Hooray for Hot Dogs!

Strangest thing happened to me last week...I was driving home from a half day of work and was contemplating what to have for lunch.  Unfortunately, and oddly out of character for me, the first thing that came to mind was hot dogs.  I wanted a hot dog for lunch.  How bizarre.  I never really eat hot dogs.  Even when I'm at a barbecue, I choose chicken or burgers over franks.  It's not because I don't like them, they're OK as far as food goes, but I'm not overly obsessed with them, nor have I ever once had a craving for them.  But, lo and behold, there I was, driving home, figuring out where to go to purchase some dogs.

I decided to be economical and go to the grocery store to purchase a package of hot dogs rather than find a take out place with the same, hoping to somehow control the number of calories I would be inhaling for lunch.

I ended up getting two kinds of hot dogs - one Applegate Farms "The Super Natural Beef Hotdogs", and one Oscar Mayer "Selects Turkey Hotdogs".  Both met my criteria for "Healthier" hot dogs in that they had less than 200 calories per dog, and they were free of nitrates -- as a bonus both were under 10 grams of fat per dog!  All of the other hot dog products I considered purchasing that day were full of calories - most were over 200 per frank, all had no less than 15 grams of total fat, and they were all packed full of nitrates to keep them preserved.

As usual, when I purchase more healthy options for a food I'm craving, I expected to be a bit disappointed, but satisified enough to get past my craving and move on with life.  Well...these dogs were way better than I anticipated they would be.  Seriously.  The Applegate Farms hotdog, in particular, was delicious, without having to be such a huge sacrifice calorie and fat-wise.

In fact, the hot dogs were so good that I had them for lunch on Friday then again for lunch on Saturday...and I'm even freezing the ones I haven't cooked yet to have at a later time.

So...if you find yourself in a mood for hotdogs, I fully suggest you try out either one of the hotdogs I mentioned above.  I'm not being paid for this post nor do I have any interest in either Oscar Mayer or Applegate Farms - I just love food, especially when it feels like it's such an unhealthy choice that turns out to be not so terrible after all.

I slapped some mustard, ketchup and coleslaw on top (I know, strange combo -- thanks to the preferences of my Canadian husband I'm now actually keen on coleslaw as a hotdog topping...don't judge me until you try it yourself) and had myself an awesome lunch.