Healthy Homemade Dog Treats (4 Ingredients)

Time for another recipe for homemade dog treats! This one is suuuuper simple to make. AND it tastes pretty good too (yes, my sister and I actually tried some of the finished product).

I went over to my sister's place to bake, and she had what I thought were sweet potatoes in the pantry. However, when I cut one open, it was light purple on the inside! I think they were Okinawan sweet potatoes...anyway, either sweet potatoes or yams can be used for this recipe. :)

Oh! Instead of buying oat flour at the store, you can easily make it out of regular oats. I use a Vitamix to blend oats until they resemble coarse flour.

Banana, oat flour, sweet potato, and salt.

Mashed banana & Okinawan sweet potato

Ingredients
1 small banana
1 small sweet potato OR yam, steamed (directions below)
1 cup oat flour
1/4 tsp salt
1-2 Tbsp water (optional)

Directions
1. Mash together the banana, steamed sweet potato/yam, and salt in a bowl. Mix in 1 cup of oat flour.
2. If mixture seems too dry, stir in 1-2 Tbsp of water. The dough should hold together in a ball, but not be too wet. 
3. Roll out the dough into a 1/4" layer. Use whatever cookie cutter you want to cut out shapes and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
4. Bake for ~30 minutes at 325 F°. (bake for 5-10 minutes longer depending on how crunchy you want your treats to be).
5. Let cool and store treats in an airtight container. :)


 
(To easily steam a small sweet potato or yam in the microwave, just prick it all over with a fork, loosely wrap it in a wet paper towel, and microwave it for about 5 minutes [may need a minute or two more depending on the size of the potato/yam]. The outside should be slightly soft. I let the yam cool for a few minutes, cut it in half, and scooped out the flesh into my mixing bowl.)

Cooling after baking :)

Waiting patiently...just so I could take the picture

Delicious, crunchy treats

Super healthy granola bars

I usually buy granola bars for on-the-go convenience, but sometimes they are way too sweet and have a lot of extra fat and additives in them. >_< In general, granola bars are extremely easy to make at home, so why haven't I made them more often? I DON'T KNOW. I think I shall be making my own from now on actually. :) Plus I really like the idea of getting to play around with the ingredients.

Flaxseed --> fiber, protein, and omega-3 :)

Used a coffee grinder to grind up my flaxseed

Rolled oats, wheat germ, flaxseed, cinnamon, salt... and I only used 6 tablespoons of honey for the whole batch! More can be added, but I like them subtly sweet. 

Ginormous jar of organic extra virgin coconut oil

(Note: ok, so I know it's pretty debatable whether coconut oil is truly healthy or not... I'm currently working on a research paper that analyzes how coconut oil affects the lipid profile of adults...yes, very fun and informative stuff. ;) So far it appears safe, but there's still a lot of research that needs to be done with human subjects.

I personally like using coconut oil, BUT if you are cooking/baking with it, be sure to choose the unrefined/virgin kind!)

Yummeh!!! I added in coconut, dark chocolate chips, and dried cranberries

I baked these in an 8x8 pan and cut them into 10 bars. :)

I'm still tweaking around with the recipe, but these were really healthy and delicious.