Tasty Tuesday

When I went grocery shopping last week I picked up a jar of unsweetened applesauce.  I thought it might be a nice change for the dogs in their nightly treats.

I decided to use white bones, just for a change of pace.

You know the ones you picked up filled with processed cheese?

I frosted one end with pumpkin in the morning before I left for work and let is sit in the freezer all day long.

Canned pumpkin is perfect for this purpose, because it is really thick and won’t run out of the bone into your freezer.

When I got home I filled the rest of the bone with applesauce and stood it up in a bowl for about 2 1/2 hours.  It was just long enough for the applesauce to freeze.

At snack time I handed them off to Sampson and Delilah.

Sampson began working happily on his.

Delilah wasn’t quite sure what to do.

Hubby and I heard her in the living room barking at it.  Apparently she thought if she barked at it, she could turn it into her Kong.

Hubby said, get a video of it.

Of course, as soon as I turned the video on, she figured out how to attack it.

Here’s what you need:

One empty bone

About a tablespoon of canned pumpkin and about 1/4 cup of applesauce (depending upon the size of the bone.)

Smear the pumpkin on one end of the bone and place in the freezer for a couple of hours.  Remove from freezer and fill the remainder of the bone with applesauce.

Place the bone pumpkin side down in a glass and place back in the freezer for a couple of hours.

When the applesauce is frozen, remove and serve.

The whole treat is probably less than 75 calories and it should last your dog (depending on how aggressively they lick it) a good 15 to 20 minutes.

Easy right?

Yes it is.  It’s also The Tasty Tuesday blog hop hosted by Kol’s Notes and Sugar the Golden Retriever.  You can get your linky code at either one of the hosts.

Hop on.

Easy, Inexpensive, Healthy and Tasty Tuesday

Have you ever bought your dog the cheese or peanut butter stuffed bones?

We bought a lot of them for Sampson when he was a puppy and going through his teething periods.  As he got larger the bones did as well.  Consequently I have at least six of them lying around the house.

Sometimes the dogs will play or chew on them, most notably Delilah when it is time to go to bed.  I kid you not, I caught her standing with her feet on my dresser in the middle of the night trying to get her bone.

Even though Sampson and Delilah get a healthy stuffed Kong for a treat at night, I am still trying to help them each lose a few pounds.  The dilemma being what to give them for a treat with a lower amount of calories.

I decided I’ll use these bones and stuff them with something tasty!

I start off in the morning with two bones about the same size and stuff about a tablespoon or so of pumpkin in one end and stick the bone in the freezer.

When I get home at night I take the bone out and fill it 3/4 or so with non-fat vanana (vanilla/banana) yogurt.

I frost the end with more pumpkin.

And stick a piece of fruit (in this case pineapple) in the end.

I stand the two bones on the frozen end so the yogurt and the freshly added pumpkin settle a bit and stick them in the freezer for about 3 hours.

Sampson who is usually coaxed from his spot on the couch to get his treat, jumped up, ran into the bedroom and jumped on the bed in anticipation of his treat.

It’s easy, inexpensive, healthy and above all tasty.  This is the Tasty Tuesday Blog Hop hosted by Kol’s Notes and Sugar the Golden Retriever.  You can get your linky code at either of their pages.

Delilah doesn’t care that the bone is longer than her tongue, she works and works at it until she gets all the goodness out.

You too can get everything you want out of life, Just Be The Dog.

Tasty Tuesday

We have two vastly different treat eaters in our house.

Mr. Picky Sampson who has been known to accept a milk bone and then drop it in my purse because it wasn’t to his liking.

And I’ll eat a rock if you tell me it’s a treat Delilah who will eat almost anything you hand to her.

Sara at The Mellow Mutt started carrying an Australian line of dog treats and I picked up some Kangaroo.

It comes in three or four different flavors but Sampson absolutely loves the Kangaroo.  In fact the couple of times I’ve used it to lure him into his spot on the bed, I thought he was going to do flips for it.

I’m always on the lookout for new, high value treats which can be used on our walks to work on our recalls.   In one of my recent posts I asked you all what yummy, low carb treats you used and I got a lot of answers.  I plan on putting a post together for anyone else who might be interested in the same thing.

Saturday I headed to the pet store armed with your treat suggestions and came up empty.  Pfffft!

I did however find this one which looked somewhat appealing to me.  So I picked it up.

Usually I’m pretty good about reading the label to see where it is manufactured, but I dropped the ball on this one.  The distributor is in CA but the treats are a product of China. 

I did check out the websites and looked at recall lists and I could not find anything negative on them, so I figured big dogs/small doses we should be ok.  These treats are really soft and easy to break into smaller pieces.

Mr. Picky Sampson LOVED them!

Hubby and I have an agreement, I get up with the dogs on Saturday and he gets up with them on Sunday, this way each of us gets a day to sleep in…..unless Hubby has to work on Saturdays.  Then my Sunday becomes his, which was the case this past weekend.

So at 6:15 am Sunday I was up with Delilah.  Sampson decided he didn’t want to get up, so he climbed up on the bed next to Hubby.  But I know how his mind works…..he will lie there for a short while then Hubby will roll over and since he can’t sleep with his mouth closed, will blow his stinky morning breath out and Sampson will start licking at that stank his mouth.

Most days when I need to coax Sampson out of the bedroom I will use a carrot, but Sunday I thought, let me try these new duck treats.  I fed one to Delilah and told her to stay, then went into the bedroom where I stuck the treat in front of Sampson’s nose.

Have you ever seen a big old alligator move like lightning?  YUP that’s what my puppy turned into.  He took the treat out of my hand faster than Shiva snarfs mud.  In fact, I had to reach in and take it out in order to coax him from the room.

I would have to say, these treats are a hit in my house.  I’ve been dishing them out sparingly and if Sampson knows I have them on our walk, he keeps running back like Delilah does.

Considering they are a product of China, would you have tried them with your pup?

Would you believe I’m taking part in the Tasty Tuesday Blog Hop hosted by Kol’s Notes and Sugar the Golden Retriever?  You can get your linky code at either of their blogs. (The free wordpress does not support the linky tool.)