Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Octopus Hotdogs

When I came across these adorable creatures, assumably on Pinterest, my daughter was about 3 years old. She was super picky and never ate more than a few bites of anything. Worth a try, I thought!

The first time we made them, she devoured four whole hot dogs. SCORE! 

Now these are my go to for any kid oriented get together. Every now and then we will make for dinner, but I usually save it for parties.

Most recently, while prepping my daughter’s 5th birthday party, an attendance of nearly 40 people, I spent about an hour making my biggest batch yet (32 dogs.)

They were a big hit, and easy to do on an otherwise very busy day.

The instructions are simple if you'd like to make your own:

Octopus Hot Dogs

You will need:

Hot dogs
Butter Knife
Toothpick or chopstick

First make sure the hot dogs are thawed!


I always try my best to give it 8 legs, but kids aren’t counting so just do what you can.

I like to quarter the bottom half of the dog using the butter knife, then turn and cut each of those quarters in half, but it can get tricky!

Using the toothpick or chopstick, make a slit for the mouth.

Stab two holes above the mouth for eyes.

(It will look silly now, but will open up once boiled—where it will still look silly, I guess!)

Place a few at a time in a pot with water, and let it come to a boil. The legs will curl up like tentacles, and the facial features will spread open.


(Don’t make my mistake. I added way too many to the water at once, and they didn't have room to curl up.)

Be prepared to be slightly disturbed by the amusement your children find in yanking the legs off one by one and eating off their faces.



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13 comments:

  1. Too cute, do you think these would work on veggie dogs?

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  2. How fun! I bet my kids would have fun with these.

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  3. Thanks for sharing this with us at the #WWDParty.

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  4. How fun, I bet my kids will love this! Thanks for sharing on The Yuck Stops Here this week. See you next Tuesday! HUGS

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  5. My son would love these! Thanks for coming and linking up at The Weekend Social. All posts get pinned on our pinterest board! Please be sure to come back next week starting Thursdays at 9PM EST on culinaryflavors.gr! I hope to see you there!

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  6. I do this too! I also cut a hot dog in half, stick uncooked spaghetti through it and boil it- you get a bunch of wiggly legs that way!

    Fun!
    www.providence-hill.com

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  7. So creative! Thanks for the idea.

    herweightlossdiary.blogspot.com

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  8. I can see a lot of little ones eating their hot dogs like this soon. Very cute idea. Thank you for sharing with the Clever Chicks Blog Hop! I hope you’ll join us again next week!

    Cheers,
    Kathy Shea Mormino
    The Chicken Chick
    http://www.The-Chicken-Chick.com

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  9. What a cute "Dog"! Thanks so much for sharing this awesome recipe with Full Plate Thursday and hope to see you real soon!
    Miz Helen

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  10. I've seen this before and I think they are so cute!! Thanks for sharing with SYC.
    hugs,
    Jann

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  11. They are so cute....love cute foodies :)

    Xx
    Dore

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  12. How cute. My daughter was the pickiest eater when she was little. She lived on peanut butter and grape jelly sandwiches and cereal. I wonder if this would have tempted her to eat? Thanks for sharing this at What We Accomplished Wednesdays! Have a super week!
    Blessings, Deborah

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  13. Such a cute idea and definitely a great idea for a picky eater! Thank you so much for sharing on Meandering Mondays and have a great week!

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