homemade dog treat recipes

July 24, 2015August 6, 2015

Beef Crunch Dog Treat Recipe

Homemade Beef Stock (Frozen) Dog Treats - lolathepitty.com

Let’s face it, it’s hot out and the last thing I (or most likely, you) want to do is hang out in the kitchen. I have been somewhat, for lack of a better word, lazy about cooking for myself let alone Lola and Rio. But this weekend was different. Okay, somewhat.

I whipped out some beef stock (could also use a beef bouillon cube), water, and crushed up treats to pull these together.

Meet the easiest dog treats you’ll ever make.

Though my taste-testers wouldn’t know the difference if I told them they took me hours to make. So…here’s the detailed directions:

5.0 from 1 reviews

Beef Stock Dog Bone Recipe

Prep time

5 mins

Total time

5 mins

Simple Frozen Beef Stock Dog Treats with Surprise Pieces of Treats in the Center!

Author: Sarah at Lolathepitty.com

Serves: 12

Ingredients

1 cup beef stock (or 1 Beef Bouillon Cube + 8 oz water, warm)
¼ cup crushed dog treats

Instructions

Dissolve beef bouillon cube in warm water.
Pour into ice cube trays.
Sprinkle with crushed dog treats.
Freeze until solid and serve!

Frozen Beef Crunch Dog Treat Recipe - lolathepitty.com

You could totally use a normal ice cube tray – but why, when Kong makes this super cute one?

Life is rough, isn’t it?

ENJOY!

February 8, 2015April 18, 2015

Raspberry Goat Milk Dog Smoothies

Oh, hi!

I feel as if we’re overdue to share a new dog treat recipe with you! Things have been a little nuts as we packed up all of our stuff and moved out of Minnesota the last week in January. However, life *should* be getting back to normal now that we’re (somewhat) settled in Colorado. Meaning we’ll be able to bust out a more regular treat recipe schedule for ya…

I’m excited to share this new smoothie recipe that Lola and Rio (of course) LOVED. It also happens to be pinkish-reddish in color just in time for Valentine’s Day.

Not too long ago I found out about The Honest Kitchen’s powdered goat milk called Bloom – have you used it? I love that it comes in a powder that you just add water to (less waste for us) and the dogs go nuts for it when I pour a little over their food. (No, THK did not pay me to say any of that.) Dangit.

Anyways, moving onward – this recipe is far from complicated and uses only three ingredients, I think it was completed from start to finish in 5 minutes. And that included washing my blender.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Raspberry Goat Milk Dog Smoothies

Prep time

5 mins

Total time

5 mins

Raspberry Goat Milk Smoothies for your dog! A healthy, simple and fun recipe to make that your pup will love.

Author: Sarah Lukemire of lolathepitty.com

Serves: 4

Ingredients

1 cup goat milk (I used The Honest Kitchen's Bloom powdered goat milk)
½ cup frozen raspberries
1 tbsp peanut butter (without added sugar or salt)

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a blender.
Blend until smooth.
Serve!

Notes

This equaled 4-5 servings for our dogs. Store unused smoothie in an airtight container in the fridge (up to 3 days) or freezer.

Enjoy pups!

Are you planning on giving your dog a special Valentine’s Day treat?

Check out these other great recipes:

*Frozen Peanut Butter Banana Pupcakes

*Ginger Apple Dog Biscuits

*Puppy Power Smoothies

November 24, 2014April 18, 2015

Ginger Apple Dog Treat Recipe

A typical Saturday at our house lately has been sleeping in until about 9 a.m., brewing a fresh pot of Grounds & Hounds coffee, hopping on the computer to catch up on emails and blog stuff then running the dogs over to a friend’s house or the park to run off ‘the crazies’.

Well, those Saturdays have been modified a bit. The whole going to the park hasn’t happened the past few Saturdays because it’s been downright COLD.

I promise I will not ramble on and on about how ~~lovely~~ depressing the winter months are here in Minnesota (in this post).

But speaking of cold I saw a poster online that read, “The air hurts my face. Why am I living somewhere where the air hurts my face?”. I had to share and chuckle.

