Proof that I'm really just ordinary and the cost of hotdogs

So I have taken some recent offline ribbing about my cooking - right because most of the stuff that I blog or post is "impressive" or shall I classify as fancy food items like my Beef Wellington.

This has also lead to a few questions about if my every day cooking is like that and honestly I refer you back to the meal planning post - it's not. I love to cook and try new things but frankly sometimes it is just too much work or effort or time consuming depending on the day.  (I mean my home made lasagna from scratch took about 2 hours to prep and make - there may have been a lot of breaks in that 2 hours - but still it wasn't quick).  Also, let's be honest I do want to make croissants from scratch and contemplated that until I read the recipe and figured I'd save that for another day!

So alas after a long day and equally long night because of swimming lessons we arrive home around 7:30 and still have to get supper prepared, cooked and down the gullet within a reasonable amount of time.  Enter Hot Dog Roll ups - yes hot dogs baked in dough.  No you could just make hot dogs and serve them in buns but that's not as fun and frankly as tasty as the excused to eat what basically amounts to croissant filled with hot dogs and cheese. 

As a side note - I haven't bought hot dogs I'm going to say probably in a couple of years (I prefer cheddar smokies for the effort) but MAN were hot dogs expensive in the store the other day - I got mine on SALE for $2.50 most other packages were $5 - I remember when they were under $2 on sale and under $3 regular price and I'm not that old. 

I will have to delve in my recipe collection to find the "I'm not lazy" version of these - meaning where you actually make the dough (honestly not that hard) but because these are for particularly lazy or busy days here is the basics:

Hot Dog Roll ups a-la-lazy
1 package hot-dogs (don't care brand or type - but usually the cheapest ones that have 12 in the pkg).
2 package tubes of croissants (you could use Wiener wraps but I find them not large enough, or frankly enough in a package to justify buying them especially when the croissant tubes are cheaper)
12 slices approximately 1/4" wide about 1" shorter than the length of the hot dog. 

1. Preheat the oven to 375F. 
2. Cut a strip in to the hot dogs - try not to go all the way through the dog but don't worry if you do. 
3. Run your finger down the length of the cut in the hot dog to open it slightly and then place one of the cheese slices or sticks in the the hot dog.
4. Wrap with the croissant dough - I usually use 1 croissant per hot dog and just bake the extra dough as normal. The key here is really having to stretch, squish, or pull the dough until the entire hot dog is covered evenly with the dough. Sometimes just rolling it like a cigar in your hands does the trick - but you want to avoid holes as that tends to let the cheese escape.
5. Place the dough covered dogs onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet (if you don't have parchment paper - don't worry just follow the directions for the croissants on greased vs. non-greased cookie sheets - I use the paper so that I don't have to do much if any cleaning of the cookie sheets - score for the lazy factor!)
6. Bake the hot dog roll ups for about 10-12 minutes - until brown on top.
7. Let cool 2 or 3 minutes then serve with ketchup, mustard and/or mayonnaise or frankly any other dipping stuff.