Foil Pack Dinners included a wide variety of recipes that are perfect for a busy family. Cooking in the foil packs means less dishes and I loved that the recipes included cook time and directions for heating the foil packs on both the grill and in the oven. Makes the cookbook perfect for all seasons, not just summer!

So far, my family has enjoyed both the Hot Chicken, Bacon and Corn Salad and the Baked Salmon with Orange and Herbs recipes. Can't wait to try more!

The majority of the recipes include ingredients that you probably already have on hand, or are easy to get. Which is something to consider right now, as many of us are still having our groceries delivered or are shopping less often during COVID-19. I would highly recommend this cook book!

Mostly for Omnivores

I love the idea of foil pack dinners and side dishes, so when I saw this book at one of my favorite book review sites, I had to pick it up. The author does a good job explaining some foil cooking basics, like the types of oil to use and the two distinct pack shapes. I do wish, though, that she had pictures of some of this introductory material, especially accompanying the directions for how to make the packs. While I've made many tented dishes, I haven't made flat packs; I’m sure there are many cooks who have made neither. The recipes themselves were often a foil pack riff on standard dishes, like Chicken Cordon Bleu and meatloaf. One thing I didn't like about the book is its heavy emphasis on meat and meat analogs. The bulk of the book is the big meaty proteins, and even the vegetable chapter used fake meat on occasion. As a vegetarian, I would have loved to have seen more vegetable recipes. Even the sandwich chapter is all meat sandwiches. I do question how well this technique works with sandwiches because food typically steams in a foil pack, and she does have you put the complete sandwich on bread in the foil pack. Wouldn't that, perhaps, make for soggy bread? There are some photos in this book, though not all recipes have a photo of the finished recipe. Some have no photos at all while others, somewhat inexplicably, have pictures of the raw ingredients instead of the finished dish. Seriously, I don't need to see a photo of cabbage, but I would like to know what the final dish looks like! Many recipe photos were taken as if you're looking directly down at the dish. I don't think that perspective best shows what the food looks like. If the concept of foil-pack cooking intrigues you and you're a meat eater, this book will provide some interesting recipes as well as tips and techniques to help you along.

Foil Pack Dinners
by Julia Rutland

I love how this cookbook gives alternate ways of cooking some of the recipes...grill or oven. Very convenient to use the foil packets and have an alternate way of cooking if it suddenly rains.

I recommend.

There is a lot of good information in this book about cooking on a grill or oven with foil. The beginning of the book talks about various types of foil, coatings, Safety and strength. The illustrations are beautiful for each of the 100 recipes included in the book. There are several vegetarian recipes included that look easy to make. It gives tips for adapting recipes for grill, oven and even campfires. I hope when the physical book is published they fix the table of contents and index, but that's my only complaint. A perfect gift for the outdoor cook in your family, the recipes are easy to follow without exotic ingredients. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This would be a great cookbook to use if you want to elevate your dinners while camping. The recipes are for modern palates and can be prepped several hours ahead of time.

Not enough photos or pleasing layout touches, and not enough of the author POV. Wish there was some personality unfused throughout.

Also the recipes are more highbrow than expected. If you’re looking for rustic campfire meals, this isn’t the book for you.

When I think of Foil Pack Dinners, my memory goes back to my parents putting carrots, potatoes, onion and butter in a foil pack and grilling it (they always did it separate from the meat, unlike the hobo packets in this book). It was yummy, but that's about the limit of my knowledge of this topic. This book begins with the basics of making and using foil packs. The recipe sections start out like reading a magazine article, with appetizing photos and a short introduction. I was amazed at how many things could be cooked in foil packs! I definitely want to try several, including Moroccan Chicken with Chickpeas and Carrots, and Blackberry-Hoisin Salmon. I'd highly recommend this book of recipes! Lots of photos are also included!