But we’re not talking about that, we’re talking about dog treats – sheesh. But not just any dog treats. Fancy ones with ginger and ooples.

And a very willing model.

If I would’ve zoomed out, this photo would be quite hilarious. Lola is standing off to the side wondering why she can’t be the paw model (and quite frankly, gobble up all the treats). And Rio is wondering why his feet have to be touching this strange piece of wood while holding a “relax” position for way too long after being tempted by the smells of freshly baked treats. Thanks, Rio – you were such a good boy!

If you’re wondering why Lola’s paws weren’t used, to be truthful, her nails needed trimming. #dogmomproblems

Onto the good stuff!

4.8 from 5 reviews

Ginger Apple Dog Treats

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

25 mins

Total time

35 mins

Grain Free dog treats made with apples and ginger!

Author: Sarah Lukemire of Lolathepitty.com

Serves: 25

Ingredients

1 cup brown rice flour (we used Bob's Red Mill Organic)
½ cup apple, finely diced
⅔ cup Greek yogurt (plain)
½ tsp fresh ginger (finely minced) or 1 tsp ground ginger
1 tablespoon coconut oil

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
Stir together until well combined. If necessary, thoroughly mix together with hands.
Turn mixture out onto a floured, flat surface and roll out with a rolling pin to approximately ¼".
Cut into desired shapes and place on a baking sheet coated with nonstick spray.
Bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown.

Other treats you’ll love:

Chicken Wild Rice Dog Treats

Pumpkin Spice Puppuccinos

October 1, 2014

My Pittied Life: September

Last month was the first month in quite some time where I (a) went to the gym more than once, (b) spent close to an hour at the park everyday with the pups, and (c) felt a little pressure relieved from my shoulders. If you need to catch up, please read August’s “My Pittied Life”.

However, it seems that no matter how many extra hours in the day I may have, time still manages to slip through my fingers like sand. Extra time? Yeah…gone.

But it was quite the eventful month, take a peek!

Duluth Trip

Antonio and I took a daytrip up to Duluth, Minnesota with two of our good friends a couple weeks ago. The biggest shocker: we went sans dogs.

Of course I would’ve preferred them there but that would’ve meant eating solely on patios and waiting outside any not-so dog friendly shops while they browsed around.

New Logo!

I could sit on my computer all day and play with graphics and photo editing software. However, I am not an artist nor do I claim to be. I’ll leave that to the experts. A friend referred me to Ivan – and before I knew it, I had three new logo choices waiting for me in my inbox.

After way too much thought into font choice and other relatively unimportant decisions, I ended up with a new logo for the blog! And I adore it. What do you think?

Parks & Play

September proved to be a great month weather-wise. However, we may have seen our last 80 degree day for quite a while!

My friend Amaya and I took Lola, Rio, and Tater to the Minnehaha Falls dog park, aka Doggy Nirvana. Here’s a little peek into the craziness:

First LOLA Newsletter

I (finally!) sent out the first LolaThePitty.com email newsletter! If you’re not already signed up, you can do so below to stay in the Lola loop. No spam, no sharing – just the occasional email. Thanks! It truly makes my day when I get a new subscriber.

If you haven’t already…you need to: Homemade Pumpkin Spice Puppuccinos!

September 28, 2014April 18, 2015

Pumpkin Spice Puppuccinos

I was taking a long walk with Lola and Rio and began brainstorming new blog post ideas. I always find it best to step away from the chaos of the television and computer to clear my head and allow my thoughts to transform.

And since pumpkin-everything is in full force I wanted to do some sort of recipe involving it – for our four-legged friends of course. Well, I thought of the perfect use for it!

Pumpkin Puppuccinos. Yes, you read that right.

How to make Puppuccinos:

-Walk into Starbucks wearing your “All I want to do is drink coffee, save pit bulls and take naps” t-shirt.

-Chat with the cashier about said t-shirt.

-Order a latte for yourself.

-Ask kindly if you could have a few sample cups for a dog recipe that you are going to make for your blog.

