You guys remember Stella, right? She's been on this blog before, a couple of times.
Now that we have a house, she can finally live with us! She's been staying with my parents, who love their little grand-dogger and were willing to keep her until Chris and I could have her with us. (Thanks, guys!)
And I've mentioned before that we got a new member of the family: Alby the Australian Cattle Dog-Border Collie mix. 6-ish months old, bundle of energy, super love-bug. He likes long walk on the beach (or anywhere), and chewing or licking or eating anything within his reach. Or anything out of his reach, safety tucked away in a hamper or trashcan. You know, all the places where people hide treats for puppies to find!
He was about five months old in that picture (and we have fattened him up some since. He was very skinny when he came to us). That's his favorite corner to curl up in while I'm in the kitchen, so he can keep me company.
Here are the kiddos together, hoping beyond desperate hope that I will share what I am preparing with them.
(At the time it was people cookies, so the answer was no.)
Today's recipe actually is for them, though.
My little miss Stella has itchy skin, and I read that sweet potato can help dogs with skin issues. So, I made homemade treats!
If any of y'all don't have dogs, I apologize. I have tested this on cats and confirmed they do not like them, so they really are just for dogs. But good news for y'all with dogs--the dogs loved them! Wolfed 'em and I think would eat them all day if allowed.
Granted that can be said about a lot of things, with my dogs. But they particularly seemed to like these.
Let's get down to it:
Prep time: ~5 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
5 very small sweet potatoes (or around 3-4 cups, chopped)
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup-3/4 cup oats
1 egg
Directions:
1. Peel, chop and boil your sweet potatoes until soft, about 25-30 minutes.
Once soft, drain and mash the heck out of them.
And peanut butter.
And slowly add oats until you reach the desired consistency.
This should feel like cookie dough but a little firmer, since unlike cookie dough it will not harden too much during baking. You can add flour for a crunchier cookie, but I generally feed my dogs grain-free dog foods so I didn't want to add anything more than oats to these.
P.S., Hubby and I can both confirm that this batter smells exactly like peanut butter cookie dough. It was actually a little weird, to be honest.
3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or tin foil. Since it's for doggies, no non-stick spray! Oil is not a necessary part of any doggie diet.
Roll them into 1/2 inch or smaller balls. (Prepare for sticky hands!)
They don't really spread out much so you can really pack them on there.
You can also form little bones if you like, or roll them out and cut them like Christmas cookies if you have a bone cookie cutter. The only bone cookie cutter I had was huge, so I just did this:
4 tiny balls of dough.
1 longer piece of dough rolled out between.
Squish 'em a little to keep them together.
And there you go. FYI though, only one of my little bones actually stuck together after baking.
4. Bake at 375 degrees F for ~35 minutes, until a little crispy. They will be a tad squishy, still.
Let cool, and let the dogs enjoy!
Here's Stella.
She takes it so daintily!
And little Mr. Alby.
Dogs are hard to photograph when they're wolfing stuff down out of your hand, so here's one of them waiting patiently and showing off their best "sit"s!
Stella will only gaze at you with this face, full of love and adoration, when she is sucking up because she wants something you have.
If you are curious, Hubby and I totally caved and tried them. They taste like bland, sugar-less peanut butter cookies. Not bad!
P.S., Doggie taste buds are different than ours, and they can't taste sweet the same way that we can--so don't add anything for sweetness! They don't need it. Anything that we would consider a sweetener is very likely to be bad for dogs, anyway.
Refrigerate after they're done. Enjoy! (Or shall I say, let your dogs enjoy!)