This cookbook is amazing! The recipes are mouthwatering, and make me hungry looking at the pictures and ingredients. It contains a very detailed description of the different types of aluminum foils, and how to use them. I had no idea there are so many. It's broken down by the types of meats and campfire recipes. However, the campfire recipes aren't the basic ones we know, but are better and upgraded. I would highly recommend getting a print copy, because you may want it by the campfire and definitely around the grill. I can't wait to try most of them out!

Ok everyone right off the bat I'm going to give you a heads up. If you are like me and love to cook, but get to the point where your brain just doesn't want to work anymore trying to think of dinner every night, then this is the book for you. These recipes are not only easy to make and easy to clean up, they are also easy to tweak. So if you have a picky eater who won't eat carrots, then you don't have to put them in! I've been making the regular hobo packs for years and there are so many in here that I can't wait to try, especially the breakfast one. My only "negative" comment is I wish there was a picture to correspond with each recipe.

Really good ideas for easy foil pack meals, there are several I want to try while camping. The directions for creating the different foil packs and how to modify for the oven or the grill are very helpful.

Finally a compilation of recipes that make cleaning up a breeze! I've seen a few foil pack dinner recipes online, but Julia Rutland took it to a new level when she provided 100 of them all in one place. I love that there are vegetarian recipes, for our meatless Mondays, as well as the folding tutorials at the beginning of the book. Only made one recipe so far but more to come now that it's finally grilling season!

Typical recipe set up, recipe list at start of each section. Food choices are not that out there, reader may pick up a few to do/keep in rotation. Some information at start on how to properly cook using aluminum foil and other packages. Nice to flip through.

This book is exactly what you expect. Easy and manageable delicious dinners that you can make in foil! I love that it gives you a foil run down and helps you understand where each one should be cooked specifically. My husband was a huge fan of the Fish Tacos with Chipotle-Lime Crema, and I can't wait to try out the Crab Cakes. Great cook book, especially for the warmer months!

Foil Packaged Dinners by Julia Rutland grabbed my attention at “Stop doing the dishes…” However, many of the meals required getting other dishes dirty as prep work. Some recipes more than others. I was expecting to be able to throw a bunch of cut up food into some foil, fold it up, cook it, and, bam, dinner. That is not the case. Because of this, I think this book is great for camping meal ideas, BBQ day, after a hurricane when you are using a grill, and other similar situations. You would have to be choosy with your ingredients and the vegetable section would probably be best in those situations. Most of those are situations you don’t want to dirty a lot of dishes or have limited resources, so the simpler recipes are much more useful. I would have liked to have seen more of this type of recipe.

Photos of all the recipes would have been nice. I found the ones with photos more enticing to try because I can see what I will be eating before I start.

What I felt the book did well was the introduction, tips and tricks, types of foil, temps, measurements, etc. There are so many types of foil, and I had no idea what a difference different types of foil would make. The tips and tricks are especially helpful. Like any kind of cooking there are rules to how you use different pans, oils, utensils, etc. This is no different. Again, I didn’t think about that. I just figured you throw a bunch of food in some foil and cook it. I found the flow of the book was nice. There were a few dishes that could be in two sections, but overall, not a big deal. There were also some old popular recipes, along with lots of new flavourful and unique dishes to try.

I think this book is great in terms of being a cookbook. I think the “Stop doing the dishes…” needs to be changed in the description as I found that misleading. There are very unique and excellent recipes to try. I would have liked some simpler recipes with just a cutting board, knife, and foil involved and less prep work.

I received an electronic advanced reader copy from Tiller Press through NetGalley. All opinions are 100% my own.

Thank you to @NetGalley for ARC. I love this cookbook is packed full of quick & easy to prepare recipes with beautiful photos. The recipes are very easy to make using the grill or over a campfire, most using only a few basic ingredients. Very easy to understand directions with beautiful color photos included. These recipes could be used while camping. The kids could even help prepare the flat foil packet recipes in advance. Good way to teach children about recipes and helping to prepare meals.

