The Love of Dogs

Today I made these tasty little treats for our dog Lilly. She LOVES our blueberry soft serve (who wouldn't), so I decided to come up with a treat recipe for her, based off of that. These little banana blueberry bites are just the thing! Lilly, the tough critic that she is, gave her paw of approval!

She was such a good little girl, waiting patiently for her treats.

Look at all these treats!

These are somewhat like soft, crispy muffins- Lilly likes that kind of thing :)

Blueberry Banana Bites
(Print Recipe)

1 peeled and sliced, frozen banana
1/4 cup blueberries
1/4 cup almond milk
2/3 cup oats
1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds
1 cup brown rice flour

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Put the banana, blueberries, and milk in a food processor. Process until smooth. (You could also use a non-frozen banana and put these three ingredients in the blender).
Pour into a medium sized bowl. Add the remaining ingredients. Stir until thoroughly combined. Drop rounded balls onto parchment covered cookie sheet. I made mine small for a small dog- teaspoon size.  Bake for 10-12 minutes (longer if you make larger treats) until crispy on the outside. Transfer to a cooling rack. Once cool, store in an airtight container in the fridge for a week. Keep extra treats in the freezer!

Share these with your dogs and dog friends!
Spoiled much?

This was her spot on the couch last night. And we wondered why she didn't want to leave it to come to bed.

Anyone who is a fellow dog lover understands wanting the best for our pets! It breaks my heart when I see neglected dogs. There are SO many stray dogs in Charlotte, I see them fairly often and almost always try to get them to come to me so that I can bring them to a shelter. Most of the time they are so frightened (for MANY understandable reasons, I am sure) that they run away. Why people get dogs and then don't take care of them, I will never understand.

Anyone looking to be a dog owner should definitely consider rescuing a dog. There are so many out there that need homes! If not a rescue, at least from a reputable breeder. A lot of people don't realize this, but buying pets from pet stores most likely means supporting puppy mills, because reputable breeders do not sell to pet stores. Here is a short article about rescuing and choosing the right breeder. This is another short article on choosing a puppy/dog that is right for your family (and the importance of not supporting puppy mills). If you are by any chance in the Charlotte area, Project Halo is one no-kill shelter that you could look into supporting or adopting a dog from. You can also visit the ASPCA website and search for adoptable dogs in your area.

For a long time, my dream dog was a Malti-Tzu (half Maltese half Shih Tzu). I finally got her after much research and let downs. I called several "breeders" that seemed very shady and would not let me come visit the puppies on premise. "Breeders" who also didn't have a picture of the mom/dad dog to send me. FINALLY after much searching I found Lilly! We drove to Winston Salem to see her as well as both her mom and dad... and we brought her home that day! This is the first day with us- we put her next to a wine bottle to show how little she was.

And then we put her in  our picnic basket. I can't believe she was little enough to fit in here!

And now here she is all grown up.

 Yes, I love her.

I hope your dogs enjoy these treats as much as Lilly does!