-Smile when the cashier gives you a weird look and says, “Ummm, sure!” and hands you several sample-sized (adorable) Starbucks cups.

-Come home, break out the blender, a few ingredients and VOILA.

Even better yet, if you have your own small cups, those would work great as well. Trust me, if I didn’t need to take photos of these, they would’ve ended up in the scattered assortment of little ramekins I have.

Otherwise these are great frozen as well! Simply pour mixture into ice cube tray (filling about halfway) and give as a yummy snack (TIP: these are great stuffed into a Kong)!

Enough jibber jabber, onto the real how-to:

5.0 from 2 reviews

Pumpkin Spice Puppuccinos

Prep time

5 mins

Total time

5 mins

Homemade dog-friendly Pumpkin Spice 'Puppuccinos'!

Author: Sarah of Lolathepitty.com

Serves: 4-12

Ingredients

¾ cup (unsweetened) coconut milk (sold in the half-gallon cartons. Can sub with almond milk or goat milk)
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup pure pumpkin

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in blender.
Blend until well mixed.
Pour into small serving cups (or freeze using ice cube trays).

Notes

*Add an extra splash of coconut milk for a thinner consistency (or if not blending smooth).

-Recipe from LolathePitty.com. All images and content are copyright protected. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words & simply link back to this post for the recipe. Thank you.-

Clearly they enjoyed theirs!

Other recipes your pup will love:

Blueberry Dog Cookies (grain free recipe)

PB-Banana Flax Seed Biscuits

April 29, 2014April 18, 2015

Chicken Wild Rice Dog Treat Recipe

A couple months ago, I asked our friends on Facebook what type of dog treats they’d love to see and we received a ton of requests. Carob cupcakes, carrot treats, chicken wild rice, and so many other great ideas.

And then…life happened.

We had a few eventful weeks presented to us and before I knew it, I never shared this recipe with you. But I feel like I’m finally able to breath, regain focus and get back into a normal routine with life and this blog.

Lola and Rio literally sat in front of the oven the entire time these were baking. When I had to photograph them they were both on pins and needles waiting for me to give them one (I might have snuck them a little taste). If they could talk, I’d be willing to bet they’d tell you this is their favorite dog treat recipe yet.

Other dog treat recipes you’ll love: DIY Peanut Butter Banana Flax Seed Dog Treats

I loved making them, too. As you know if you’ve read my previous DIY dog treat recipes – I love simple. And healthy. You will not see me feeding Lola and Rio a cheeseburger, ice cream cone, or french fries (I save that for myself). I’m not judging you if you do, but I just don’t think they need it and I want my babies to live a long, healthy life.

This recipe was inspired and adapted from Kol’s Notes.

4.8 from 5 reviews

Chicken Wild Rice Dog Treat Recipe

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

25 mins

Total time

35 mins

Your pup will love these DIY chicken wild rice dog treats that resemble mini muffins!

Author: Sarah at Lolathepitty.com (adapted from Kolchak Puggle)

Serves: 12

Ingredients

1 cup wild rice, mashed (may sub with another rice)
1 cup chicken, diced fine or shredded
3 Tablespoons rice flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)
1 Tablespoon fresh parsley, diced
1 egg, beaten

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 deg F.
Combine all ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and stir until well incorporated.
Using a spoon, press mixture into each cavity, packing tight and filling nearly to the top.
Bake for 25 minutes or until top begins to turn golden brown.
Let cool completely before serving.

Notes

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-5 days (or freeze).

Recipe from LolathePitty.com. All images and content are copyright protected. Please do not use without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words & simply link back to this post for the recipe. Thank you.

The rice flour was just brown rice flour from Bob’s Red Mill (if there’s ever a specialty flour you need, I guarantee they make it and it’s at most grocery stores).

To save time, I actually used canned chicken in this recipe. I was able to find an organic, canned chicken without any preservatives so I gave it a go.

And if you’re like me ten years ago (prior to living in Minnesota) and are going, “Huh? Where the heck can I find wild rice…wait, what is wild rice?!” just substitute with brown rice or whatever rice you’d like.

