Hi everyone! I know it has been a long time since I have posted. My 19 year old daughter was diagnosed with cancer and 100% of my time was to be a care giver. Throughout the entire journey I kept up with home cooking for my dogs because I refused buying commercial dog food.

I just started an Instagram sharing all my homecooking secrets I have learned over the past 12 years

I will also be starting a new blog channel and YouTube in the next few Months

https://instagram.com/cutthekibble?igshid=r8yl91x3sh89

Click on the link above to follow me.  Tell me what you want to learn about

Pancakes for Breakfast

I have been home cooking for my two Bichons, Snow and Bella for the past 9 years.  Over the past 9 months, at times, Snow is not interested in my food.  My husband keeps telling me he is tired of the same food.  I do try to alternate veggies with their protein source but this morning I tried something really different and made them pancakes and oh my, Snow devoured it!!!

Here is my recipe but you can substitute any fruit you want.

1 cup oats (like from what you would make oatmeal, not quick cooking)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground pumpkin seeds *
1/2 teaspoon flax seed *
1/2 cup apple sauce (no sugar added)
1 ripe banana
1 teaspoon peanut butter powder
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons of coconut oil
1 teaspoon hot water
1 teaspoon hot water


Combine the oats with the cinnamon, pumpkin seeds and flax seeds in a food processor until it resembles flour consistency.  Add apple sauce, banana, powder peanut butter and egg and coconut oil
and mix well.  Mix the hot water with the baking soda in a little monkey dish and then put into batter.

Heat a griddle with coconut oil and add batter to your desired size.

I made a little peanut butter syrup by just mixing water with peanut butter powder and drizzled it on top of pancakes.  I served the pancakes with a scrambled egg, a little liver cake and blueberries.

**** I buy raw pumpkin seeds and whole flax seeds and run them together through my Vitamix and then store the powder in my freezer and add to all my recipes.

LOL, I had texted to my daughter using the voice recognition for not to eat the left over pancakes and this is how it came out, BOL!

Zucchini Treats

Wow, it has been a long time since my last post! It has been a LONG Winter!

 I got inspired the other day seeing nice tender zucchini at the market and thought it would make a nice treat for the dogs.
My motto is "whatever goes in my dogs mouth needs to be nutritious".  If you are giving your dog a treat that has just flour and peanut butter and some ingredients that you can't pronounce in the listed ingredients, what nutritional benefit is your dog getting from the treat?

If you don't have an apple, you can substitute a pear.  If you don't have zucchini, you can substitute spinach, have fun with your recipes!  The main thing is to make something nutritious for your dog!

Zucchini Treats

2 cups of oat flour (get two cups of oats and put through a food processor until it resembles flour)
1/2 teaspoon flax seed
1/2 teaspoon ground unsalted pumpkin seeds
3 small zucchini
1 small apple (peeled and seeded)
1 egg
1/4 cup quinoa* (I added just because I had some left over)
1/2 cup blue berries
2 teaspoons melted coconut oil

Combine everything together in a food processor.  Pour on a small sheet pan that is lined with parchment paper and cook in a preheated 375 degree oven for 35 minutes. These are SOFT treats!

Remove from pan keeping parchment paper on and let cool.  Then cut into small treat pieces and I store some in the frig and the others I put back on the sheet pan and put in freezer until frozen and then dump in a bag and put in freezer.  The reason I freeze them first on the sheet pan is so when you dump in freezer bag they won't stick to each other.

*If using quinoa, make sure you rinse it first to get the bitter out of it and cook it for 35 minutes and NO salt, dogs don't need salt!

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.

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.

September Sweet Treat

September Sweet Treat!

My last child just started her first day of her last year in high school!  Every year when school starts, I start my baking.  Today I made a pumpkin coffee cake that is calling my name right now but needs to cool off before I cut into it.  The recipe only called for 1 cup of pumpkin puree so I had an extra cup of pumpkin to do something with, so of course I make something for my babies!

Here is the recipe:

1 1/2 cup of oats

1/2 t ground flax seed

1/2 t ground pumpkin seed

1/2 t cinnamon

4 oz unsweetned applesauce

1 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)!

2 teaspoons of melted coconut oil

1 small smashed banana

Put the oats and next three ingredients in food processor and mix until it resembled oat flour.  Add everything else and mix until well incorporated.

Put on a pan that is lined with parchment paper and bake at 375 for aprx 25 minutes.  I do NOT spread the batter too thin because I don't like crunchy treats for my dogs

** all my treats are NOT hard but like a soft cookie because on of my bichons is missing 21 teeth!

Lake house sweet treat

I am on vacation at our lake house but even though it's a vacation the dogs need to eat. Luckily I have a food processor at this house because all my dog food goes through a food processor. Here's a little treat that I have in the oven now and if you don't have any of the ingredients you can substitute. 

Before I share the recipe I would like to point out that some people have told me they are getting recipes from Pinterest.  Just because you see a recipe online and especially if it looks so pretty shaped like a dog biscuit it does not mean it is healthy for your dog. If you see a recipe that has baking soda that is unnecessary for your dog. If you see a recipe that has milk do not use that recipe, dogs can get sick having milk. If you see a recipe that has a lot of carbs like flour AND oats do not use that recipe dogs do not need a lot of grains. If you see a recipe that you add salt don't use that recipe dogs do not need salt dogs can get sick having salt. If you see a recipe that has any form of sugar natural sugar or artificial sweetener do not use that recipe. Dogs can die if they ingest xylitol. Dogs do not need to have sugar. Sugar is bad for humans as well as dogs. You can sweeten any recipe with a little fruit  for instance applesauce. 

My philosophy when making treats is to pack fruits and or vegetables in it so they are getting some nutritional value. This particular recipe I am sharing is a sweet recipe. 

1 1/2 cups of dried oats that you make into oat flour in the food processor

1 1/2 carrots processed into little 

bits

2 teaspoons melted extra virgin coconut oil

Ground pumpkin seed and flaxseed 1 teaspoon each. (I keep a combined mixture of this in my freezer and pull it out to put in all my recipes)

2 teaspoons fennel leaves

3/4 ripe banana

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

One egg

3 tablespoons powdered peanut butter mixed with one and a half tablespoons of water

Line a small tray with Reynolds wrap and put some coconut oil* on it so the mixture will not stick. 

Put all ingredients in a food processor to mix well. Then pour onto prepared pan and bake at 350° for 30 minutes. These are not hard treats they are soft. 

Allow to cool and cut into small squares. Put some in refrigerator in a Tupperware and the rest put in the freezer. 

* this is additional coconut oil coconut or listed in the ingredients goes into the mixture.