We Cook Stuff: Two kinds of dog treats

The Obscenely Healthy Dog Treats

We're out of dog treats and we're going on vacation next week so we have to use up a bunch of stuff... hence, healthy dog treats. They look kinda gross, but they're healthy and (at least our) dogs go nuts for them. One of our dogs stole two treats before I even got them in the oven, though he also steals whole bags of hot dog buns, so that rave review is kind of irrelevant. We tried them ourselves and they're actually human-tasty, too. They're also pretty easy to make, given that you have a bunch of veggies and some meat lying around. You can replace the ingredients with anything dog-friendly (the ASPCA has a list of foods to avoid, and you can find others online/ask your vet) that has roughly the same texture. Here's what we did.

Ingredients
(Makes about 50 small treats)

1 cup ground meat (we used leftover kotleti, which is very roughly something like this, but that's neither here nor there; any meat will do, including uncooked ground meat)
2 medium carrots, shredded
2 stalks celery, finely diced
1/2 cup spinach, steamed and drained
1-2 tsp. dried parsley (or 1-2 Tbsp fresh parsley, minced)
2 tsp. turmeric
1 egg
~1 cup flour (add as necessary) -- gluten free flour can easily be subsituted if your dog has a wheat intolerance

Procedure

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray (or otherwise grease it up).

Mix all ingredients together except for flour. Add flour and keep mixing to see how much you need. Mixture shouldn't be so sticky that it's hard to work with, but it shouldn't be nearly as dry as a cookie dough, either.

If things aren't forming into balls (or whatever cookie shape you desire) then you may want to add a second egg. Once that's all sorted out, shape the mush into whatever shape you like. I made little flattened balls, something like a stack of 3-4 half-dollars in size.

Place the treats onto the baking sheet and bake for about 15-20 minutes. Let cool completely before feeding to pooches.

The Far Less Obscenely Healthy Dog Treats

OK, these are pretty good too. I swear I'm not eating my dogs' treats.

Ingredients

(Makes 130-140 small cookies)

2 cups flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup peanut butter
1 cup chicken broth

Procedure

Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with foil.

Mix the first three ingredients together in a bowl. Add as much broth as it takes to get to dough-like consistency. Knead the dough on a floured surface until it's thoroughly mixed. Roll it out to the desired thickness (I made cookies roughly 2 coins thick) and use a cookie cutter that's to your liking. I used the top of a pill case because I wanted small biscuits that could be used for training without having to be broken in half.