Simple Indoor Grilling: How Summer Dinner is a Family Affair

This is a sponsored post in collaboration with Tampico. All opinions are my own including how to use indoor grilling for summer dinners.

If there’s one thing moms everywhere can unite over, it is the never ending question: What’s for dinner? Moms want to cook something delicious and simple but our families do not want the same dish over and over. This week, I took a family summer favorite and added a twist while enjoying our favorite juice drink. We did some indoor grilling for a summer dinner and created our own hot dog bar.

Simple Indoor Grilling When it comes to cooking, I’ve resigned the idea of creating my own recipes. I have a few go- to recipes and use a few favorite cookbooks when I need to change things up. However, summer time dinner is a different ball game. Texas summers easily reach the triple digits. No one wants to add to that kind of heat by cooking on the stove or in the oven. Our counter-top kitchen gadgets are perfect to cook dinner without heating up our entire home.

Our contact grill is perfect for indoor grilling. We can easily cook fish fillets, steaks, pork chops, hamburgers, vegetables, or hot dogs. And out of all those delicious choices, we chose hot dogs. They are simple and quick. After all, hot dogs are the quintessential summer dish to create and add memories to our Tampico It’s a Colorful Life Scrapbook Challenge!

Making Dinner Is a Family Affair Choosing what to cook for dinner is a challenge in this house but making any night a fun family night is not. I don’t like cooking but I like cooking alone even more. Something my mom showed me when my boys were babies was how to include them in making dinner. Give them simple tasks to do and they will feel included. I chose to turn our indoor grilling hot dogs into a hot dog bar.

We went shopping for all their favorite toppings: relish, chili, cheese, onions, turkey bacon bits, banana peppers, sliced dill pickles, tomatoes, spicy mustard and yellow mustard. I let the boys put all their toppings in small bowls to create our hot dog bar. Instead of mommy making their hot dogs, they were allowed to create their own hot dogs however they wanted!

Hot Dog Creation Contest My boys don’t play sports but that doesn’t mean they aren’t competitive. Immediately, our hot dog bar turned into a contest. Since we were waiting for my husband to get home, the boys decided they would each create a hot dog for their dad to try and let him choose his favorite.

My oldest made a Frito-Pie Dog. It had mustard, chili, cheese and crushed corn chips on top. My youngest went with a Spicy Bacon Bits Dog. It included spicy mustard, relish, onions, cheese and topped off with turkey bacon bits. I didn’t enter the contest but I created my own version of a Chicago Dog. It included banana peppers, tomatoes, sliced dill pickles and yellow mustard. If you ask me, I won! I have an affinity for Chicago Dogs.

Of course my husband couldn’t pick one winner of the boys’ dogs. He loved them both. And, both these summer dogs went perfectly with Tampico’s Tropical Punch! Tampico is the positively irresistible juice drink that makes your family’s lives more colorful—with only 30 calories per serving!

The real winner was our fun family dinner experience! While we sat around our table eating our unique hot dogs, the boys laughed about creating them and how much fun it was to do all of this together. It’s another great summer memory to add to our Tampico It’s a Colorful Life Scrapbook Challenge! Are you collecting colorful summer memories?!