The summer has arrived and brought warm temperatures with it. While you’re out enjoying the beaches and hiking trails with your best friend, make sure that you’re both staying nourished and hydrated. Here are some treats that both you and your pup can enjoy!
Melon Berry Froyo Bones
This simple, mouthwatering recipe is brimming with vitamins, antioxidants, and sweet flavor. Imagine a yummy, berry popsicle with the tangy addition of frozen yogurt.
Ingredients:
- An ice tray (you can find custom molds on Amazon)
- 2 cups watermelon
- 1/4th cup of water
- Equal parts blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries (about 2 each)
- 1 cup yogurt
What to do:
First, use a spoon to stir the berries into a cup of yogurt and place the mixture in the fridge to chill. Grab your ice tray and fill it about a quarter of the way up with the watermelon mixture. It takes about 2 to 3 hours to freeze.
Once the watermelon has frozen completely, take the ice tray out and fill the remaining space with your yogurt concoction and place it back in the freezer until solid. When you’re hanging out poolside, pop one of those babies out and break off a piece for your pup too. Cheers!
Baked Pumpkin Poppers
These tasty treats are more for our dogs than for us, as they don’t contain any added sugar. Even if you’re a beginner baker, you can’t mess these baked goodies up. Think of these as donut holes for pups!
Ingredients
- ½ a cup Flaxseed
- 1/4th a cup pumpkin puree
- 1/4th a cup peanut butter
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4th water
- 2 bowls, an oven, and a pre-sprayed baking sheet
What to do:
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.
Mix the flour and whole wheat flour in one of your bowls. Use the second bowl to thoroughly stir the flax seed into the water. It’s important not to skip this step! Mixing the wet and dry ingredients too soon will make it difficult to merge them later on.
Add the peanut butter, pumpkin puree, and cinnamon to the wet ingredients. Once you’ve got a thick paste going, you can slowly begin mixing in the flour. Take your time and be sure not to rush this step; by now, you should have almost a cookie-dough texture. Use your hands to knead out any dry patches of flour.
Roll your dough into small, donut-hole sized balls and place them onto your baking sheet. Since there isn’t any baking soda included, you don’t have to set them very far apart as they won’t expand.
Depending on your oven, these treats could take 15-21 minutes to cool, so continue to keep an eye on them during that timespan. If you’ve got a senior pup, you can take them outright at the 15-minute mark for a softer, easier to chew option.
Coconut Carob
Something about the taste of chocolate and bananas is just so satisfying, isn’t it? Our dogs can’t eat cocoa derivatives, but carob is the next best thing. You and your best friend can eat this recipe frozen or chilled.
Ingredients:
- 2-3 bananas
- 3/4th a cup of peanut butter
- 1-2 TBSP of carob for flavor
- An ice tray
Start by mashing up your bananas and stirring them into the peanut butter, if you have a hand-mixer, go ahead and use it for this step. However, you can also use a fork or spoon. Then, add the carob; this part is really at your discretion. If your dog has never had it before, consider making your first batch with one tablespoon and see how it goes.
Place the mixture into an ice mold and allow them to freeze. If you don’t have one, you can always allow the blend to chill in the fridge for a few hours so that it’s not completely frozen. Once cold, add it to your dog’s breakfast, and throw a spoonful into your oats for a yummy wake-up meal!
