Fun With Wienies

A slow-cooker filled with Li’l Smokies doused in barbecue sauce is a sentimental favorite at potluck gatherings the world over.

But a package of Li’l Smokies, on sale, is $2.50.  Add to that the cost of barbecue sauce and you are looking at some serious moolah.

Here is a great alternative that I accidentally stumbled upon.  One day I offered to make my husband the above in honor of a Big Game.  Ooops! I had miscalculated.  I actually had no Li’l Smokies or barbecue sauce on hand.

Well, you know I’m not going to run out to the store for just two things.  My husband was a little disappointed, but no big deal.

Then I thought about what I did have on hand.  Were  there any reasonable substitutes lurking in my kitchen? Turns out there was!

I had hot dogs.  And I had all the stuff to make homemade barbecue sauce.

So I chopped up the wienies into little pieces and put them in the slow cooker.  Then I looked in my Betty Crocker cookbook for a bbq sauce recipe.  Sure enough, there was an easy one.  I didn’t even bother to mix it up in a separate bowl.  Just added the ingredients directly to the slow cooker, mixed the whole mess up, and Viola, genuine fake Li’l Smokies.

This can be a great savings, if you like this.  Hot dogs can always be found on sale for much less than Li’l Smokies best sale price.  Barbecue sauce is easy and cheap to make at home, too.

Also, if you don’t eat beef or pork, this is a great way to use turkey dogs.  Now you anti-beef eaters can join in the Big Game eating fun, too.

It turns out that my husband actually likes this version better. Yay!

Now for some Ideas for Frugal Living housekeeping:

Comments: I REALLY love hearing from visitors! I’m sad that since my husband added that “type in 2 words” thingy to the comments section, comments have really taken a nosedive.  That thing is a pain, but he did it because my blog suddenly developed a bad case of spam.  There were over 2000 spams(pl?) in my comments section, and they just kept coming. Woof! There are some freaky freaky people out there, let me tell you.

So now my spam is gone -yay!-but comments almost are, too-boo!.  I really hope y’all can learn to love the “type 2 words thingy” because I miss you.

Twitter: I’ve lately been getting emails saying “Hello, Frugal, So-and-so is following you on Twitter.”  What is this?  It sounds like a good thing, kind of cute acutally.  I’m pretty sure it’s good, because it’s often someone with a frugal-type moniker.   I’m going to look into this mysterious happening.  Do I have to do anything on my end?  If so, what I wonder.  So if you happen to be someone who is following me on Twitter, I hope all is going well with that.  If not, I’ll try to figure out what I’m doing wrong.