It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Although Andy and I have had success with making our own hot dogs, and we typically think that homemade beats store bought every time, we want to reduce our smug emissions so we buy pre-made veggie hot dogs when we see them on sale.  They are good to keep in the freezer for those days when you just don't feel like cooking much, or you crave junk food.

When I was home alone in January I took a pack out of the freezer.  Since they come in bunches of 6, it lasted me for three meals.  The first round, wrapped in puff pastry with tomato sauce, was exactly what I wanted (though I don't have photos).  The other two were a bit stranger, though.

For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to saute some hot dogs with butternut pumpkin, spinach and gnocchi.

Yeah.  As I was cooking this, I was aware that it didn't even sound good.  But I forged ahead.  And the results were to be expected - the components didn't go together very well, but my belly was full, some nutrition made its way to my body, and that was that.  I don't suggest this as a meal for anyone else, ever, at all.

My final hot dog meal was slightly more inspired.  Franks & beans is a thing, I thought, so why not put that on a pizza?

And so we have this pizza, which had potential but just didn't work out.  Baked beans, left over from another dinner, served as the sauce for this pizza.  And hot dogs made up the topping.  Some more veggies, or some kind of cheesy substance may have helped this be better.  But as it was, it kind of just repeated on me and made me feel not that good.

Our freezer is devoid of hot dogs at the moment, and I'm happy to leave it that way for a while!  They're a food that I think will be great, but the results rarely live up to my expectations.