Oven Hot Dogs

We had these for dinner last night, and they were SO GOOD I could not wait to post the recipe. I only kind of found it through Pinterest.com. Something I had pinned took me to foodgawker.com and that's where I discovered this. Let me tell you, foodgawker.com is a pretty cool website too. I could spend hours and hours looking at pictures of tasty food. It actually makes me sad when I think about how many amazing recipes there are out there that I'll never try. Sigh.

Anyway. Even though I know how awful hot dogs are, I can't stop eating them. I know they're full of nastiness, but it's one of the few foods that I don't care what the ingredients are. Okay, it may actually be the only one. I went through a long phase when I was younger of not eating hot dogs. Then I had a grilled one at a barbecue at one point in college I think it was, and I was reeled back in. Why are hot dogs even more awesome when cooked on a grill? I don't know. When I saw this recipe I thought it looked super tasty and definitely worth a try. She has great step by step pictures on the original blog post, too.

Oven Hot Dogs
Source: In The Wabe blog via foodgawker.com

8 hot dogs
8 hot dog buns
1 can of chili
1/2 an onion, diced
cheddar cheese
mayonnaise
mustard
sweet relish

Line inside of hot dog buns with mayonnaise and sweet relish. Evenly add mustard. Fill with hot dogs and squish into a 13×9″ baking pan.

Top hot dogs with chili, cheese, and diced onion. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350F for 45 minutes.

Carefully remove from the pan with a spatula.

*****

There were some mixed reactions when my family saw what was for dinner. Boy #1 had soccer practice last night, and the husband is the coach, so they weren't home while I was getting dinner together. The husband was ecstatic when he saw these. Boy #1 was less than enthused to say the least. He said he wasn't going to eat dinner. I told him then he could go to bed. What can I say, sometimes I'm mean mommy like that. He decided he'd just eat the hot dog. When he was done with the hot dog I said he at least needed to try the bread. Wouldn't you know he ended up loving it and eating every bite. Darn kids. So this ended up being an overwhelming hit at our house and definitely something I will be making again. Oh, and since we count calories in our house, in case anyone is curious these worked out to just be 321 each--using whole wheat hot dog buns, turkey hot dogs, turkey chili, and reduced fat cheese. I thought that was a pretty good calorie count for something as decadent as chili dogs!

Now, you'll have to excuse me as I go eat one of the leftover dogs for lunch...

Chili Cornbread Casserole

I feel like I'm always trying to use up things I have on hand--which must mean I either have entirely too much stuff on hand at any given moment in time or I keep buying stuff even though I don't mean to. And it seems that no matter what I do, whether I'm buying a lot or a little, my grocery shopping trips last an hour, and I spend $80. I need to evaluate my grocery receipt and see what all I got and what could have been reduced. I use coupons when I can--and match them with sales for the maximum savings--but I don't buy that many processed foods or foods for which there are coupons. If any one has any tips on really frugal healthy eating, please let me know!

Anyway, I did have everything on hand for this, which is why it got put on the menu plan for this week. We hadn't had it in a long time, and the cans of chili had been sitting in my pantry for awhile, so I was glad to use them up and clear up some space. We've had it before and liked it, including the boy. It's super cheap to make, fast to put together and bake, and tasty. What a great combination!

Chili Cornbread Casserole
2 cans chili w/beans
Cheese (shredded or sliced)
1 box Jiffy cornbread mix
1 egg
1/3 c. milk

Spread chili in a greased 8x11 dish. Top with cheese. Stir milk and egg into cornbread mix and spread on top. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes or until cornbread is done.

Chili and Honey Chicken Legs

I have six minutes until I need to start working on dinner, so I'd better type quickly. Last night we had "clean out the fridge" night which was so nice. We got rid of a ton of leftovers. Hooray! I hate leaving them in there forever and finding them weeks later, wondering what exactly it used to be. Gross.

