Thanksgiving with a Buddy

This is Buddy. 

Buddy is about 12-yrs-old and thinks his life is really rough (this picture was taken after he ate his morning dose of scrambled eggs). As with most Bassett Hounds, he always looks depressed. Unless, he is out on a "speed walk" with his human companions.... He REALLY perks up when he hears the familiar click of his leash coming off during these walks and he is FREE to roam!

This is Buddy's best friend Ollie: 

She showed him how to use the dog door (complete with a look of superiority). She is older than Buddy, but can still bat a suspicious piece of plastic around like no other. 

This is Buddy playing "Fashion Girls":

These are Buddy's new favorite treats:

Remember last week when I said I was going to make gingerbread dog treats? Well, I got a little sidetracked and went to the movie instead (With five kids and adult family members!). The dough, which has to chill for 3.5 hrs, ended up chilling for more like three days. BUT, they turned out fine!! Baking them was a rush job since I was heading back home in the morning. So, there was no cookie cutters and kids involved. Instead, it was me using the old peanut butter cookie technique of fork impressions. The important thing to note is that Buddy LOVED them. And he is a very picky eater... unless it is Prime Rib. 

Where is my Prime Rib?

"Chocolate" Chip Cookies

One of my favorite cookies can also be eaten by my dog! We share. These cookies are vegan, gluten free and have carob chips in them.... and I really don't feel all that guilty if I eat half the batch in one day. In fact, I have been known to give them to my (human) kids for lunch. Here are the ingredients:

• 1 can of chickpeas
• 5/8 c. of natural peanut butter (usually I just "guesstimate" on this measurement)... and yes, using the natural peanut butter does work better than Skippy of Jiff for some reason.
• 1/4 c. honey
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. baking powder 
• 1/2 c. of carob chips (as I human, I prefer CHOCOLATE chips. But if you want to share with your dog, use carob chips because chocolate is poisonous to our four-legged friends.)

All you have to do is blend the ingredients (minus the carob chips) in a blender:

The peanut butter has not been added in, yet! I usually heat the honey and peanut butter up for about 10 sec. in the microwave before I blend.

 Stir in the carob chips:

And spoon onto a baking sheet (no need to grease it):

 

Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes:

I should warn you, when you eat them you will not think "OMG! These taste EXACTLY like a chocolate chip cookie." Because they don't, they have chickpeas in them!!! BUT, they are delicious. I like them better when they are warm. IF you happen to have leftovers the next day, just microwave them! My (human) kids love them warm or cold and don't realize they are eating something healthy. Shhhhh.... don't tell them! My dogs don't really care whether it's healthy or not... they just think I am awesome! AND... Honey has almost the same health benefits to your dog as it does for you (Google it)! But, don't over do it when feeding your dogs honey. It's a sugar and extra calories.1 tsp of honey a day (or less) should suffice. And last, like human babies, honey should not be fed to puppies.

Chicken Noodle Soup!!

Occasionally, on those really hectic days, I swing by the grocery store to buy a rotisserie chicken for dinner. After my family has devoured most of the meat, I use the left over scraps (bones included) to make chicken broth. Lots and lots of chicken broth that can be froze and used for any future recipe.

I should first note, that some of these pictures contain ingredients like ONIONS or GARLIC (I was making it for humans, not dogs). Never give you dogs onion (or garlic). It's poisonous. And when in doubt about your ingredients, you can always double check on this Humane Society link.  Here are some ingredients that are good for dogs that would be good in any chicken stock:

• Parsley
• Greek Oregano
• Basil Thyme
• Carrot
• Celery
• Green Beans
• Peas 
• Squash

and of course:

• Chicken scraps and bones 

Now for the chicken broth steps: First grab a giant stock pot with a colander that fits inside of it.

 

Next grab your ingredients. In this picture, I have some carrots, green beans and kale. I also added celery. As a general rule of thumb, celery and carrots are a good base for any soup stock. Chop your ingredients into big chunks. There is no need for finely dicing anything. That will just waste your time.