Enjoy!

Other treats you’ll love:

DIY Pumpkin Spice Puppuccinos

March 10, 2014April 18, 2015

Mint Buckwheat Dog Biscuits

Things I like about these Mint-Parsley-Buckwheat dog treats:

The entire batch fits on one cookie sheet. (As you learned with my Peanut Butter Banana dog treats, I’m not a fan of rolling out dough for an hour.)
They help with stinky dog breath…’nuff said.
I have extra fresh parsley & mint to use for human recipes.

I was at a Pet Expo a few weekends ago with our friend Amaya and her SDiT Tater. We couldn’t help but stop by the homemade dog treat booth and one treat that caught my eye was a dog biscuit made with buckwheat flour.

I’ve honestly never baked with buckwheat flour (partially because I tried buckwheat pancakes one time and umm, yeah….), but I immediately knew I wanted to try and create my own version but of course didn’t have a recipe for one.

I played with the ingredients a little bit and initially tried to make it without the egg but it was too dry – so after a little trial and error I think I’ve perfected it! I hope your pups enjoy these as much as Lola & Rio.

4.8 from 6 reviews

Mint Buckwheat Dog Biscuits

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

30 mins

I call these the dog's after dinner mints! The parsley and mint in these treats is great for helping with bad doggy breath!

Author: Sarah at LolaThePitty.com

Serves: 20-24

Ingredients

1½ cups buckwheat flour (I used Bob's Red Mill)
4 Tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons fresh mint, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon pure honey
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 egg, beaten
water (approx. 1-3 tsp)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
In a large bowl, stir buckwheat flour, parsley and mint leaves together until combined
In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil and honey.
Pour olive oil-honey mixture into the flour and stir. Add egg and stir until well combined.
Knead dough with hands to thoroughly mix the ingredients together. Add a teaspoon of water at a time to help the dough come together. This should take about 3-5 minutes.
Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to approx. ¼" thick.
Cut into desired shapes with cookie dough cutter.
Place biscuits onto a nonstick baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.

Notes

Store biscuits in an airtight container in the fridge to keep fresh.

This recipe yielded exactly 21 treats for me, using a 2″ cookie cutter.

They are a thin, crispy biscuit and are very easy to break into pieces.

I’ve been putting one on top of Lola & Rio’s dinner and they love it!

January 18, 2014April 18, 2015

Puppy Power Smoothies

Lola and Rio seriously went nuts over these smoothies I made for them. I love making treats like these for them because they are truly good for them and packed with vitamins, antioxidants, healthy fats and protein! And they love them…win. Wish I could say the same for myself.

I tried to snap a photo of them afterwards because they both had smoothie splattered all over their noses after slurping up their snack. Unfortunately both of their tongues were faster than I was.

Four simple ingredients make up these Puppy Power Smoothies:

Carrots – excellent source of vitamin A, antioxidants, fiber, vitamin K, potassium, folate, manganese, phosphorous, magnesium, vitamin E and zinc… and if that wasn’t enough, didn’t your mom always tell you to eat your carrots?

Parsley – stinky breath fixer-upper. Plus vitamin C, B12, K and A.

Greek yogurt – excellent source of protein!

Almond Milk – protein, low cal, plus a good source of omega fatty acids.

You can also freeze these and let your dog lick the cup clean for prolonged entertainment.

This recipe only yields four small servings, but you could easily double it or triple it and keep a supply in the freezer.

4.7 from 3 reviews

Puppy Power Smoothies

Prep time

5 mins

Total time

5 mins

Puppy power smoothies filled with tons of vitamins, antioxidants and protein. Plus, parsley will help with any bad breath your dog may have!

Author: Sarah at LolaThePitty.com

Serves: 4

Ingredients

⅔ C almond milk (unsweetened!)
1 cup chopped carrots
½ C greek yogurt (plain)
¼ cup fresh parsley

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a blender.
Blend until smooth.

Notes

Serve on top of food, in a bowl, or frozen!
Makes approximately 4 small servings.

