Dog Treats!

Peanut Butter Pumpkin Dog Treats

These little things are soo simple to make!  Four ingredients and the dogs love it (well my two do...they are my official taste testers after all).

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I would imagine oat flour would work here as well just don't use regular white flour)
2 large eggs
2/3 cup of pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling, just plain pumpkin)
3 tablespoons peanut butter (I use the kind that is just peanuts since dogs don't brush their teeth often)

Preheat your oven to 350F.  Put all of your ingredients into a bowl.

Eggs

Pumpkin and eggs

Everything (I forgot to take a picture when I added the peanut butter but you get the idea)

Mix everything together until it can be formed into a ball (after a few minutes with the spoon I usually just dig into it with my hands (washed obviously), it mixes up a lot faster this way I feel).  If your mix is a little dry (this one was) add a tiny bit of water.  If it is a bit moist add some flour.  It should come out looking something like this:

 

Usually I still have some flour left in the bowl so I work on kneading it in and making a more rounded shape to ensure everything is incorporated evenly.

After that, roll out the dough until it is about 1/4 in thick, choose your favorite dog cookie cutter (mine just happens to be a dog bone thanks to Aaron) and cut away!

~~So many dog bones, so little time~~

The semi-finished product

Line your bones up on a cookie sheet and bake for about 20 minutes for softer bones and about 30 minutes for crunchy bones (what my boys like).  

Still raw.  

You can place your cutouts fairly close together because they don't rise or spread at all, just puff up slightly.  

In the mean time roll your scraps into another ball and continue to cut out your shape until all dough is gone (the little balls on the bottom were what was left of the dough after I ran out of room to cut out shapes).

 They were trying to be so patient...they love it when I cook for them!

Allow your treats to cool before giving them to your dogs.  They do awful at blowing on their food before consuming it!

Store in a zip top bag or some other sort of container that limits the amount of air allowed to flow in and out.  I am not sure how long they will last as they go pretty quick around here, but I would probably not push it over a few weeks.  I hope your dog enjoys these as much as my two have!

Here is the link where I got the original recipe pumpkin peanut butter dog treats

Taking Time

I am sorry to everyone who follows this blog that I have not been updating it as often as I would have liked to.  I have run into some health issues and have had very little energy to whip up food in the kitchen.  That being said, hopefully these issues will be resolving themselves in the next few weeks and I will be working my way back into the kitchen and creating whatever comes to my mind.  I am already feeling a lot stronger than I have been the past month and I hope to continue to move forward.

I have been doing some cooking, and have tried out a few recipes but lately my favorite has to be one that Aaron came up with.  He made ham stew about 2 weeks ago in the slow cooker and it was delicious!  The house smelled like Doritos for a while for whatever reason, but the flavor was fantastic!  It has been great to take to work and heat up after a cold night outside!  Below is the recipe for the most part as he made it.  He did add corn meal instead of corn starch to thicken it, but it just gives it a bit of a different texture.

Aaron's Ham Soup

Honey glazed ham with bone in
4 red potatoes (good sized)
1 onion
1 can of corn (or use fresh)
1 can of carrots (or use fresh)
1 can of green beans (or use fresh)
Enough water to cover everything
Chili Powder, Mrs. Dash, Pepper, Garlic, Seasoning Salt (any other seasoning you would like)
Corn starch to thicken if you wish

Chunk up potatoes and onions into smallish chunks (bite sized or 2 bite sized, your choice).  Dice up ham to bite sized pieces.  Put ham, potatoes, canned veggies, water, and seasoning into crockpot.  Cook on low for 8 hours.  After 8 hours, if potatoes are not cooked through, bump heat up to high for 4 hours.  If you wish, add corn starch (or flour if that is your thing) to thicken and make more of a stew than a soup.  Enjoy!