These homemade dog biscuits are made with peanut butter for an irresistible treat your pet will love.
Have you heard of 23PAWS?
No? Well now you have. Basically, it’s a chance to gush about your pet and post pictures of them. The stuff most people do already, but now with an actual purpose so you don’t feel like as much of a crazy cat/dog/chinchilla/ferret/whatever lady. This is the first official link up Cinnamon is hosting for 23PAWS so if you missed the boat this time around, go check out everyone else’s posts, read up and get prepared for next month.
Ok, now let’s get to the gushing because obviously, I have the best dog ever.
Internet, meet Ginger.
She’s pretty cool.
She used to look like this.
An eight week old, 10 pound puppy who ate so much sand at a jet-ski race she literally pooped out a sand log.
5 years later, she’s all grown up and quite sassy.
She hates little children.
She loves eating mulch.
She likes to roll in other animals’ crap.
She dislikes baths.
She has a very intimate relationship with a stuffed hedgehog.
She doesn’t like to be snuggled.
She sometimes self-diets.
She a complete daddy’s girl.
Every day around 7pm, this is what goes on in my family room.
Ginger turns 5 in two weeks and since this is pretty much her idea of the perfect day,
I decided to make her some homemade peanut butter treats.
Sometimes I feel like a fraud in that I’m so keen on eating healthy myself yet I feed my dog Eukanuba. I literally have dog-mom guilt over that sometimes. I should buy her the organic dog food and I shouldn’t buy her those treats she loves from Sam’s Club but yet, I do. So instead of heading out to Walmart and buying some cancer causing cheap dog biscuits this time around, I made my own.
Was it more involved than throwing a large box of biscuits in my cart and forking over $12.95? Yes. But, it was also a heck of a lot cheaper and didn’t result in any dog-mom guilt.
Someone didn’t seem to mind the homemade kind.
“Mind? Mom, there’s peanut butter in these!”
So I’ve promised myself that from here on out, homemade treats it is. I think we’ll both be happy about that.
Homemade Peanut Butter Dog Biscuits
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/4 cup oats
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 banana, mashed
- egg whites for brushing, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Grease a baking sheet or line with parchment paper/silpat.
- Combine banana, egg, applesauce and peanut butter in a medium bowl and mash together.
- Add flour and oats and stir to combine.
- Flour a clean surface and roll dough out with a rolling pin, adding as much flour as you need to keep it from sticking (I had to use a generous amount).
- Use a cut out of any shape (I used the top to a jar of jam for small discs) and lay each piece on the baking sheet.
- Brush with egg whites if using and bake for 25-30 minutes.
- Remove from oven and cool on rack.
- Keep sealed in an airtight container.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
How long do these treats keep in the fridge and out of the fridge?
If you don’t plan to finish them with 2-3 days, I would refrigerate for up to a week.