FINALLY. TREATS FOR THE DOGS!

OK....so today I finally made something WITHOUT any of the following ingredients: butter, sugar, white flour, more butter, more sugar and sugary decorations. Instead, I carefully selected some healthful ingredients to create some delicious (?) dog treats. They resemble human peanut butter cookies. Here's why:

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup plain oatmeal
1/8 cup oat bran
1/2 cup unsweetened banana chips, crushed
1/2 cup natural crunchy peanut butter (I used Trader Joes no salt added version)
2 cups of hot water

DIRECTIONS:
preheat oven to 350 degrees
crush banana chips in a bowl (I used the back of a glass for my crushing)
mix dry ingredients in a bowl: flour, oatmeal, oat bran and banana chips
add peanut butter and water and knead dough (sprinkle in additional water if dry ingredients remain).
with hands, roll out balls of dough and place on a cookie sheet.
with a fork, press dough balls down and make a cute crosshatch design on top (they DO look like people cookies)
bake for 40 mins, and turn oven off and allow to cool in oven overnight.

I cruised the internet for ideas, ingredients and inspiration. I found a lot of good places to start on this website: http://www.dogtreatkitchen.com
They do a nice job of explaining which foods to avoid with dogs, as well as provided THIS recipe that I expanded on.

I gave the dogs a smidgen of the dough and they liked it. I'm excited to see how they feel about the final product. They were pretty tired from running around in the snow, and running errands with me earlier, so they weren't much company in the kitchen today. Good thing they make such excellent couch companions!



I had to add in our new pal, Huxley, enjoying his delicious treats! He is being SUCH a good boy, patiently waiting for it to be OK to chomp his cookie! The expressions on his little face are priceless....