ma. Just for a minute, as I opened my pouch and peered in, hit with the aro­ma of a Sun­day din­ner at home, I could trick myself into think­ing a date with a rock pil­low was not in my future — when in fact it was… 

Mom had a way of bring­ing home to where ever we were. I loved that meal then and still do. What is fun­ny about this meal, is the very rea­son it became a tra­di­tion­al camp­site meal makes it equal­ly per­fect for a busy week night in the sub­urbs. Very lit­tle prep, very lit­tle mess, very sim­ple clean-up and VERY tasty!

I most recent­ly brought this meal to NM. Ski­ing, hik­ing, explor­ing were all part of the week — but I also had a 9 year-old turn­ing into a 10 year-old and I want­ed him to have a “spe­cial” birth­day meal. Like a light bulb turn­ing on in my brain — Hobo Din­ners imme­di­ate­ly came to mind! Home cook­ing at it’s sim­plest AND best. To make it a bit more spe­cial, I added a nice thick slice of bacon to the bot­tom of each pouch. He loved it!! Brod larped it up and clapped with joy — he felt spe­cial and I didn’t feel over­whelmed try­ing to cre­ate a spe­cial meal in a cab­in in the woods.

I thought every­one knew why Hobo din­ners were called Hobo din­ners, but after talk­ing with Lau­ra — I real­ized that isn’t the case.  She thought we were hav­ing hobos over for din­ner. Once, she real­ized that wasn’t the case, she won­dered if it was a cos­tume din­ner, last if we were eat­ing out of cans that had been heat­ed over an open fire…I had a good laugh imag­ing the pic­tures flood­ing her mind when I told her our menu that night. I hope your fam­i­ly enjoys these tasty pack­ets as much as we do…whether rough­ing in the woods or rushed in the sub­urbs, this meal is sure to bring a smile to your family’s face!

**UPDATE** Check out this NEW Cheesy Chick­en Piz­za Hobo Din­ner ver­sion by click­ing HERE