As dog trainers we are always in the kitchen preparing different food items for our dogs. More often than not, I find myself getting creative to incorporate different things into my pup’s kongs or other enrichment items that I use to keep them busy in the crate while I am out working or running errands. After coming back from a trip to the grocery store to get items to make dinner at home, I was inspired by all the delicious green vegetables I saw and wanted to make a yummy dog treat that would get into the Saint Patrick’s day spirit AND be a healthy snack for my pups.
St. Patrick’s Day Dog Cookies
Here’s what I put in my treats:
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 ½ cup spinach
- 1 cup peas (I used frozen!)
- ½ cup curly parsley
- ½ cup peanut butter (make sure it doesn’t contain xylitol)
- 1 egg
- ½ cup water (I ended up using the chicken juice from a can of chicken but you could use water too!)
- A few chunks of chicken for flavor (optional)
Here’s how I did it:
- Preheat oven to 350° F
- In a food processor, combine spinach, parsley, chicken, and peas. Then mix in peanut butter, egg, and water (or chicken broth) and blend until creamy.
- Slowly incorporate the flour a little at a time until the mixture thickens.
- Remove the dough from food processor and knead into smaller balls, using floured hands if too sticky.
- Flatten dough by hand to ¼ to ½ inch thick and use a cookie cutter to cut out treats; place on a baking tray.
- Bake treats for 20 minutes, then remove from oven let them cool completely.
- Feed to your pup!
The first thing I did was blend all my wet ingredients together. I loaded the food processor up with the spinach, peas, parsley, and chunks of chicken. Pulsed that together and scraped the larger chunks off the sides to make sure I didn’t leave anything behind.
Then I added my chicken juice, peanut butter, and egg and blended together until there were no chunks left.
After all the wet ingredients were blended, I slowly added the flour to ensure it didn’t get too thick!
Once all my ingredients were blended together, it was time for my treats to take shape! I pulled the mix out of the food processor and rolled out some balls by hand to make the dough easier to handle.
I then noticed I was beginning to attract the attention of the locals….
This is looking like my treats are going to be a hit!
I patted out the dough into about a ¼ to ½ inch thick circle.
Using just a simple dog bone cookie cutter I began cutting out my treats! Onto the tray and into the oven for 20 minutes at 350° F.
It’s finally time to ask the jury – just how good are these suspiciously green Saint Patrick’s Day treats? Today’s treat testers are Einstein and Oslo!
Overall these treats were a HUGE success. Both dogs loved eating them (although Einstein ate his in one bite so I’m not sure he really even tasted it…) and went back for seconds! Since I had never fed this recipe before I only gave them two treats because I did not want to upset their stomachs.
This recipe made a ton of treats and was so easy (and fun!) to make. We had a ton of extras to freeze as leftovers and the best part was I didn’t have to make an extra trip to the grocery store to get any of the ingredients.
Saint Patrick’s Day Frozen Smoothie Treats (no peanut butter or chicken!)
Looking for a recipe to cool off your pup that is peanut butter AND chicken free?
This easy recipe will have your dog coming back for more and is so good you may even want to make a smoothie with the ingredients yourself!
All you need is:
- A banana
- An apple (no sugar added applesauce works too)
- 1 cup spinach
- 1 cup curly parsley
- ½ cup water
Chop up the banana and apple to make it easier on your food processor.
Put banana, apple, spinach, parsley, and water into a blender or food processor.
Blend until smooth.
Transfer to something you can pour out of or spoon mixture into silicone molds.
Freeze overnight. Enjoy!
From all of us at Beyond the Dog, Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to you and your pup!