#NetGalley
#FoilPackDinners

Pretty cool. I didn't realize that you cold grill so many things and with all going on in the world we are spending a lot more time at home and outside. I look forward to making many of these this summer!

Note: This cookbook would be a 1 star book for me personally but I would say it's 4 star for many folks, so I'm rounding up to 3.

I have to admit that I went into this book as someone who doesn't like to cook in aluminum foil -- partly because of the link between health risks like osteoporosis, kidney disease and Alzheimer's with aluminum (regarding Alzheimer's especially, international studies have found that the brains of Alzheimer's patients did tend to have much more aluminum than others, though nobody is funding good studies here in the US so the industry is still able to say there is no definitive link) and also because it's wasteful and bad for the environment. Also, the more exposure to Al the harder it is for our bodies to reduce our load and it is well established that there is a safe limit (and foods leech more of it when exposed to high heat or acidic foods like lemons, fish and tomatoes). While aluminum is present in many things and our bodies can get rid of quite a lot of it, one European study found, "Preparation of a fish dish with a marinade containing lemon juice in camping dishes would result in the TWI (tolerable weekly intake) being exceeded by 871% for a child weighing 15 kg and by 187% for an adult weighing 70 kg assuming a daily uptake of 250 g over a period of 1 week." That's cooking just one dish in aluminum.

I totally get the idea of using it for camping occasionally (though the fabulous new cookbook Wilderness Chef: The Ultimate Guide to Cooking Outdoors slams the use of aluminum foil and uses cast iron pots and occasionally creative natural items like leaves) but these recipes are also given for ovens and that just seems ridiculously wasteful and lazy to me TBH. Put a lid on your pan to capture heat and steam. It will not kill us to wash a pan instead of wrapping four individual dinners in multiple layers of aluminum foil to bake in the oven. We are such a trashy culture -- literally.

Okay, all that said... This is a nice compilation of typical meat-heavy (for the most part) Standard American Diet food. You get burgers, fish dishes, scalloped potatoes with cheese and heavy cream, shrimp nachos, chicken Cordon Bleu, sandwiches, etc. There are some photos but not of every dish, and some photos are of things like ingredients. There are not a lot of ingredients required and they tend to be typical pantry items. There are a fair number of recipes that will work for gluten free and paleo folks, very few for vegans, and some (mostly side dishes) for vegetarians. There is no nutritional information provided for the recipes.

Folks who like these sorts of recipes and this sort of cooking will be very pleased with this cookbook.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

4.5 stars

After spending 10 weeks cooking dinner everyday due to the quarantine, this book was truly a gift. I was in desperate need for new recipes and not only did this book deliver on the variety I needed but I liked the alternative cooking technique as well.

I have used foil packets in the past for a few veggie dishes on the grill, but this book takes it to a new level. The best thing about foil pack cooking is LESS DISHES. I am honestly more sick of dishes than cooking right now.

This book is full of tips and tricks to help you achieve the best results. All recipes have instructions for oven and grill cooking. The recipes were grouped as follows:

Yardbirds (mostly chicken but some other poultry)

Carnivore Cravings

Catch of the day

Handheld

From the Garden

I loved that this book had some basic dishes but also some fun new twists (Cilantro pepita pesto with chicken and rice for example. YUM!) Some recipes do rely on other cooked ingredients, liked cooked rice or marinara sauce so you do need to plan ahead.

The pictures were both beautiful and appetizing, I wish there were more.

Thank you Tiller Press and NetGalley for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a neat assortment of diverse recipes! Who knew you could make so many things on a grill? 'Foil Pack Dinners' provides very straightforward introduction to making complete meals in aluminum foil and cooking with a grill or fire. Some recipes are more simple and some more fussy. 'Foil Pack Dinners' is a short volume with tons of mouth-watering recipes. Highly recommend, especially for the summer!

Thank you NetGalley and Tiller Press for providing this ARC.

Very well written cookbook. I found the layout to flow well and the recipes were easy to understand and follow along to. I look forward to trying some of them out for my family.