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 5^th 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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