MEALS FOR KIDS: Healthier Hot Dogs

I thought I was being really smart when I decided that I would make "healthier hot dogs" for supper last night. I felt that this might be of real interest to other parents who have kids that seem to put wieners at the top of their list for favorite meats (why is that anyway?). The fact of the matter is that I did accomplish part of my goal by adding the broccoli and cheese, however, I thought the meal was really not good at all.

My husband calls these things "piggies in a blanket". I bought the special Pillsbury dough on sale at Zehrs. I will never buy that dough again. I think I will stick with whole wheat bread or buns. Anyway, I steamed some broccoli and added cheese before rolling the wieners. I also cut the wieners length wise so that they were not such a choking hazard. The meal was served with corn on the cob and fries. For my families sake, I am sorry to say that the whole meal was a disaster. This tends to happen to me most frequently when I leave planning until 5:00pm! Bad idea.

Truth be told, the fries were no good either. You will notice that "gourmet" is not one of the labels or search words that I am attaching to this post, or any other post that I do for that matter. I feel so bad about it, that I took the "as a cook" part out of my Blog description (I replaced "cook" with "wife"). I don't plan to give up all-together, I have cooked some good food in my day, I just need to get "back on track".

Back to the meal - the corn was not good. It was on sale at Zehrs this week for $0.50 per cob. In retrospect, a LOT TO PAY for cattle corn! Yuck. The fries were not very good because they were either undercooked (took longer than the piggies) and/or they were freezer burned. We don't eat fries very often PLUS they were in the door of the fridge. Two strikes.

Pilsbury hot dogs with veggies

Well, there you have it - the honest truth about a dinner gone wrong. I hope that I will have success stories to write about in the future. I should probably spend some time reading the blogs of my friends that CAN cook (see side-bar).

RATING: I give the success of this meal a 3/10. Having said that, Ja1 ate the piggies and the corn! Yuck.

Snack Idea (below): Just thought I'd mention this snack idea for raising the healthy factor on an infant-toddler staple, CHEERIOS! Just sprinkle cheese on top and bake or microwave.

Cheerios and Life Cereal baked with cheese

RATING: Sounds like a great idea (8/10) and did work for us when Ja1 was eating cheerios morning, noon and night. Tried it last night and he was not interested at all (2/10). The Life cereal has not gone over at all. It is very bland. So much for trying to stick to cereals with very little sugar. I bet if I baked brown sugar into the cheese he'd eat it! Yuck.

BY THE WAY: Check out the top photo for a new (new to me) cheese by Kraft on sale for $1.99 (where else, Zehrs). I LOVE it. 10/10 for cheddar!