You will begin to notice a trend with all of the dog recipes I make on this blog. I will never use vegetable or canola oil in my recipes, if I use flour it will be either whole wheat or a gluten free flour (such as rice, corn, or coconut), I will never add any unnecessary sugar and they will all offer nutritional benefits for your pup.

You could say I’m a teensy bit picky about what our dogs eat.

I’ll be honest, our dogs eat much cleaner than I do. As I’m sure many of us can relate to.

I hope your pups enjoy these as much as Lola and Rio!

Small Batch Peanut Butter Banana + Flax Seed Dog Biscuits

December 22, 2013August 14, 2016

(Small batch) Peanut Butter Banana + Flax Seed Dog Biscuits

4.9 from 11 reviews

(Small batch) Peanut Butter Banana + Flax Seed Dog Biscuits

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

30 mins

Simple, small batch Peanut Butter Banana + Flax Seed Dog Biscuits! This recipe is a breeze to pull together and is a nutritious snack for your dog!

Author: Sarah @ LolaThePitty.com

Serves: 24

Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour (can be substituted with rice or coconut flour for a grain free option)
½ banana, mashed
⅓ cup peanut butter
2 Tbsp ground flax seed
¼ cup almond milk (unsweetened)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine all ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.
Mix ingredients together thoroughly using a spatula until well combined.
Roll out mixture on a floured surface to approximately ¼". Cut into desired shapes. Repeat with remaining dough.
Place on a nonstick baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

Notes

*This yielded 24, 2-inch dog treats for me.
*Store in a airtight container.

You know the best thing about these Peanut Butter Banana Dog Biscuits is?

Besides that they have flax seed in them obviously and that they yield ~24 treats?!

You only need one bowl, a spatula and 30 minutes to pull these off!

I love making homemade treats for Lola & Rio – don’t get me wrong. But if the recipe yields 100 little dog treats, that translates to a lot of rolling dough, cutting cute little shapes out, and lots of dirty baking sheets. Then before you know it I’m ready to throw the entire piece of dough on the baking sheet and break it up for the dogs after it’s been baked. Today was one of those days, so this recipe was perfect. I played with the measurements and really enjoy this simple dog treat recipe!

I included flax seed in this because it is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, which are good for your pup’s skin and coat. You can omit this of course if you don’t have any.

I baked these treats for 20 minutes – this resulted in a somewhat chewy yet still slightly crunchy dog biscuit. (My pumpkin dog biscuit recipe is baked for longer and produced a crunchy dog biscuit, similar to a Milk Bone or something similar.)

My taste testers would tell you they LOVED this recipe. But then again it does have peanut butter AND banana AND it came from a human hand. That pretty much guarantees it’s being eaten.

I hope your pups (and you!) enjoy this small batch peanut butter banana + flax seed dog biscuit recipe!

Apple Crunch Pupcakes

These homemade pupcakes are so simple to throw together! One bowl, 50 minutes of your time and voila!

I love homemade dog treat recipes because you KNOW exactly what goes into them.

And I don’t know about you, but our dogs eat much better & cleaner than we do.

If you have a doughnut pan, you can bake these into cute doughnut (or bagel) shapes as well!

5.0 from 3 reviews

Apple Crunch Pupcakes

Cook time

35 mins

Total time

35 mins

A homemade cupcake for your dog, also known as a pupcake! Treat your four-legged friend to a dog-safe treat that they are sure to love!

Author: Sarah @ LolaThePitty.com

Serves: 12

Ingredients

2 cups water
¼ cups apple sauce (I used Mott’s Natural)
¼ tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
4 Tbsp honey
4 cups whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 cup chopped apples (about 1 apple)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a large bowl mix water, apple sauce, vanilla, egg, and honey together with a whisk.
Combine whole wheat flour and baking powder and stir into wet ingredients.
Fold in chopped apples.
Spoon mixture into greased muffin tins.
Bake for 35 minutes; let cool.

Notes

*these are very LARGE for a dog - I broke them up into pieces and gave over several days.
*store in an airtight container.