Turkey Jerky For Your Pets

When this time of year rolls around, everyone is all hyped up over the Super Bowl. I never grew up in a sports family and thankfully I only had to deal with football on Thanksgiving when my uncles would take over the T.V. Truth be told, I am just not that into football and I don't really understand any of it, except for you aim to get the ball on the other side of the field. So it comes to no shock to a lot of people when I tell that that instead of watching football on Sunday, I plan on watching the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet. I mean seriously, you have to be blind and heartless not to find it adorable. All those puppies running around, pouncing on each other and just having a grand ol' time. Then of course there is the Kitty Halftime, which in my opinion is better than some of the performers they get for the Half Time. Half of the kittens pounce on all the cool toys zipping around and then the other half are just wide eyed wondering "Where am I?!" I really could go on and on about how awesome I think the Puppy Bowl is. Not to mention that the animals in the show are all up for adoption on petfinder.com! So not is it adorable, but it's helping them find good homes. So while all the food bloggers out there are doing appetizer posts for the Super Bowl, I will be doing one for our very special four legged furry friends.

This recipe comes from Rachael Ray's website and when I heard about the recipe I knew it was perfect. Very few ingredients, easy to make and it's something that dog, cat or even human can eat. I had no difficulty at all making these... unless you could the fact that I accidentally turned off the oven halfway through when I only meant to turn off the timer. So four hours later I go out to the oven to pull the finished jerky out of the oven and realize that not only is the oven cold but the jerky looks the same as it did 2 hours ago when I cut them. Oops! So I turned the oven back on and put them in for another two hours. The finished product turned out great and the girls gobbled them up. I did cut them into 1" by 2" strips since my cats are not the size of an Irish Wolfhound.
*This recipe makes quite a bit of treats, so I gave some to a friend who's dog is a picky eater (he doesn't like dog treats) and a cat, and she said that they loved them. She also shared some with her father's 4 dogs dogs and they sat at attention waiting to get more treats. So these were definitely a success!

• 1 pound ground turkey
• 1/2 cup grated carrot
• 2 tablespoons whole-berry cranberry sauce
• 1 tablespoon EVOO

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees . In a bowl, combine the turkey, carrot, cranberry sauce and EVOO. Spread the mixture evenly on a 9-by-11-inch foil-lined baking sheet; bake for 2 hours.
2. Carefully turn out the meat onto a large cutting board and cut into 1-by- 4-inch strips. Return the strips to the foil-lined baking sheet and bake until completely dry, about 2 more hours. Transfer to a rack and let cool before storing in the refrigerator.

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