Dog-approved Chicken Treats

So easy to make. Our first recipe will be gratefully gobbled up by your Boston Terrier pack as fast as you can make them!

Ingredients

 ½ lb chicken breasts, cubed

• ¾ cup water

• 2 ¼ cup ground flax (substitute oat bran or rice bran if you wish)

HOW-TO STEP

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. In pot, boil chicken in water; reserve cooking water.

2. Add cooked chicken and cooking water to your blender. Secure lid and blend into a batter-like consistency. Add ground flax and pulse until ingredients are incorporated.

3. Roll dough into 1-inch balls, and place on baking sheet. Use back of spoon dipped in water to slightly flatten balls. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Makes 30 treats.

For smaller dogs, reduce ball size to ¼ or ½ inch and reduce cooking time by a few minutes.

Will keep in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to two weeks.¹ I try to keep special treats that my dogs love for training or positive reinforcement of behaviors. This is one of their favorites, and for this reason I have reduced the ball size to very small.

NUMBER 2

Our next recipe is for main meals instead of commercial kibble.  This is an adapted basic meatloaf.

Spoil your dogs with Meatloaf
Adapting a basic meatloaf recipe that uses lean meats and adding different grains and vegetables for variety. There are so many ways you can work with this to adapt it to your dogs diet or tastes and the costs of the ingredients.

NOTE: Some dog owners may decide to add a little finely chopped garlic, but it can easily be left out.

Another great fact I should mention, you can make a batch or two and freeze them. For those who want to make their own dog food, but work or are very busy, this is another advantage of this recipe. Use beef, ground turkey, chicken, or lamb, but avoid pork or veal, which can be too fatty. In place of the oatmeal, you can try other whole grains, such as brown rice or quinoa.

Ready!  Set!  Go!
Preheat the oven to 350°F and place the oven rack in the middle slot.

Mix all the ingredients together with your hands.

Transfer the mixture to a loaf pan, or use a 13-by-9-inch baking dish and form a loaf in the center.

You can also use a roasting pan, just space the loaf in the middle of it, you can cook potatoes or sweet potatoes in the pan at the same time also. Bake for 1 hour.
Feed according to your dog’s size and calorie needs.
INGREDIENTS
• 2 pounds ground turkey or other meat
• 1 cup cooked organic oatmeal
• 3/4 cup organic flax seed meal or breadcrumbs
• 1/2 cup fresh organic parsley, finely chopped
• 2 large organic eggs
• 2 cups fresh or frozen organic vegetables (Use a variety of vegetables, such as peas, corn, diced cooked potatoes, and grated carrots; do not include onion.)
Optional: pulverized calcium, chopped pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds. Can substitute bread crumbs for the flax seed meal.²

Our third recipe is on the sweet side... and yes, you could eat all of these foods we have picked, but remember we are really making them for the dogs!

Honey Cinnamon Dog Treats
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
3 eggs
¾ cup honey
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 (15oz.) can pumpkin puree
 

What you will need:
Bowl
Mini muffin tin
Cooking spray
Mixing spoon
Instructions
1.  Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly in a bowl. It may take a bit of effort to get the honey to fully mix, but it will blend eventually.
2.  Spray the muffin tin so the dog treats won't stick.
3.  Add the mixture to the muffin tin so each muffin cup is about two-thirds full.
4.  Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes.
5.  Cool the treats completely before serving them to your dog.³

OUR fourth recipe may have to wait until this summer and you can share them with your human family too!

Watermelon Yogurt Smoothie ice cube treats
The ease of preparing these ice cube treats is also helpful too. And being frozen means a great shelf life ready in a moment for hot weather outside treats.
Ingredients:
     2 cups yogurt (one of these days I am going to make my own. )
 1-1/2  cups watermelon, pureed
 2 tablespoons honey (optional)
Directions:
Place yogurt in container. Place watermelon in blender or food processor and puree. Mix and add honey if desired. Freeze in ice cube molds.
Freezing Directions:
Alternate options include freezing in silicone muffin cups or Popsicle molds or ice cube trays.

AFTER freezing, divide among quart freezer bags and refreeze. To serve: Remove from freezer molds, serve as-is.

¹ moderndogmagazine.com

² Adapted from Eco Dog by Corbett Marshall and Jim Deskevich, photographs by Aimée Herring. Reprinted by arrangement with Chronicle Books. Copyright © 200

³ ehow.com