Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Acorn Squash Sweet Treat!

I made some acorn squash for ME but did not put any oil/butter or sugar because I am trying to stay away from those ingredients and I just did not like it without the sweetness so instead of composting it, I just made some treats for the dogs!



1 cooked acorn squash *
1 apple peeled
1 teaspoon blueberry flax seed
1 egg
1 T peanut butter powder
dash of cinnamon
1/2 cup frozen cherries (defrosted)
sprinkle of pumpkin seeds

Put everything in food processor (but not the pumpkin seeds) and blend until well mixed.

Put on a tray lined with foil and spray with coconut oil.

Sprinkle ground up pumpkin seeds on top (you don't have to do this)

Cook at 375 for 45 minutes

*  cooking acorn squash:  have someone strong cut in half and take out the seeds.  Spray some oil on the flesh and cook at 375 for like 45 minutes in a square dish with a little water in it.

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Cherry Tricker!

  Even though I have been home cooking for six years, I sometimes buy treats for my Bichons for my husband to give to them. For some reason, my husband rather open a crunchy bag than grab a homemade treat in the frig (possibly cause the frig is packed with food he could not find the treats if his life depended on it)!

Because I just had my gall bladder out, I went to Petsmart and bought a few "special" treats for hubby to give the dogs while I was recouperating.  Gosh, it is so tempting walking down the treat aisle.  All the food companies have such enticing packaging, you want to buy one of everything!

Well I purchased some Blue Buffulo Kitchen Craving Homestyle Beef Sausages.  I was attracted to them cause they were soft and since one of my bichons, Snow lost 20 teeth, all my treats for him must be soft.  I triple checked the ingredients to make sure it had NO poultry of any kind, since my other Bichon, Bella is allergic to poultry products.

I started giving them the treats two days prior to surgery and Snow on two occasions pooped in the house.  I thought that was VERY strange because he does not poop in the house but I had no idea why he pooped.  Over the course of my recovery, he continued to poop in the house and then it FINALLY dawned on me, it was the Blue Bufalo treats!!!  Some of the questionable ingredients were:  gelatin, vegetable glycerin and skim milk,  I never ever give my dogs milk and do not suggest you give your dogs milk.

Anyway, today I returned all the treats and just made up a new treat for my babies using a new ingredient, cherries!  This is a sweet treat but I trick them by putting in a cup of kale for a punch of fiber, calcium, potassium and vitamin E!

2 cups uncooked oats
 1  1/2 t flax/pumpkin powder*
2 t peanut butter powder**
1/2 t cinnamom

1 cup uncooked kale

4 oz unsweetened apple sauce
3/4 cup frozen cherries (double check for pits even though they are pitted) You can buy at Costco
1 egg

Coconut Oil Spray

Put the oats, flax/pumpkin powder and peanut butter powder in food processor and process until it resembles flour.  Pour into a dish and reserve.



Put the Kale in the processor and process until it is tiny in size.


Mix the apple sauce, cherries and egg to the kale and the pour in the reserved flour mixture and process together until combined.

Get a small baking pan, line it with foil and spray with Coconut Oil.  Pour mixture into pan, do not spread out too much. I like to have my treats thick, so I only spread out some.

Bake in a preheated 375 oven for 23 minutes.  This is NOT a hard treat but a nice soft treat.

Remove from pan, cool and then cut into squares and freeze in pan.  Once frozen, you can put in a plastic freezer bag and since they were frozen the treats will not stick together.



I have a tubberware in frig that I keep around 8 treats at a time and take more out from freeze when I need to replenish.


*flax seed/pumpkin seed powder:  I get 1/2 cup of flax seeds (I use the blueberry flax seeds from Trader Joes) and put 1/2 cup unsalted pumpkin seeds and blend them together in my Vitamix.  I store the powder in my freezer and put in all my recipes. It is great way to add  anti-oxidants and essentail amino acids.

** Peanut butter is high fat and does should not have a lot of fat but they love peanut butter.  Peanut butter powder is relatively new on the market, it has all the taste of peanut butter with like 80% less fat!  You can find it at Walmart and Target where they sell peanut butter.