Trifecta's Gator Party

So you may have seen this handsome fella in previous posts but I'd like you all to meet the latest member of our family, Trifecta. He's a dog that we rescued a year ago from a neighbor who opened her gate and let him run off into the desert claiming that she didn't want him anymore. Since we've always been a cat family until recently, I decided to throw him a birthday party (2 yrs old)/ 1 year adoption party.

(That would be my pup pre-gaming while I tried setting everything up)

Since it's still really hot here in the desert, I decided to make a frozen treat for the pups. I took a tupperware container, filled it 3/4 of the way to the top with beef broth and an apple that was peeled and chopped. I then placed half of a dog rope into the tupperware making sure the other half stood out of the liquid and placed it in the freezer overnight. Before the attendees showed up, I let the tupperware sit out for about 5 minutes until it thawed enough to pull the frozen treat free and then strung them up on my bird feeder hanger.

As you can see, it was a pretty big hit. The second it melted down enough to get the apples, these two went crazy trying to bite off as many apples as they could.

Due to the dogs running around and kicking up sand, the human food went inside but I kept out the pup treats which consisted of mason jars filled with rawhide sticks (the humans had mason jars filled with pretzel rods), I used a dehydrator and to make sweet potato chips (sliced a sweet potato into thin rounds and placed in a dehydrator until crispy), whereas the humans had normal potato chips and I also made lemonade and added a couple of drops of blue food coloring so that it resembled toilet bowl water.

A few things that I made that I actually have recipes for are:
Grain-Free Peanut Butter Apple Pupcakes
Sunshine Cupcakes (for the humans)
Cucumber Sandwiches
Swamp Water

Grain-Free Peanut Butter Apple Pupcakes

Ever make something that was so incredibly adorable that you didn't want to eat it? Well that's exactly what happened when I made these pupcakes. The second I put the mini dog bones on top I knew everyone was going to love them. I'm pretty sure I squealed, which resulted in the Mr. looking at me like I had lost my mind.

I got the pupcake recipe from Spoonful of Sugar Free and came up with the frosting myself with what I had on hand. The mini dog bones come from my friend SJP who'd recently made a batch of dog bones. I'll be honest this worked out perfectly. I had been looking up recipes all day when I came across this grain-free recipe and then everything else just fell into place. I even served the pupcakes with the Frozen Yogurt Treats that I had made a while back.

Frosting:

• 1/2 c. plain fat free yogurt
• 1/2 c. powdered peanut butter

1. Mix together until creamy. Store in airtight container in the refrigerator.

Pupcakes:

2 egg

1/3 c. peanut butter

1 apple, finely chopped

1 teaspoon baking powder

small dog bones

1. Preheat oven to 350°f.
2. Mix all ingredients together (except for dog bone) until smooth.
3. Grease muffin tin. Fill with batter.
4. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden and a toothpick comes out clean.
5. Let cool for a couple minutes, and then slide the cake out of the baking container. Cool on a cooling rack for 5 minutes.
6. Frost pupcakes with frosting and top with dog bone.

Visit Trifecta's Gator Party to get the full list of goodies.

This recipe is linked to 
RBF Foodie Friday
Friday Favorites 
SL&E Foodie Friday

Frozen Yogurt Treats For Your Dog

With living in the desert, I'm always looking for ways to cool down. So why wouldn't I have my "kids" in mind as well. I found this recipe, like all fun recipes, on pinterest. I was looking for some fun treats for the hot summer days ahead as well as a recipe that used up some of the bananas I had in the freezer. Little did I know that we'd be hitting 100* in May. So when I found this recipe I decided why not? After all, I had everything on hand to make it.

It's incredibly easy to make, the only thing is, it's time consuming, unless you have a ton of ice cube trays and a huge freezer. I however only have one ice cube tray and my freezer is packed to the max with stuff. So it took me a few hours to get through the huge batch of frozen treats. The original poster of this recipe said that you could used styrofoam egg cartons as a mold but I found that they were difficult to get out of the cartons and I wound up mangling them in the process. The ice cube tray is much easier and you can twist it and pop out the frozen treats like you would with ice. I stored all the frozen treats in a gallon sized bag in the freezer. One thing about these though, if you have a dog who's a licker, you may want to give these treats outside. Otherwise, you could end up with a yogurt mess on your hands.

Puppy don't play no games

recipe adapted from HubPages

• 32 oz. plain yogurt
• 1 mashed ripe banana
• 2 tablespoons natural unsalted peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons honey

1. Mix all of the ingredients with a blender or mixer and freeze in ice cube trays. 
2. When frozen, place the treats in a plastic bag and store in the freezer. 

Cheesy Treats For Your Pets

Woohoo! It's that time of year again which means I have a fun snack for our four legged kids! This year I've managed to obtain a dog who's owner didn't want him anymore. She literally said that about her dog when I tried to find out where his home was. So home with me he went in hopes that I could find him a forever home. However, it doesn't appear that he is going anywhere anytime soon and I must admit that I've grown attached to him. So needless to say I'm pretty stoked to have a puppy in the house for the Puppy Bowl. Last year I made the Turkey Jerky treats which the cats loved and this time I decided to make a cheesy treat that I saw on Pinterest (I love that site). Now obviously, cheese isn't the healthiest for our pets so don't go giving them a bowl of these treats but one or two are okay.

There really is no complaint from me over these treats. They are easy and fast to make and the batch makes a lot of treats. I do recommend that you keep them in an airtight bag and store them in the freezer. That way they don't spoil. And I have to admit, they don't taste too bad. Yes I was curious and ate one. They aren't as cheesy as I'd like but then again they aren't for me.

From The Spiffy Cookie

• 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup cornmeal
• 5 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
• A few Tbsp water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, set aside.
2. While your oven is preheating, combine all the ingredients into dough. Add water by one tablespoon at a time until the dough sticks together.
3. Knead the dough into a ball and then roll it out to 1/4-inch. Cut into 1/2-inch pieces and bake for 25 minutes on prepared cookie sheet. Let cool completely before giving to your pets.

This recipe is submitted in:
Weekend Wrap-Up Party

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.

This post is submitted in
What's Cooking Thursday
These Chicks Cook

Printable Recipe

Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits

Even though I do not have a dog, I love making these to give to my friends and family for their dogs. I made a couple of batches of these to give as gifts for Christmas and the dogs loved them. I sort of felt like I should have made more and given each person a batch because the dogs devoured them. These are super easy to make and they are a nice treat for your four legged children.

• 1 1/4 c. milk
• 1 1/4 c. natural peanut butter (has less sodium and less sugar)
• 2 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 c. all purpose flour
• 1 1/4 Tbsp. baking powder

1. Preheat oven 400 degrees.
2. Mix milk and peanut butter in a large bowl until smooth.
3. Combine flour and baking powder in a large bowl.
4. Gradually stir flour mixture into the wet mixture.
   
5. Kneed dough by hand adding small amounts of milk to the mixture if the consistency is too dry but remember you do not want it to be sticky either.
   
6. Roll out dough onto a lightly floured surface to desired thickness and cup out treats with cookie cutters.
7. Bake on a cookie sheet for 15 minutes, flipping over half way.
8. Let cool completely and dry out. Remember these are biscuits so the longer they lay out the harder they will get.