Sometimes weekends offer a reprieve from the plaguing question -”What do I want for lunch?”. Doing weekend chores, catching up on to do lists or getting out with the family can usually lead to some different eating out ideas or eating at home can be an inexpensive option too. But this weekend I ate two new lunches.

The first from a place we all know — McDonalds. As much as I try not to eat at the most popular fast food restaurant, my accounting register says that I eat at McDonalds more frequently than any where else. McDonalds are located every other block, in every city or every highway exit. They have truly made sure they are seen everywhere. I eat breakfast there, because its right on the way to work. They’ve got a wide variety dollar menu, but it’s still cheaper in the long run to buy a value meal. For other lunch ideas they even give you a suggestion list on their website.

The Dollar Menu Lunch
$1 Spicy McChicken Sandwich
$1 Small Iced Tea

Total Cost: $2.21

A not so well-known restaurant near my house is Chicago Times. They offer chicago style food in the middle of Colorado. I’ve eaten their pizzas before and they are quite scrumptious. For lunch with my family I had yet another hot dog, but this time it was not an $8 hot dog it was only $2.49. The oddest thing about their Vienna dog is the relish. It reminds me of kryptonite because I think it may glow in the dark with it’s flourescent green. The green just stands out among the other colors placed on this hot dog - red tomatoes, yellow mustard, white onions inside the bread bun on top of the grilled to perfection brown hot dog.

The Chicago Style Vienna Hot Dog
The Colorful Hot Dog
1 Bag of Cool Ranch Dorritos
1 32oz Cherry Pepsi
Total Cost: $5.64

Another answer to what should I eat for lunch is a chili cheese hot dog. When I was growing up my mom and I would always go to Dairy Queen and get a foot long chili cheese dog. I’m not sure if they have them anymore, but the place to go for a footlong chili cheese dog now is Sonic. Sure their commericials are dumb, and most of the time their food is bad too. But their chili cheese dogs are pretty good I think.

I got a foot long chili cheese coney combo with tater tots. I love tater tots! I also got a large Iced Tea with Mango flavoring add in. That was pretty sweet, but yummy. You can’t go to Sonic with out getting a desert…it’s just not right. I got a Sonic Blast with Butterfinger. Total cost $8.41. This total could’ve been around $5+, but why not get ice cream in the middle of the day. Won’t that just help the day go by better?

Today I threw all the inconvenience factors to the wind. I got out of my car to get my food, I drove a little further and I paid no mind to price. To answer my everyday question of “What should I eat for lunch?” I answered back and said “Let’s go get a bagel at Einstein Bros Bagels“.

I suppose Einstein’s is more of a morning place, being that bagels are generally thought of as breakfast. But I knew they served lunch and this new lunch adventure I’m on drove me to try something new. I didn’t get to lunch until after 1pm so the line was short. I thought it was so short that I went the wrong way through their order here/ pay here line (until no one paid attention to me and I read the sign).

They had quite a few different sandwiches available on any type of bagel, Ciabatta or other types of sandwich bread. I opted for a Polish Gourmet Bagel Dog wondering what makes a hot dog a gourmet hot dog?

My Expensive Hot Dog Lunch

TOTAL COST: $8.24

After eating the hot dog I’m still not sure what makes a hot dog a gourmet hot dog.

Was it yummy? Yes it was yummy.

Did I get full? Yes I was full.

Was it worth over $8? My pocket book doesn’t think so. Call me frugal (or cheap) I think I could’ve bought a package of bagels and hot dogs for 15% of the cost of the meal (and maybe paid someone to cook it for me too for about half). I suppose the aura of having your meal personalized for you by having your name written on the ticket and called out when your food was ready and having a special iced tea with Ginseng a touch of Fruit may just make a hot dog inside a bagel gourmet, but I’m still going to be cheap.

Well hey, I tried something new. I got out of my mundain rut so who knows what tomorrow will bring.