Growing up, I was kind of a picky-pants when it came to eating. (Let this serve as an encouragement to you if you’re raising picky eaters, though– I’m a great eater now!) Anyway, my mom coped with this by allowing me one can of SpaghettiOs a week. I could choose whichever meal I found the most loathsome and have my canned bliss.
Now that I’m a grown-up, I realize a couple of things: 1) my canned was food was almost definitely not as tasty as the homemade roast beef or whatever I was trying to avoid and 2) there’s some pretty icky junk in that canned stuff. And, though I can’t be positive about this, I’d be willing to be there’s MORE yucky stuff in there now than there was back in 1980.
Still, I have very fond memories of Spaghettios with Sliced Franks. Mmmm…
Wanting to relive those glory days and also to share the taste experience with my children, I took to the kitchen. SURELY I could come close to replicating it, right?
I had made the Homemade Spaghetti O’s and Meatballs from Once a Month Mom’s site before and we’d been very happy with them. I like those little meatballs well enough, but I really missed the hot dog version. My experience making hot dogs in barbecue sauce in the slow cooker taught me that slow-simmering in sauce causes the slices to swell out with the characteristic shape of the processed meat chunks you find in the spaghettios.
Armed with this information, I set to work…
Ingredients:
- 5 cups tomato sauce
- 3 cups water
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 12 oz. small pasta (I used macaroni, because that’s what I had. Next time, I’ll use anelletti, which is the “O” shaped pasta.)
- 8 hotdogs, sliced
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 cup shredded cheddar
Directions:
- Put tomato sauce, water, garlic powder, salt, and pepper in a large pot and bring to a boil. Add pasta and hot dogs.
- Reduce heat to medium and cook until pasta is soft, about 15 minutes. Stir frequently to prevent pasta from sticking to bottom.
- Remove pot from heat and stir in butter and milk. Sprinkle cheese in gradually and stir to ensure even mixing.
linked to Tasty Tuesday
I have never bought a can of spaghettio’s, but somehow my kids got the impression they were missing out on a very important meal. Considering my one son cannot stand mac & cheese, lasagna, spaghetti, or any other pasta dish, for that matter, I was completely shocked to hear him begging for spaghettio’s! When I tried telling him how similar it was to the foods he despised, he brushed it off with, “but this is different, mom.” I will have to try your recipe to surprise him! Thanks
I never liked spaghettio’s but my 1 yr old LOVES pasta and LOVES hot dogs so she might like this. I’m not a fan of hot dogs though, so not sure if this is a meal for me.