Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Fix and Freeze

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The lovely birthday treat I made for Sampson last week got me thinking about different treats I could make for the dogs.

Typically their 9:00 pm snack is a Kong filled with fruit and covered up with a smidge of pumpkin.  Sometimes I’ll add some Kefir just to help it last a little longer.

I bought this great silicone mold from the Animal Rescue site some time ago.  My intention was to make dog cookies, but I think it’s cool to use for people treats too.  Imagine a brownie bite in the shape of a paw?

Sorry, I digress.

The mold I have makes six puppy paw prints of a decent size.  I thought why not use the mold and I can make three nights worth of treats?

I started out with pumpkin which I placed in the pad of the paw and then I added some mango chunks for the toe nails.

Honestly, I wish it could have froze like this, because you can really see the 'toes.'

Honestly, I wish it could have froze like this, because you can really see the ‘toes.’

Once I got the toes in, I filled the rest of the mold with Strawberry Kefir.

The Kefir is perfect for filling in the mold.

The Kefir is perfect for filling in the mold.

I got a little heavy handed on a couple of the treats, but I used my finger or a paper towel to clean it up.

Then I placed it on the plate in the freezer and left it.

The silicone makes it easy to pop this suckers out.

Makes a good sized treat.

Makes a good sized treat.

Sorry no pictures of the dogs eating them, this is a fast snack!

But it’s great to make in advance and keep in the freezer for special occasions or those times when you forget to make the KONG. 🙁

Simple ingredients: Pumpkin, Mango and Kefir.  Fix and Freeze!

This is the Tasty Tuesday Blog Hop, hosted by Kol’s Notes and Sugar the Golden Retriever.  Hop along and see what everyone else is cooking!!

Thanksgiving Treats

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I don’t know about you but when I’m hosting a holiday at my house, it can get a bit hectic, especially with a dog like Delilah who absolutely LOVES food.

You can be sure at least once you will hear someone yell, “Delilah get off the table!” 

While we don’t willingly share our leftovers with the dogs (I say willingly because you can guarantee that Delilah will get something she shouldn’t) I still like to make a little something special for the pups.

I had to go gluten-free a couple of years ago and while I do fairly well without treats for most of the year, the holidays are hard.  Recently I discovered an awesome recipe for Gluten-free Apple Crisp.  I will share the human version first, then below it a way for you to make something special for your pups.

Filling mixture:
4 cups apples, peeled & sliced (such as Granny Smith)
1 tablespoon white sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pinch nutmeg
 
Crisp Mixture:
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 cup gluten free quick oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons softened butter (I use salted) plus a smidge more for the dish
 
Preheat oven to 350.  Take a smear of butter and coat your pie pan.   In a large bowl, toss together the apples, sugar, water, cornstarch, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and nutmeg until well combined.  Set aside.
 
Oatmeal topping:  In a large bowl gently combine: almond flour, oats, brown sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and butter until crumbly.  I usually melt the butter a tiny bit in the microwave, so part of it is runny and part is super soft.  You can melt the whole bit of butter, it won’t matter at all.
 
Place the apple mixture in the pie pan.  Sprinkle the topping evenly over the apples and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the apples are cooked through, the juices are bubbling and the topping is browned.  Serve hot, warm or room temperature.  For a little added treat, throw a dollop of ice cream on there.
 

When I was sharing this recipe with my sister, she said to double the crisp recipe because that is the bit that’s really good, so that’s what I plan on doing when I make this for our Thanksgiving table.  I’m also planning on incorporating some pecans into the topping mix.  I’ll let you know how THAT turns out.

Sadly I don’t have any pictures of the apple crisp because I didn’t think to take any, but I promise to take some on Thursday and I’ll share them in Friday’s post.

I will however share a sweet picture of Sampson.

Don't Mind Me Don’t mind me, I’m just sitting here waiting for a Thanksgiving treat.

So I told you there was an easy way to make a holiday treat for your pup. 

When you’re cutting and peeling your apples set a couple aside.  Once they’re peeled and sliced, take a set of small muffin tins or if you prefer use a a couple of ramekins.

Grab some coconut oil and a paper towel and using the coconut oil like shortening grease the tins or ramekins.

