Not Your Average Hot Dog

People have all sorts of grill parties, barbecues, etc. over the long Memorial Day weekend as they kick off the summer. Now nice suburbanites with big houses and budgets might be able to afford steaks, but on a grad student budget, grilling often means hot dogs or sausages. Now, I probably don't need to tell you what comprises a hot dog (woops, wrong link! ;-) ) The first one is a nice friendly link; if you can stand what the USDA has to say about hot dogs, here's the proper link.

All this mystery comes before you even begin to wonder about where your meat came from, what it was fed, what conditions the animal lived in, etc. This is why I was so excited to find that Whole Foods this week had a sale on all chicken sausage. 2.99 a pound for any variety of chicken sausage. Go check it out, the promotion might still be going on, and as I have learned, Whole Foods inevitably has some kind of in-house sausage on sale for about that price. What does 2.99 get you? Well, first, you know what happened to those chickens. Second, you get 4-5 beautiful, giant sausages. (Seriously, these things are big: one is plenty for me!) Third, they're delicious! Fourth, if you're honest with yourself, this is about how much you pay for about the same weight for the nice hot dogs at the grocery store. You know what I mean: the brands you actually want to eat. Last, and certainly not least, chicken based sausage is WAY healthier than a pork and/or beef based hot dog in terms of fat content and overall calories!

So, don't think too much about what's in that hot dog...it will give you a headache. Instead, ditch the dog for a proper sausage, with a bit more environmental responsibility and a bunch more healthfulness, all for the same price!

My husband loved dinner, and it took no time to make. One US of A eggplant grilled up (always salt your eggplant with pressure and papertowels before grilling to remove the bitter juices!) on sale for $1. One package of "beluga lentils" from Trader Joes: about $1.30! 4 Sausages: a little less than $3. Last but not least, another $1 worth of those DELICIOUS Silverbrook Farms pea tendrils from the Copley Square Farmer's Market! Yes, they're still fresh and delicious.

Result: an amazing, healthful, fast, and CHEAP grilled summer menu, at about $3.15 per person, and we have leftovers!

Happy Grilling!

N.B. We are in an indoor apartment with no outdoor space for a grill. We own a George Foreman. I believe an indoor grill is a necessity for the urban grad student with no outdoor space. Therefore University Administrators who may or may not read this blog: No portion of the Lifebook was violated in the creation of this meal.