DIY Dog Treats

Seriously - how could you resist this face? 

I mean come on. Look at that boy. 

For our spring DIY day - we decided to take care of our puppies and make DIY dog treats for our fur babies! I found recipes on the internet for baked, no bake and frozen! (All at the end with links) Best of all - you probably have all the ingredients in your house right now to make these treats! (And even try them yourself.)

The baked ones were really easy - whole wheat flour & baby food. Mix & roll out dough...

Then use fun cookie cutters for the shapes...

And bake! They get puffy and are very light. We tried all of the treats (haha - seriously) because they are edible. These were really bland. Why would a dog like these? But they do! 

Also - we did not double this recipe but we did split it into 2 batches - one for each jar of baby food (rather not mix beef and sweet potato). This makes a LOT of cookies! Depending on the baby food - you might need to add a bit of water. One was less moist than the other. 

Next up was no bake! And coincidentally - this is the same recipe all over Pinterest for "no bake energy bites". So this one is most definitely people & dog friendly. You mix oats (we used quick cooking), peanut butter, honey and granola (I know - sounds good - right?!).

Form into balls and refrigerate. Boom. Done. These were a big hit with the dogs (and us - seriously - they were tasty!)

For the three of us - looking back - I might have doubled this. This was the most popular in taste and made the fewest. 

Last up were the frozen ones - again - super simple! Mix together a banana, peanut butter, honey and yogurt - then drop it with a melon baller into ice cube trays or cleaned, used egg cartons. Then you freeze overnight. Frosty Paws in about five minutes - and no preservatives or chemicals! 

We tried this as well - I don't like smoothies (cuz I don't like yogurt) but that's basically what this is. Having said that - after trying a little bite - pretty tasty! 

As far as quantity - we doubled this one but probably didn't need to - it made quite a bit. 

After all that - then the real test - we all tried them - but what about our dear sweet Tucker?

Yeah - he loved them - all of them! We had to cut him off. 

DIY day is really my favorite girlfriend activity now - it's so much fun planning what we're going to do and then working together to make something fun! This one was really fun since all three of us have dogs - it was great to find out later if everybody's pooches were as happy as Tucker (they were).

I purposely looked for really simple recipes - there are ones that are far more complicated - but we're there to spend time with each other - not make a 20 ingredient, 30 step recipe. These were super simple, really cheap and best of all - dog approved! Mysty, Murphy and Tucker all agreed on that!

I think next month is bath treats or jam - depending on when we can fit it in! (I'm hoping for jam!)

Here are all of the recipes - enjoy! 

BAKED (from Curbly.com)

Ingredients:

§  2 cups 100% organic whole wheat flour (or wheat germ, or spelt, or rolled oats, or a mixture of these, etc.)

§  2 (4oz) jars of pureed baby food - beef, blueberry, sweet potato, chicken - whatever. Just make sure there are no onions/onion powder in it*.  Avoid any with artificial preservatives (should be easy, most are just pureed veggies and water).

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°.

2. Mix together to form a stiff dough. If necessary, add extra flour or water as needed.

3. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to about a 1/4 inch thick. Use cookie cutters to cut into desired shape or a pizza cutter to make cubes.

4. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, place treats about 1/2 inch apart. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes.  Allow to cool completely before storing in a paper bag (storing in an air-tight container will make them soft, but they're still edible).

NO BAKE (from Ingredients, Inc.)

Prep: 15 minutes

Yield: 12 to 16 servings

Ingredients

1 cup oats
1/2 cup peanut or almond butter
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup granola

Preparation

1. Stir all ingredients together in a medium bowl until thoroughly combined. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Remove from the refrigerator and roll into 1-inch balls. Store in an airtight container between wax paper and keep refrigerated for up to 1 week.

FROZEN (from Creative Little Bird)

1 banana

2 tbls creamy peanut butter

2 tbls honey

2 or 3 6oz. yogurt cups — this is where you can get creative. I usually use vanilla but one time, all I had was strawberry and mixed berry so I made them with that and they loved those as well!

Blend ingredients together in a bowl, and I like to use a melon baller to scoop them into a mini cupcake pan. (If you don’t have a mini cupcake pan then you could use ice cube trays.) Then freeze overnight, pop out with a knife and store them in the freezer! I usually bag about 5-6 treats per baggie. Brody comes running when he hears the freezer and a zip-lock baggie opening!