Homemade Frosty Paws

With the weather warming up, I thought that this was a good time to share a recipe for some frozen treats for the dogs.  This one is a favorite with the basenjis here at Kinetic.

 

Tuna Trianing Treats

I am just not very good at keeping up to date on these blogs.  But today, I have ventured back into the kitchen to make some soft training treats for the dogs.  This one isn't from a book so I will will share the whole recipe.

 

3, 5oz cans of tuna in water

2 eggs

1 3/4 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350.  Puree the tuna with the water until smooth, add the eggs blend well.  In a mixing bowl add flour to the tuna mixture.  It should end up being a similar consistency to brownies.  I put parchement paper down in a cookie sheet then spread mixture over the parchment paper.  Cook for 15 minutes.  Remove from oven, lift treats out of cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Cool and cut using pizza cutter into bite sized squares.

Chef's Salad

Well, we started to get low on our Down Home Dinner from two weeks ago so I decided it was time to try a new entree.  The one that I selected is called Chef's salad.  This one is a fish based meal.

Tuna $6.00

Brown Rice $0.99

Pear $0.83

Dark Leafy Greens $0.47

Carrot $0.10

Yogurt $0.65

Total $9.04

The recipe is really easy to prepare.  The only real prep work was grating the carrot, peeling and chopping the pear, and cooking the rice.  Then it all gets mixed in a big bowl and then I packed it in containers for freezing.  I did mix the veggies in with the rice while the rice was still hot in order to lightly cook them.  If you use canned tuna, which is what I did, make sure to break up the chunks so it gets well distributed through the rice.

Cinnamon Treasures

We are still using up the food from last week so this week I tried another of the treat recipes.  This time I went with Cinnamon Treasures.

Wheat Flour $0.13

Steel Cut Oats $0.93

Vegetable Oil $0.40

Chicken Stock $0.50

Baking Powder $0.14

Carrot $0.10

Cinnamon $0.87

Total $3.11

 The prep time was probably more like 10-15 minutes instead of the 20 minutes estimated.  The longest part is grating the carrot.  The hardest part is spreading the dough out thinly across the pan.  Really try to start with most of it in the center and then just push it outwards.  It won't get crisp if it is not spread thinly but the dogs really don't care either way.  I scored the dough with a knife before cooking so they could easily be broken into squares and that worked prefectly. 

I wasn't sure how the cinnamon would go over with the dogs but they love it.  It makes a great training treat because I can break them up easily into even smaller pieces.

Down Home Dinner Cont'd

Well, it is all done and packaged into nice containers.  Of course, as soon as I got it all packaged, I realized that I forgot to add the cheese, DOH!  With that exception it all went smoothly.  It does take a little while to strip the chicken of its meat.  If you don't mind spending a little more to save time you could probably buy some boneless skinless breasts and thighs and then just have to cut them up after cooking.  They would also cook faster than the whole chicken takes to cook.  If you do that you also will need to by some liver to add in also. 

The dogs were eager to have some as soon as they could smell the chicken.  They thoroughly enjoyed it as their dinner tonight.  We will see how they like it tomorrow when it is cold.

Down Home Dinner

It has been a week since I tried the Apple Molasses Delights.  They were a big hit with all four dogs.  Today I am going to try out one of the entrees in the book, Down Home Dinner.  So we will start with the cost of ingredients.

Whole Chicken $4.50

Carrots $0.17

Barley $0.99

Cheddar Cheese $0.30

Total $5.96

You will also need to add 500mg of calcium per 1 cup serving.  I have been saving my egg shells and drying them to grind.  You will need 1/2 teaspoon per pound of food if you use eggshells. 

Right now, I have cooked the liver, heart, and gizzard from the chicken and once cool will dice it.  The rest of the chicken is roasting while the barley is cooking.  We will see how it goes once all the ingredients are cooked and I get all the meat off the chicken and I get to the combining step.  So far it has been pretty straight forward.  Not sure if I have a big enough bowl to do all the mixing.

The Taste Test
So today the basenjis all tried the Apple Molasses Delights.  Sophie wolfs them down, Rio chews like a chewie savoring each bite, Nicky and Rally are somewhere in between.  I think the next time I try the recipe I will bake them an extra minute or two so they are a little crisper.

Apple Molasses Delights

So the first recipe I am giving a shot is the Apple Molasses Delilghts.

To calculate the cost of making the treats I will just divide the purchase cost of the ingredients by the amount used.

Wheat Flour $0.29

Rolled Oats $0.26

1 Apple $0.49

Egg $0.18

Vegetable Oil $0.40

Molasses $0.62

Water FREE

Total $2.24

The prep time was pretty much the 15 minutes the book estimated if you don't count the distractions from the dogs asking to go in and out.  In my oven they were done in 30 minute.  I was able to make 28 treats cut in strips sort of like bread sticks.  Will post the taste test tomorrow once they have had a chance to cool off. 

What This Blog is About

It is often said that making your own treats and food for your dogs costs about as much or less than buying them at a pet store and gives you the benefit of controlling the quality of ingredients.  So I have decided to give it a try and do my best to blog about how it turns out.

To get me started on this endeavor I went out and purchased a book with a variety recipes that I can try for my dogs.  The book is The Healthy Dog Cookbook by Jonna Anne with Mary Straus.  The book cost $19.99 at Borders.