Hot Dogs & Spaghetti: A Gorgeous Plate of Wrong
I find that the beginning of winter break is a fantastic time to mess with my kids’ heads.
This plate of spaghetti-impaled hot dogs?
It’ll do. The freak-out factor was satisfyingly high.
If you, too, want to make your kids wonder what’s wrong with you while teaching them to play with their food (which can only create problems for everyone later – yeehaw!), then here’s what you’ll need:
- Hot Dogs – I hear you can buy hot dogs without nitrates and fillers. Hebrew National makes their all-beef franks with nothing artificial. Imagine that! I think the dogs I used were featured in the novel The Jungle by Upton Sinclair and are primarily sawdust. My children will thank me later when they don’t need to use botox and their skin remains strangely immovable due to all the preservatives I’m feeding them. (You’re welcome, kids.)
- Spaghetti – Again, I’m pretty sure you can buy whole wheat spaghetti if you’re not, you know, into feeding your kids simple carbohydrates. Nice work, you!
- Spaghetti sauce – optional.
- Vegetable – optional, but, really, not optional for me, because after feeding my kids nitrate-loaded sausages and simple carbohydrate pasta my mama guilt level was on the rise. Frozen peas to the rescue!
Mmm! Quick, fun, two-ingredient lunch? Yes, please.
Here’s what you do:
Chop the dogs using a pleasingly large butcher’s knife. I like the kind they used in Psycho. ‘Cause nothing *screams* Christmas to me quite like enormous butchers’ knives.
Skewer dogs with spaghetti…
…until you have a pile ‘o impaled meat ready for your…
…pot of boiling water.
Cook according to pasta package directions, and voila! A plate full of funky, fun food.
I know. It’s wrong on so many levels, and, yet, it’s so, so right.
I have some seriously fun things planned right here on this blog for this, the first week of Christmas break, but in the meantime, enjoy playing with your food!
Merry Christmas,
Beth
16 responses to “Hot Dogs & Spaghetti: A Gorgeous Plate of Wrong”
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Love it! I enjoy cutting a cooked hotdog twice lengthwise to give it 4 legs, then call it an octopus and plop it in a bowl of macaroni and cheese like it’s doing the splits. Tons of fun. 🙂
I have another friend who did this but left the hot dog whole and made hot dog people out of it. Such a cute idea but I am pretty sure my kids wouldn’t eat it.
Fun idea! If your kids won’t eat it, Kristin, it just shows they have better taste than mine. 😉
What a fun idea Beth! Must try it!
Maybe with a Japanese twist! I’ll bet you can get all kinds of fun noodles.
I saw the hot dog-spaghetti mash-up on Pinterest and have been eager to try it myself with the boys! 🙂 So glad to know I’m not the only one with a warped sense of menu planning.
Hehehe! Thanks for the crazy mama camaraderie, Jennifer!
i did this a few years ago too! check it: http://yourfaceislikethesunshine.blogspot.com/2009/06/feeling-silly.html
it’s a mind bender for kids for sure!
Loving it, Kristen!
I would totally make this for my 5 year old if I thought I could get her to eat it. I don’t suppose it would turn out quite the same if I impaled chicken nuggets with the spaghetti and boiled them. 🙁 Unfortunately, that’s about all she’ll eat right now.
Greg’s grandfather (a doctor) used to say, “Toddlers can live off of the smell of food.” That quote has gotten my sanity through a lot of picky toddler phases, I’ll tell ya. I feel your chicken nugget pain.
We made these a couple months ago…http://www.mythisnthatlife.com/2011/09/accept-no-substitutes.html
My kids LOVED them! 🙂
As for Christmas break silliness? We’re planning to reenact one of last year’s tried-and-true favorites…baby pool in the kitchen! (Yes, I am THAT crazy. Yes, it took EVERY towel I own to clean it up. But it was an amazing amount of happy, squealy fun for a couple of hours-yes, HOURS-with absolutely NO crying. None.)
Enjoy your Christmas break! Ours starts Thursday.
First – cool dogs, Elizabeth!
Second – oh my gosh! The swimming pool idea? INSPIRED! If I steal it, I’ll totally credit you. If you do it this year, you must provide photographic evidence. LOVE it.
Is that catsup (ketchup) I see with your spaghetti? 😉
No, but it could be at times! Just straight-from-the-jar, off-the-shelf sauce. Key constraint today was time.