Recipe: Christmas Cookie Dog Treats

My other dog treat recipes (which you can find here and here) have both been so popular that they, along with the holiday season, inspired me to create a new one.  I go crazy at the holidays making eight to ten different types of cookies for humans and this year I thought to myself, "why should we have all the fun?  Lucy deserves some Christmas cookies too!"  This lead me to create a gingerbread dog treat recipe similar to the (human) gingerbread cookies I make every year, but with all dog safe ingredients.  These smell amazing they must taste great too because Lucy just goes wild over them!  I'm even planning on giving them to some of Lucy's little doggie friends as a Christmas gift from her since the recipe makes so many treats.  Now the dogs in my life (and yours) can be included in one of my favorite parts of the holiday season!

Ingredients:

-2 cups gluten free flour*

-2 tsp. ground ginger

-1 tsp. ground cinnamon

-1/4 tsp. ground cloves

-2 eggs

-1/4 cup molasses

-1/2 cup coconut oil, melted

-1/2 cup + 2 tbsp. water

*I used 1 cup coconut flour and 1 cup rice flour, but any gluten free flour will work.

Instructions:

-Mix gluten free flour, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, and ground cloves until combined.

-Add eggs, molasses, melted coconut oil, and water, mixing between the addition of each ingredient.

-Mix until fully combined.

-Shape dough into 1/2 teaspoon balls and place on cookie sheet.

-Using a fork, flatten the treats (you can press the fork into the dough just once, like I did, or twice and create a criss cross design).

-Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.

-Transfer from cookie sheet onto wire cooling rack. -Allow to completely cool before giving to your pup. -Store in an airtight container.
{This yields 86 1/2 teaspoon cookies, you can freeze both the dough and baked treats to use later and keep fresh longer.}

                    

Recipe: Holiday Dinner Dog Treats

You guys loved my last dog treat recipe so much that I decided to create another one!  I wanted to make something for the holidays for Lucy and was inspired by a classic holiday dinner.  I figured why should only humans get to enjoy food this time of year?  Our sweet pups deserve to too!  We also had a doggie family member coming for Thanksgiving so I decided to make these so that both dogs would get something special.  Let me tell you these were a HUGE hit!  Both dogs were completely obsessed with them and could not get enough.  Needless to say these didn't stick around for long since every dog I gave them to loved them!  These treats will be great all year long, but it's especially fun to spoil your pup around the holidays with treats inspired by what we're eating.  My first batch of these are already gone and I'm planning to make another next week since Lucy enjoys them so much.  This recipe is easy, healthy, and sure to make your pup(s) very happy this holiday season!

Ingredients:

-1 cup pureéd pumpkin

-1/2 cup cooked, mashed sweet potato*

-1 10 oz can white chunk chicken breast, shreaded

-1 egg

-1 1/2 cups gluten free flour**

*I cooked two small sweet potatoes in the microwave for about 10 minutes, scraped them out of their skins, and allowed to cool.

**I used rice flour.

Instructions:

-Mix pumpkin and sweet potato until combined.

-Add chicken, egg, and flour mixing between the addition of each ingredient.

-Mix until fully combined.

-Shape dough into 1/2 teaspoon balls and place on cookie sheet.

-Using a fork, flatten the treats (you can press the fork into the dough just once, like I did, or twice and create a criss cross design).

-Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.

-Transfer from cookie sheet onto wire cooling rack. -Allow to completely cool before giving to your pup. -Store in an airtight container.

{This yields 90 1/2 teaspoon cookies, you can freeze both the dough and baked treats to use later and keep fresh longer.}

                    

Recipe: Apple Peanut Butter Dog Treats

So it's no secret that I love my dog and I love to spoil her rotten!  This past Sunday Lucy graduated from puppy school and I decided to make dog treats to put in little goody bags for all the pups in the class.  The class we took with Lucy at PetSmart was 6 weeks long and she loved the other dogs so I figured it would be cute to do something for all of them!  I was able to bring each dog 10 treats in a little cellophane bag and brought some to the trainer for his dogs at home too.  I probably seemed a little crazy, but everyone was appreciative of the little gift and I'm glad I was able to spoil all the pups for their graduation!

I had made treats for Coco in the past, but she didn't like them and I didn't have the recipe I used so I went on Pinterest to search recipes.  I read a few recipes for inspiration and then came up with my own.  These cookies remind me so much of human peanut butter cookies, but just made with dog safe ingredients (aka no white sugar).  They smelled amazing while I was making them and I wanted to give them a try, but I'm allergic to apples so my Mom tried them for me and said they were good.  Lucy also goes crazy for them, which made me so happy!  This recipe is easy, healthy, and sure to make your pup(s) very happy.

Ingredients:

-2 cups gluten free flour*

-1 cup oats

-2 eggs

-1/2 cup smooth peanut butter**

-1 1/2 cups applesauce

-1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

*I used a mix of coconut flour, rice flour, and Arrowhead Mills Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Mix.

**Make sure the peanut butter does not contain Xylitol.

Instructions:

-Mix gluten free flour and oats until combined.

-Add eggs, peanut butter, applesauce, and melted coconut oil mixing between the addition of each ingredient.

-Mix until fully combined.

-Shape dough into 1/2 teaspoon balls and place on cookie sheet.

-Using a fork, flatten the treats (you can press the fork into the dough just once, like I did, or twice and create a criss cross design).

-Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

-Transfer from cookie sheet onto wire cooling rack. -Allow to completely cool before giving to your pup. -Store in an airtight container.

{This yields 128 1/2 teaspoon cookies, you can freeze both the dough and baked treats to use later and keep fresh longer.}

Have you ever made dog treats before?