My doggos are KINDa spoiled, well...
Anywho...
I eat pretty healthy, you wouldn't know it by looking at me, but I do. So as I started cleaning up my diet I realized I needed to do the same for them. I went to a healthier dog food and now I make their own treats too. Let me tell you that they LOVE THEM! They now prefer them over the store bought crap and when I'm making them I'm constantly tripping over them because they know they're fixing to get to lick the bowl and spoons! FYI these are also safe for kids and when my friends bring their kids over they will take one for them and one for Xena! (she's the one the kids always wanna cuddle with). Originally a friend of mine posted about her homemade dog treats and she sent me the recipe, I modified it (because I rarely follow directions) and came up with this!
Ingredients:
Quaker Oats Gluten free. Now before I went Gluten free I used to use regular ole cheapo Oats. Doesn't necessarily need to be GF but that's all I keep on hand. (I forgot to add it for the picture!) We'll be making flour out of it. Now you can not pulverize it but I have a very very old fatso and eating oats is kinda rough on her big, giant, fat sensitive tummy!
100% Organic Peanut butter. I buy the type in the glass jars (part of me going less waste) and 100% organic because, again, that's what I have. Make super extra sure it does not have Xylitol because it's toxic to dogs!
Coconut oil in a glass jar (I know I'm being reduntant!)
Fruits and/or veggies (this batch I used what was fixin' to go bad) but i've used the following before: apples, bananas, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, carrots, watermelon, pumpkin, pineapple, cucumber, peas and sweet potatoes. Now this is not a complete list of what they can have, just what I usually have on hand! Also just because apple/cucumber/pumpkin (kinda sounds good!) sounds disgusting to you, they'll love it. My dogs love banana, apple, blueberry and carrots. So experiment, let them taste test. I guarantee they'll let you know if they don't like it. I use bananas in every combo, it's their fave treat! (Yes i know I have plastic container for my blueberries but they were on clearance and I will wash this and re-use it so lay off! I'm not perfect!)
Apple Cider Vinegar. I guess this is optional but with so many good benefits for them & since I keep it on hand for me I add it in there.
Coconut milk. Again I have it on hand so I use it!
Tools:
Blender (makes it so much easier)
Spatula
baking sheet(s). I make mine in bulk so I use 3 and make my cookies in multiples of 3. Yeah OCD I know but I also have 3 dogs and as any perfect pet parent knows if one gets one, they all get one!
Oven. I've even used a toaster oven when I didn't have an actual oven before.
Fridge
One large and one small bowl
Containers to store the cookies
That's it for the ingredients! Now the recipe is easy to modify so use what you have and what your babies like. The best thing about this recipe is it's so easy to customize. Not gluten free? Use gluten full! No oatmeal on hand? Use rice and make your own flour, use flour flour, cbd flour, whatever! You could also add in their cbd oil (if they take it), fish oil, etc, especially if you have a hard time getting your pooch to take meds. Mine's cbd is flavored and I add it to their food and Thor loves his meds! I just say medicine and he opens his mouth. Now if only trimming his nails were as easy.
Let's get Cooking!
First thing we're gonna do is to pulverize the oats. Again this is optional but if you're one for following directions then do it. If not skip to step 2. I pour 4 units in, I guess its cups. I never measure anything and I only know this by the number 4 clearly marks on the front of the blender. I looked just for ya'll!
2. Separate into two bowls. The smaller bowl is just for rolling the "dough" in before you put on the cookie sheet so it's not a big giant sticky gooey mess. Again skip this part if ya wanna learn the hard way. I'll save the "I told ya so's" for the comments.
3. Throw in everything else in the blender & mix. I put the peanut butter and coconut oil in first (keeps it from getting flung onto the sides and not getting mixed in). Once it's good and liquid-y add in the "flour" from the big bowl. (real technical here, huh?).
Here it is all liquidy-actually doesn't taste that bad!
4. Scrape into your large bowl & Netflix and chill! I will watch an episode or two of whatever I'm binge watching (for this I watched 2 episodes of Criminal Minds-I'm watching it from beginning to end!) Occasionally I'll get up and mush it around but it's not required.
5. Now i grab a small chunk, drop it in the "flour" you reserved and roll into a ball and flatten it a little. Now if you wanna get fancy you can do shapes, or get a rolling pin out and cookie cutters (you will need to add more flour probably). I once put them in this and made them. Super cute but took forever!
6. So put on a cookie sheet, bake at 350 degrees until done! I flip halfway though and mash them down with a fork or a spatula but it is also just a matter of preference. Total cook time is about 30 minutes. My dark pan cooks faster than my lighter pan. I also have a propane stove (yes propane!) so it cooks differently than electric or natural gas.
So now they are done! I let mine cool on the pans and then the taste testing begins!
Now that we have super tasty and healthy treats it's time to put them away. Now since there are no additives, preservatives or sealers in them they won't keep to long. I take a weeks worth and put them in the fridge. I just used the Quaker Oats container 'cuz it was handy. Then I put a weeks worth in 2 more containers, seal in a freezer safe Ziplock (I wash and reuse mine)
When I'm almost through with the current weeks worth (for me that's 21 cookies. 3 dogs x 7 days a week) I take one container out of the freezer and plop it in the fridge. My leftover "flour" I just out in a glass container and save it for the next batch!
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