Busy Day Dinners That Don't Break the Bank: Hot Dog Wraps (in bread slices)

My focused work on Monday afternoon was preparing our tax returns. There didn't seem to be a logical breaking point until after 5 PM, and I still had to make dinner for the family. The afternoon had really gotten away from me. I briefly considered getting take-out. Then I decided I could probably make something with what we had on hand that would satisfy all, not require a lot of my energy or time, and not break the bank.

For a main dish I chose hot dogs in toasted bread wraps. I had hot dogs and a loaf of soft wheat bread in the freezer. The bread needs to be both soft in the interior as well as have a soft crust (for flexibility when forming into wraps).

For each hot dog wrap, I used 1 hot dog and 1 slice of bread. I put the bread into a plastic bag and microwaved it briefly to soften up the slices. 

I then buttered one side of each slice of bread. I also buttered the inside of a square pyrex baking dish. 

I placed a hot dog on the diagonal of a slice of bread on the unbuttered side. Buttering the bread helps the exterior of the wrap crisp up. The bread-wrapped hot dogs were placed side by side in the buttered baking dish. I baked the batch at 375 degrees F for 25 minutes. 

At this point, the outsides of each wrap were crispy, toasted, and buttery. As you can see, they hold their folded shape after baking.

One of the side dishes I chose for this dinner was equally easy, honey-mustard carrots. Simply a can of carrots heated through in a saucepan with a squirt of mustard, a spoonful of honey, a blob of butter, a dash of salt, and a tablespoon or two of water. This is a favorite side dish of mine because it's so easy, yet very tasty.

An easy-to-make dinner that was also easy on the budget. What more could I ask on my busy day?!

What are your go-to, easy-to-make dinners that don't break the bank for busy days that get away from you?

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for Mid-February

I haven't recapped our week's meals in a while. No time like the present to remedy that! I feel like I get ideas from your menus. I hope that my menus provide some ideas for you, too!

This past week's main meals, whether you call them supper or dinner:

homemade pizza

Friday
homemade pepperoni pizza, with canned green beans and steamed carrots

Saturday
vegetarian tostados -- refried beans, homemade flour tortillas (some were fried in oil, mine was dry-fried), canned tomatoes, shredded cabbage, and salsa, with carrots sticks

Sunday
lentil-vegetable soup, with scratch dinner rolls

Monday (Valentine's Day)
Asian-inspired meal -- egg and veggie fried rice (using frozen eggs), potstickers (freezer item leftover from the holidays), with steamed broccoli and tofu-chocolate whip for dessert

sausage and greens frittata

Tuesday
egg, sausage, onion, cheese, and radish green frittata (using rest of container of frozen eggs, and radishes I grew indoors), with Parmesan potato cubes and orange wedges

Wednesday
chicken nuggets (my daughter bought these), pasta mixed with leftover rice (from Monday), steamed broccoli, gingered fig-applesauce (made with green figs I preserved last fall)

taco soup

Thursday
taco soup topped with toasted corn tortilla strips and scratch brownies for dessert

As I mentioned before, we pulled together our Valentine's dinner from what we had on hand. Pretty much how we do our everyday meals. It all worked out and was delicious. Thursday's taco soup came about on Wednesday when I was searching for plant-based freezer meals to tuck away for a busy day. I found a recipe for taco soup for which we had almost all of the ingredients on hand. My daughter was making dinner this night and I knew she could make this. We decided to add a 4-oz chunk of ground beef to the soup. So, not a solely plant-based meal, but a low-meat freezer meal. (By the way, I have lots and lots of meat-based freezer meals. I was just looking for some variety in this department.) 

My favorite meal this week was on Tuesday, the frittata. We had made a similar frittata for our Christmas brunch. I knew we'd enjoy it just as much for dinner. I make frittatas for dinner a couple of times per month. They're like a quiche, but without the pie crust. This particular one was made special with the addition of browned sausage meat. I used 4 eggs, 6 ounces of pork sausage, 1 1/2 ounces cheddar cheese, some milk, half an onion, some greens, salt, and pepper. The frittata we made for Christmas brunch had red and yellow peppers in place of the greens. The Parmesan potato cubes were simply cubes of potato tossed with Parmesan, onion powder, salt, pepper, and a mix of oil and sausage fat then oven-roasted next to the frittata.

For most of the week, we've had cupcakes and Valentine's sugar cookies as our desserts. Thursday afternoon I had set aside time for baking, as we'd eaten all of the cupcakes and cookies at this point. I baked some granola, followed immediately by a batch of bran muffins, and those followed by a batch of brownies that I topped with chocolate chips when they came out of the oven (spread them as they melted). While the brownies were baking, I made a batch of hot cocoa mix for my family. By baking successively like this, I used one bowl, one set of measuring spoons/cups, one mixing spoon, and one rubber spatula. I didn't rinse these between uses, but washed them all at the very end of baking. Making my work easier.

Does it seem like I bake a lot of sweets/treats? The truth is, we all like different things. My husband likes hearty, but also really likes any kind of cold cereal because it's easy. So, I suspect the muffins and granola will be a hit with him. One daughter in particular loves cocoa. The other likes it, too, but she is just as likely to go for a cup of tea as a cup of cocoa. And both daughters will love the brownies. For me, I don't drink the cocoa (a milk thing), nor do I eat granola (an oat digestive thing). I'll have a muffin or two and a brownie or three. I expect that most of this baking will be gone by the end of the weekend.

We're about out of sandwich and toast bread. I had thought to bake some French bread on Thursday, then decided to postpone that until I make pizzas tomorrow (Friday). I'll do both pizza crust and French bread dough at the same time and save myself some work (same recipe for both). 

So, these were our dinners this past week. What was on your menu?