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☆ A M B ☆
- 24,524 Posts
Your dog will absolutely love these... you and the kids will, too.
* 2 3/4 cups water
* 1/4 cup applesauce, unsweetened
* 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
* 4 cups whole wheat flour
* 1 cup dried apple chips ( you can also use fresh fruit)
* 1 tablespoon baking powder
* 1 egg, beaten slightly
* 4 tablespoons honey (or molasses)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin tin with cooking spray. Mix all wet ingredients thoroughly. Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl. Add wet to dry slowly , scraping well to make sure no dry mixture is left. Pour into muffin tins. Bake for 1 1/4 hours or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out dry. Store in a sealed container. Makes around 12-14 pupcakes.
Recipe from http://www.i-love-dogs.com/dog-food-recipes
I make my own applesauce: chop 1 apple and blend in a blender or food processor with a little fresh lemon juice (to keep it from browning, it really doesn’t matter all that much, so you can skip the lemon juice). I also use 1 cup chopped fresh apple instead of dried; the whole recipe uses around 2 or 3 apples.
I bake this as a single "loaf" in a Wonder Pan, which is a torus-shaped pan for baking quick breads and batter breads on the stovetop, since I have no oven. This recipe, being very moist, needs a low flame and a longer cooking time.
My Irish setter goes berserk whenever I start cutting up apples, because he knows what that means!
Nice, but strange to see sugar in dog food ingredients. I wouldn’t give honey to my dog.. bad for the teeth (and breath later on)
"He can have a lollipop any time he wants to. That's what it means to be a programmer."
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☆ A M B ☆
- 24,524 Posts
After keeping him for several weeks, I’ve switched my friend’s oversized Irish Setter from bagged commercial food to "real" food, made of mixed whole grains (brown rice, barley, rolled oats, buckwheat - no corn!!) with various vegetables (no onions or tomatoes) and lentils, with very little liver, or chicken scraps (no bones, just the cartilage and "crunchy" parts) and chicken broth left over from when I make chicken soup. He gets two cups of this twice a day, as small meals decrease the chance of his stomach turning and twisting the bowels after eating. This breed is subject to that; in fact one of this dog’s litter mates died because of it.
I add a teaspoon of olive oil and brewer’s yeast to each meal, a tablespoon of molasses in the morning meal, with a crumbled slice of stale whole-grain bread with yogurt, cottage cheese, a couple of sardines or a boiled egg every now and then. He gets two of these "pupcakes" a day, once when I eat lunch and once before bedtime (they seem to be the highlight of his day). He’s lost a bit of weight, his coat is much improved, his teeth are in better condition (he does have a large knotted rawhide "bone" and a few other toys that he gnaws on occasionally), and his breath and body odor in general is much improved. Unfortunately, so is his energy level <sigh> (although I’ve lost a bit of weight as well, so it’s not all such a bad thing). My friend is delighted, and it looks like he’s in no hurry to make any other arrangement for the hairy red monster for a while.
If you’re concerned about your dog’s breath, you can add some chopped fresh mint and/or parsley to his food. They make chlorophyll capsules for bitches nearing heat to reduce the odor, and that’s mostly just parsley. Or, the same place where I got this "pupcakes" recipe has a nice recipe for hard biscuits made with mint and parsley. And, of course, one can skip the "sweetening" in this recipe if preferred.
