What's for Dinner? Hot Dog Soup? Read on and find out!

I knew that I needed to make Beef today, after all, "It's What's for Dinner!"  So, I decided on the Coke Roast recipe that I found in my fairly new Crockin' Girls Cookbook that I talked about in past posts, and so I went looking for a recipe that sounded good.  After looking through the cookbook, I decided to, instead of making something totally new and foreign, to make this one.

Doesn't it look yummy?  I am planning to serve it with freshly mashed potatoes, last time I made egg noodles, and rice is also an option, but this just sounds good, and in about 3 hours, it will smell amazing throughout my house!

I know that I make a lot, and I mean A LOT of Beef recipes, and I understand that for some people beef roasts, and steak and even sometimes hamburger is hard to come by due to the costs at the grocery store.  It use to be that way for me also, hamburger use to be about all we ate, and even that was sparingly, and sparcely, until I met and married my husband.  He grew up in the dairy industry, and for the past 15 years has farmed for a larger family-owned farming and trucking operation ( not our family). 

The only reason I say this is that we raise our own steer each year through the Spring, Summer and Fall, then come December, "Dinner", as I like to call them, go off to visit the butcher, and then white paper packages makes it back to our house, in late December, only for "Dinner" to show back up again in March/April.

This is not something that is available, feasible or otherwise possible for a lot of people because of where you might live, or other reasons and I understand that, I was once there.  I have a few friends that raise chickens, so they have a seemingly neverending supply of fresh eggs and poultry that they eat.  So, as with us, when they are able to get something different, it is a treat. 

If there is tuna fish or peanut butter or ramen-style noodles on sale, you learn to make due.  It is amazing how many ways you can use, peanut butter, or tuna in different dishes if you put your mind to it.  Of course probably not in the same dish, unless you prefer that.  But, there are certainly ways to stretch you dollar these days.   

When my now 19-year old daughter and I first moved to Idaho, we had very little of anything, and so to make meals fun we would try out different things.  One of her favorites, still to this day is something we called, "Hot Dog Soup"  it was a really simple concept and easy to pull off.  The best part, it is a cheap and filling meal.  For the two of us, we would buy a cheap package of 8-10 hotdogs, and I mean cheap, usually less than a dollar.  I would cut up 1/2 of the package of hotdogs into thin round disks, then take one package of ramen noodles, usually chicken flavored as it was our favorite, but you could certain try beef or any other flavor you prefer.  I would prepare the ramen as directed on the package, adding the hotdogs before the noodles, so they have a few more moments to warm and cook through, and then adding the flavor packet from the noodles at the end,, and combining just as the package direction states.  And, there you go.  Easy, and inexpensive.  All for about $1.25 you have a hot and filling meal, sometimes with leftovers, and even the rest of the hotdogs from the package for another meal.  Now, that is frugal!