So when I signed up to receive Gourmet magazine, there was an offer for a free Everyday Meals cookbook. Actually I think I thought you got the Gourmet cookbook for free, so I was kind of miffed when a recipe pamphlet arrived in the mail a few weeks later. Oh well. I just looked through it for the first time a couple days ago, and there's some yummy sounding stuff in there. I'm actually using it tonight and Monday night (we're having a staycation over the weekend--no cooking!!). In a strange coincidence, I've been looking for a recipe that uses chicken legs because I got some for a smokin' price a couple weeks ago and had no idea what to do with them. Then this recipe dropped into my lap. Beautiful.

Chili and Honey Chicken Legs
2 Tbsp chili powder (not pure chile powder)
1 Tbsp mild honey
1 Tbsp lime juice
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper4 whole chicken legs (2 lbs), thighs and drumsticks separated

Put oven rack in upper third of oven and preheat to 425. Line bottom of a 15x10 inch shallow baking pan with foil and set an oiled large metal rack in pan.

Stir together chili powder, honey, lime juice, salt, and pepper in a large bowl, then add chicken and turn to coat completely.

Transfer chicken to rack, arranging in one layer, then bake, turning over once, until cooked through, 30 to 35 minutes.

*****

I have no idea how to separate a chicken leg into thigh and drumstick, so I think mine are staying whole. Unless it's painfully obvious how to do it once I take out the chicken. I'm still not really sure what kind of pan I'm going to use. I think I have a 15x10 roasting pan, but it's not shallow. I could use a cookie sheet, but then I don't have a metal rack that will fit. I'll see what strikes my fancy when I get in the kitchen.

Still not sure what we're going to have with this. I may be completely shameful and make a package of teriyaki noodles (kind of like Pasta Roni) that I have in the pantry.

Chili Cornbread Casserole

I was too busy in the kitchen baking yesterday to get around to updating my blog. But, that means you get a plethora of recipes today!! I think the last time I did this much baking was at Christmas two years ago, maybe three.

I had Bunco last night but made dinner anyway because I was STARVING all day yesterday. Baby must be having a growth spurt or something because I could not get enough to eat. I did a bit of menu rearranging and moved this to last night. It's kind of a white trash dinner, but it's cheap, quick, and easy. Hard to beat that!!

Chili Cornbread Casserole
2 cans chili w/beans
Cheese (shredded or sliced)
1 box Jiffy cornbread mix
1 egg
1/3 c. milk

Spread chili in a greased 8x11 dish. Top with cheese. Stir milk and egg into cornbread mix and spread on top. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes or until cornbread is done.

*****

Doesn't get much easier than that! A lot of times my grocery store has Hormel chili on sale for $1 a can but there's coupons on the paper for $0.50 off, so it ends up being $0.50 a can. This is a super budget dinner! I like to use turkey chili because it's a little healthier.

We really like this dinner. I wasn't sure if the boy would eat it or not, but he gobbled it up. I was pretty surprised.

Chili Cheese Cornbread

I don't think the husband will be excited about this dinner because it's not "chili weather," but it's what I had planned for tonight, and I don't feel like switching things around at the last minute. He'll just have to deal. :) I found this recipe a few years ago when we were low on funds. The website has a bunch of frugal recipes. I turn to it a lot when we're low on funds now. Chili happened to be on sale a couple weeks ago, and I had a coupon that made it $0.50 per can. We always have shredded cheese on hand, and the cornbread mix was something like $0.35. This is one of the most economical dinners I know of!

Chili Cheese Cornbread
2 cans chili w/beans
Cheese (shredded or sliced)
1 box Jiffy cornbread mix
1 egg
1/3 c. milk

Spread chili in a greased 8x11 dish. Top with cheese. Stir milk and egg into cornbread mix and spread on top. Bake at 375 degrees or until golden brown and cornbread is done.

*****

It's a little white trash I suppose, but who doesn't like a good white trash dinner every now and then? I bought turkey chili because it's a bit healthier than regular. I'd have to check the cornbread mix box for cooking time, but I think I usually cook it for however long the cornbread is supposed to bake. I'll let you know in my review!