In a small bowl add your sliced (or if you prefer chopped) apples, a shake of cinnamon and a little bit of almond flour (a small handful) toss the apples until they are coated.  If need be add a bit of water just to help the process.

Pour the apple mixture into your ramekins or muffin tins and bake in 350 oven until apples are soft.

Cool and serve.

So will you make a special treat for your pets this holiday?  What are some of YOUR pet friendly traditions?

If you’re interested in some other recipes for your pups this is the Tasty Tuesday Blog hop hosted by Kol’s Notes and Sugar the Golden Retriever.

Cocobanana

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Many moons ago I worked in a health food store called Natural Rythyms.  They sold vitamins and various other health aids.  There was a small sitting area where you could sit and enjoy a salad from the salad bar, or a sandwich from the limited menu.  They also sold baked goods.

It was a part-time job I took to help with the expense of my daughter’s wedding, so I only worked on Saturdays.  I didn’t wait a lot on customers, I was mostly in the back washing dishes, except for when I was baking muffins. Still I recall those days fondly because I got to spend time with one of my favorite people and I got to bake muffins.

Let me be clear.  I created my own muffins.  And it was all dependent upon what mood I was in and what ingredients were available.  But there was one thing you could be sure of, the muffins had chocolate chips in them.

It’s a wonderful feeling when a customer comes in and says, “Oh, I was hoping you had this muffin today, it’s my favorite.”  One of my muffin creations was Orange Chocolate Chip and it was very tasty.  I would think about it all week long, what type of muffin did I want to bake on Saturday?

So imagine my surprise yesterday as I was thinking of a treat for Tasty Tuesday when my mind began wandering back down the creative trail, but this time to dog treats.

Here’s what I came up with.  I’m calling it Cocobanana.

1 banana
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/4 cup cooked oatmeal
1 egg
2/3 cup oat flour
1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
 

Before you start gather your ingredients.  The key point is to get the egg out of the fridge and let it sit for a few minutes, this will keep the cold egg from solidifying the coconut oil.

I’m not sure if you know this or not, but coconut oil is solid when the temperature is below 70°, you can buy coconut oil in the liquid form but it’s super pricey so I say, buy the solid and melt it.  My understanding is it’s not good to heat coconut oil in the microwave, so I put my coconut oil in a small glass dish and set that in another dish with hot water.  I changed the water a couple of times until the coconut oil was entirely melted.

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While the coconut oil is melting, break your banana up into about six pieces and add the egg, beat with an electric mixer until blended well.  My banana was a little too fresh so it wasn’t mixing well.  I mashed it with a potato masher and then worked it with the egg.  It’s okay to have small lumps of banana in this.  I then added the already cooked oatmeal and blended that as well, then the coconut oil.  Now mix in the oat flour.

At this point I added the shredded coconut but I used a spatula.  It was a fairly stiff dough, but not unworkable.

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I dropped by 1/2 spoonful onto my baking stone and cooked at 350° for about 25 minutes. I peeked in on them at about the 15 minute marker and they hadn’t moved at all so I pressed them down a bit with a fork.

My original intent was to add Carob chips to them which would have been perfect for both dogs and humans, but since my local grocery store didn’t have the chips, I used M&M’s in four of them.

Thoughts:  The cookies were browned on the bottom and the edges, but the inside was still moist.  Not raw but moist.  Jodi Chick thought the cooked oatmeal might have been too much or the banana might have been too fresh.  I’m going to try this recipe again, with dry oatmeal and an older banana.

Let’s see what Sampson and Delilah think.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Ooops, she was too fast and my finger got in the way of the camera. I’ll say that means the cookie is good.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Dammit!  He was too fast too!

Sampson and Delilah give these cookies a four paws up.  I’m not kidding, these suckers are tasty.  Anywhere I moved with that container of cookies, there were two dogs right on my tail!

So when I named the cookies naturally I got the tune of Copacabana stuck in my head.  I tried to work with that.

Her name was ‘Lilah, she is a labby
A purple collar on her neck and she doesn’t give a heck
She’ll work for kibbles, or any nibbles
But while she tries not to be a pest, she puts her Mama to the test
When Mama bakes there is a fest
These treats are sure the best
We call them coco, coco bananas!
 

You’re welcome for the recipe and the ear worm too.

This post is a tad bit long but tell me, have you tried baking for your pets yet?  How do you feel about it?

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