Livin' and Learnin'

When Maddux was a pup, he had terrible belly problems. We tried everything we could think of to help him, and the solution was PUMPKIN! It was certainly a belly-helper for our buddy and quite a relief to us, too. We learned that pumpkin is great for digestive problems in dogs and cats, too. It’s also good for weight control. It seems to be the “perfect” supplement to our dog’s diet.

Mike found some organic pumpkin canned and processed especially for dogs on Amazon. We ordered it by the case! It worked wonders for Maddux for several months (one heaping spoonful every morning), but one day out of the blue, he decided that he didn’t want the pumpkin, and that was the end of the pumpkin breakfasts.

Which leads me to today, when there are still four cans of pumpkin that need to be used. What to do??? I searched for recipes for dog treats that include pumpkin and I found one on allrecipes.com that I decided to give a try. I read several of the reviews and tweaked the recipe to allow for items that I already had in the pantry.

My recipe for Pumpkin & Peanut Butter Dog Treats:

2 1/2 cups Whole Wheat flour

2 eggs

1 cup canned pumpkin

2 heaping spoonfuls peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

water (as needed)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Mix together the flour, eggs, pumpkin, peanut butter, and cinnamon in a bowl. Add water as needed to help make the dough workable, but the dough should be dry and stiff.

(I used a stand mixer with the dough hook and had no problems. I would imagine a hand mixer with beaters may be difficult to use. This is a heavy, thick dough.)

Roll the dough into a 1/2-inch-thick roll. Cut into 1/2-inch pieces.

Bake in preheated oven until hard, about 35 minutes.

I also tried cutting them into strips with a pizza cutter, after all, this is an experiment. 🙂

*Note: I baked them for 30 minutes then checked them. They were certainly done, but not as hard as I would’ve liked them, so I put them in for an additional 5 minutes and they were perfect. I would recommend 35 minute bake time at 350 degrees. (The original recipe called for 40 minutes.)

Finished product:

The “strips” came out GREAT! I think Maddux likes them better because he can hold on to them while he eats them. 🙂

When I gave one to Maddux he ran away from me and hid to eat it. Yep. It’s a goodie! haha!

All in all, these were pretty easy to make, and they make the house smell like pumpkin pie! I will certainly be making more of these for Maddux! Dog tested, Mama approved! haha!

Posted in Life

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