Valentine's Day Doggy Treats

Hello puppy lovers!    Happy Valentine's Day!

I love making homemade treats for our dogs.   I used to do it all the time, so they always had good, natural, fresh tasty-treats.  I'll admit I've been a little lazy lately and we've had to resort to grain-free store-bought treats. 

We feed our dogs raw meat for their meals.  (Research says that this is a safe, natural and healthy diet for dogs and that they can & will live longer, healthier lives eating a raw-meat diet)...  More on that in another post.

The following is a great recipe for treats with a grain-free option:

Peanut Butter Dog Treat Recipe

3 cups whole wheat flour   (OR 3 cups of Garbanzo & Fava Bean flour (I have found this in the health-food/vegan-ish section of my grocery store - Bob's Red Mill Brand) ) ½ cup of organic peanut butter (or at the VERY least, use a sugar-free, salt-free peanut butter - Kraft makes a great one) 1 cup water 2 tablespoons vegetable oil Directions: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Toss all the ingredients into a bowl & mix, mix, mix until combined. Kneed a few times & form into a circle shape & then roll out on lightly floured surface.  Use a cookie cutter to cut out cute shapes (or, like me... I like smaller pieces for treats so I use one of those wheel-type pizza cutters & just cut out strips about an inch wide & then cut those strips into one inch pieces.  Then I place them all on a cookie sheet (either on parchment paper or on a non-stick pan - I highly recommend parchment paper though!) Bake for 10 minutes & then leave turn the oven off & leave them in the oven to cool & harden.  They'll get nice and hard - great for crunchiness!! I pop them into a large zip-lock freezer bags & they'll keep for 3 or so weeks... or even 6 weeks if you keep them in the fridge.  Also, if you're feeling ambitious, make lots & freeze them!!