Easy (and healthy!) homemade dog treats

My dogs, losing their minds after I pulled out the peanut butter treats

Let me preface this post by saying I’m not a crazy dog person. I don’t dress my dogs up daily (only on special occasions) or walk them around the neighborhood in baby strollers. I don’t take them everywhere with me or have hundreds of photos plastered around my desk (they live discretely on my phone).

So maybe I’m a little crazy about my dogs.

But that craziness is not what led to my latest baking endeavor: homemade dog treats. The real impetus was my love for baking and non-love for having delicious, tempting treats around the house that I will likely eat with abandon. So rather than risk increasing my waistline, I decided to bake for my two pups and, as a bonus, know that I was giving them healthy treats sans fillers and artificial ingredients.

Frozen Peanut Butter Yogurt Dog Treats

I found two great recipes on CaesarsWay.com, renowned dog trainer Cesar Millan’s website. The first, Frozen Peanut Butter Yogurt Dog Treats, are apparently a dog’s dream – at least based on how my dogs reacted. After tasting their first one, they clawed at the freezer door, hoping it would open and dispense more frozen, creamy goodness.

The great thing about these treats is that they consist of two ingredients – peanut butter and vanilla yogurt – and take all of 15 minutes to make. Definitely worth trying, especially as the mercury starts to rise.

Basic Dog Biscuits

The second recipe, Basic Dog Biscuits, was a little more involved, but still simple. It requires rolling out dough and cutting them into shapes (if you’re so inclined, as I was) before baking. Making these requires a little more time and muscle power (my arms got a nice workout), but was worth it when I watched my dogs chomp away, licking every last crumb off the floor.

Rex, happily indulging in his homemade treat

If you give these recipes a try, let me know what you – and your pup – think, or share your favorites below.

 

Related post: When Rex met Penelope

No-guilt muffins

Photo: Sweet Verbena

Happy Easter, everyone! I hope you had as great a day as I did. With my mom out of commission, due to a nasty fall this winter that left her with a torn rotator cuff, the husband and I brought some brunch fixin’s to my parents’ house and whipped up (okay, he whipped up – I’m a horrible cook) a delicious brunch.

The star of the meal? The pumpkin muffins I baked this morning (I can bake). I don’t typically share recipes, but given how easy to make and low-cal they are, I couldn’t resist. But first, I must thank Katy of Sweet Verbena for sharing it on her blog. 

To make these muffins, you need only half an hour and two ingredients: a box of cake mix – I used french vanilla – and one 15-ounce can of pumpkin. The results are delicious muffins with a moist, cake-like consistency and a hint of pumpkin flavor. And because they are egg-, butter- and everything else fattening-free, there’s no guilt (if you’re a Weight Watchers points counter, they are only two points each if you make 18 from the batter). 

One watch-out: The recipe says to bake them for 20 to 25 minutes; however, I found I had to put them back into the oven for an extra 10 minutes to bake them through. Plan for 30 or 35 minutes instead, and keep a close eye on them.

Give them a try and let me know what you think!