Tag Archives: blueberry

Berry Good Pupsicles

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Summer’s here, and on a hot day, a cold & creamy treat can turn a good day into a freakin’ fantastic one! I suspect our dogs feel exactly the same way.

Here’s a healthy, totally easy and ultra-fast summer treat you can make for dogs and for yourself. I’m one of The Unfortunates who can’t have any dairy at all – as I was photographing these I had to wipe my hands off on my pants, when all I really wanted to do was lick my fingers! The smell of the peanut butter and the frosty haze coming off of them was extremely tempting. I love this treat because it’s a great way to get your dog to eat some fruit, and yogurt in small doses can provide great benefits for them too. If your dog is the type who needs to be sweetened up to eat it – add some honey into the mix or drizzle the pupsicle with honey before serving.

You might have noticed that there’s no stick to make it like a popsicle – mine are the “pretend kind” – I used those rawhide sticks once, and just about lost my mind when Hank hoofed it down without chewing it. Too scary for me…but if you have a more delicate eater, you can simply add the “stick” into the centre of the cup before freezing it.

INGREDIENTS: (makes three-four pupsicles)
1 cup of plain yogurt
2 TBS peanut butter (preferably natural)
1/4 cup blueberries
1/4 cup diced strawberries

In a mixing bowl, mix together the peanut butter and the yogurt. A spatula works well for this. Then, add in almost all of the blueberries and diced strawberries. Save a bit of each.

Take three plastic or styro cups and place the reserved berries at the bottom of each cup. Then, add the yogurt mixture on top, distributing evenly between the cups. The pupsicles in my picture appear larger than they actually are, by the way. I only filled small plastic cups about 2/3 of the way. This is a good size for a large dog. If you have a medium sized dog, you might distribute between 4 cups. If you have a smaller dog, use ice cube trays.

Freeze the pupsicles. When you remove from freezer to serve, let them thaw enough upside down to “drop” them out of the cups, or if you lack patience like me, run them under a bit of hot water to set them free.

If you’re really nice, like my friend Laura, you can make these in popsicle trays and hold them for your dog as he/she licks it like an ice cream cone. I’d lose a hand if I tried that with my one-bite wonders.

To my American friends – doesn’t this look like a great recipe to make for Independence Day? Canucks, stay tuned for my Canada Day treats coming up next!

Enjoy and have yourself a cold treat too!

xo/J

I’m neither a vet nor an animal nutritionist.  This recipe is not meant to replace a proper and balanced diet for your dog.  You should to speak to your own vet before trying new recipes or feeding any home cooked foods to your dog.

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Turkey Blueberry Kibble

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Homemade Healthy Turkey Blueberry Kibble

Making kibble is not for the faint of heart. I have to put that out there! It’s for the dedicated person who enjoys baking. Kibble needs to be well rounded and therefore contains a lot of ingredients. It’s the type of recipe that could discourage those on the fence when it comes to considering home cooking – which is the last thing I want to do.

Having said that – THIS IS NOT A DIFFICULT RECIPE- it just has a lot of ingredients and steps when compared to most of my other recipes. I usually keep my dishes simple so that people can be easily convinced to whip stuff up for those with four legs on a regular basis.

Here’s the bonus though – lotsa yield with this one. There is plenty to freeze and if you mix it with a meatloaf or stew (that’s what I do) then it will last for two weeks. I often double it so I get maximum payout for my effort!!

Dogs drool over their Homemade Turkey Blueberry Kibble

My kibbles always follow a similar formula.

Basic Kibble Mixture:
2 cups of Rye Flour
2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 cup rolled oats (NOT instant)
1 cup wheat germ
2 cups of dry milk powder (or non-fat milk powder)
2 teaspoons of bone meal powder (from health food store – not garden stores)
Tsp salt
3 cups of water
4 eggs
1/3 cup olive or canola oil
Up to 4 cups of cooked ground meat – in this case, turkey
3 cups of mixed vegetables – in this case – two cups of fresh blueberries, one cup of mashed sweet potato

SOME SUBSTITUTIONS
-I go to the bulk food store for a lot of my ingredients. If you don’t have time or live near one, you can use whole wheat flour rather than the rye flour. If you don’t have the oats – replace with another cup of brown rice or vice versa. Dry milk powder and bone meal powder can be skipped if your dog gets alternate sources of calcium. These subs will still make a decent kibble.

Begin by preheating the oven to 300 degrees.

In a frying pan, cook up two packages of ground turkey (appx 2 lbs). This will give you about four cups of cooked meat.

I microwave my sweet potato for 12 minutes. Nice and mushy to work with. A decent sized one gives you about a cup of mashed.

Four Bowls of Goodness for homemade Turkey Blueberry Kibble

Next, mix together the dry ingredients. A couple of cups of rye flour, and a couple of whole wheat. Then, Add a cup of cooked brown rice, and a cup of rolled oats. Do NOT use the instant oats, they’ve got additives we don’t want here. I like toasted dark. Two cups of dry milk powder– use non-fat if you want to reduce the fat content here. Add 2 teaspoons of bone meal powder or another supplement so that we can make sure our dogs get their require calcium intake. Lastly, finish it off with a teaspoon of salt.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with the oil. Pour the three cups of water into the dry mixture, and mix. Then add the eggs and oil. Give it a good mix up. If it’s too dry, add a little water, but you do want a thick paste here. Add blubes and sweet potato. Strain your turkey meat. Some people puree their meat, but personally I don’t see a big difference in the end result and it’s a messy proposition.
Stir altogether again.

This is enough for three or four baking pans depending on how thin you spread the batter. You may want to freeze half and cook the other half, or cook and then freeze (easier in my opinion).
Turkey Blueberry Kibble before it goes into oven

Line the baking sheets with parchment paper. (trust me).

With a spatula, spread a very thin layer of the mixture on to the pan. No more than a quarter inch thick, the thinner the layer, the crunchier the kibble can get. We want this to dry out, that’s why we cook it at a lower temperature.

Bake for approximately 45 minutes to an hour – until it’s golden brown. If you leave it in the closed oven for additional hours, it dries out more for a crunchier result!!
You may want to check out the recipe for Everything But the Kitchen Sink Kibble. Here are a few pics.

Fido & Wine: Basic Meals (Doggone Good Stew & EBTKS kibble)

I’m neither a vet nor an animal nutritionist.  This recipe is not meant to replace a proper and balanced diet for your dog.  You should to speak to your own vet before trying new recipes or feeding any home cooked foods to your dog.