 

 

Next, throw all your chunks into the big stock pot...including the chicken scraps and bones (p.s. the secret to any good soup stock is having BONES). Add your seasonings and fill up the pot with water. Please don't use salt if you are going to give it to your dog. ***The below photo has ONIONS. DON'T USE ONIONS (this was my human version)***

Bring it to a boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer (uncovered) for a couple hours and the liquid has reduced a couple of inches. Your house will smell AMAZING and you might have trouble keeping your dogs out of the kitchen!

Once the stock has cooled enough that you won't scald yourself or end up in the emergency room with serious burns, take the pot over to the sink and carefully lift the colander out. TAADAA!! You have beautiful chicken broth that is WAY healthier and cheaper than grocery store bought.

 After that, you can make wonderful Chicken Noodle soup for your dog... and you (you might want to add some salt to your own bowl...)

Pumpkin Roasting

Fall is quickly coming. Soon it will be time for pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin bread... pretty much pumpkin anything and everything. Did you know that pumpkin is an amazing food for your dog (or cat)? Pumpkin helps with digestion, urinary health and weight loss (Google it!). BUT, you do not want to give your dog canned pumpkin PIE filling. It has sugar and spices that are not so good for them. Instead, opt for the plain canned stuff or you can easily roast your own pumpkins!

This summer, I grew sugar pumpkins for the first time and just found out TODAY that I can roast them in the oven whole! This makes the infamous "cutting and gutting" a lot less time consuming. In fact, I roasted seven little pumpkins, cut them and froze them today.... all on a whim! Here is the process:

Beautiful pumpkins. Note how I placed them next to various other fruits in an attempt to show you the approximate size of a sugar pumpkin? Yes, that is a green tomato in the background... It was a casualty of my garden hose and now must be fried.




















Preheat the oven to 350. Cut slits around your pumpkin and break off the stems.





















Place the pumpkin(s) on a baking sheet and slide into the oven! Bake for approximately 30-minutes or until a knife can be inserted easily.  Once done, take the pumpkin(s) out of the oven and allow them to cool. This part takes a while, so you may want to do some housework, run some errands or take a nap.

Once cool, you start the cutting up part. First, slice off the ends and stand it upright. Next, slice the skin off.

  

Slice the pumpkin in half and scrape the guts out with a spoon. 

It should look like this when you are done...

 

Now Dice....

...and store...

Put it all into the freezer!! Now you can use as much or little as you want with out it going to waste. Give your little puppy a frozen pumpkin cube, bake it, cook it or puree it.... endless opportunities for pumpkin recipes.

Pretzel shaped dog treats

 I found this recipe on Babble and decided to give it a try. I did one alteration: I substituted water for the chicken stock. I make my own chicken stock and was wary of giving it to a dog, because I put quite a bit of onion and garlic in it....and a lot of salt. The substitute did not seem to affect the results.

 
The Ingredients:
2 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1/4 c. skim milk powder
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. baking powder
1 c. water
2 tbsp. olive oil
sesame seeds for sprinkles

 Next, I gathered my helpers......

 .... and we mixed everything together. I like to mix all the dry ingredients before I add the wet ingredients. Once, the mixture starts to stick together and becomes hard to stir, I use my hands to form it into a ball (think play-doh). We let our dough ball sit for ten minutes....












Then, we rolled out long logs and shaped them into pretzels!!! It took a little practice to figure out how thick and long the log should be in order to get the right sized pretzel and shape. Once shaped and on the pan, they got sprinkled with the sesame seeds.

 Bake at 350-degrees F. for 20 minutes. Turn off the oven, leaving the pretzels inside as it cools. This will help them harden.

 Done!!

Try them on an unsuspecting dog that performs tricks for food (she LOVED them!).....

 

The End!!

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