Dog Food, Human Food: Hamburger Classic

We were craving for some home-made hamburgers - plump, juicy, simply delicious. The ingredients we used were all dog-safe.

All three of us, dog and 2 humies (humans) tucked in to the hamburger patties. And for us humies, we added freshly stewed tomato sauce which went really well with the hamburgers.

One trick we learnt was to shape the beef patties and then coat it with olive oil. It would slide onto the frying pan easily.

Ingredients:
200g Ground Beef
2 tsp Dried basil
2 tsp Dried Parsley
1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper
1/5 cup Bread Crumbs
1/2 Egg (Beaten)

1. Mix everything, shape the patties and throw it into the pan! That's all. Really simple, perfect for rainy lazy days :)

Dog Muffin Recipe: Banana and Oats 'Mutt-fin'

These banana and oats muffins will be so good, your dog(s) will beg you for it. Ours does his silly spins and pawing - he becomes completely obedient, like he's on a remote-control.

Sigh... You could call these 'mutt-fins' too, and your dog might go 'bananas' over it, haha...

We enjoyed it too, not just because it's rather tasty, it's real easy, simple and fast to prepare too. No hassle of cookie cutting or shaping. They're great for a quick breakfast, both dogs and humans.

These 'mutt-fins' would be perfect for those with a sweet-tooth.

In less than 5 minutes after it cooled down, the score for wolfing down the most muffin was: Humans 3, Latte 1. :p

Ingredients: (Makes 18 muffins)

• 1 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup milk
  
• 1/4 cup honey
• 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg
• 2 medium mashed bananas
• 1 tbs vanilla essence (best to use natural essence.)
  

0. Preheat the oven.

1. Mix the flour, oats, ground cinnamon and baking powder in a big bowl.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix.
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3. Lay the paper cups in muffin tray, and scoop the mixture into the cups.

4. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 12 to 15 minutes. Stick a toothpick or dry spaghetti into the 'mutt-fin', it should come out clean if it's ready.http://latteandcookie.blogspot.com/5. Let cool and let your dog love it!

* Store in an airtight container in the fridge, thaw before treating, should keep well for about 3 to 4 days.
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Reference:
M. Beckloff & D. Dye. (2005) Cooking the Three Dog Bakery Way.
L. Fortunato (2007) The Everything Cooking For Dogs Book.

Pup Cake Recipe: Peanut Butter Honey Cake

Latte celebrated his birthday recently with a dog cake or 'pup-cake' baked specially just for him. Here's a youtube of him chomping, chomping and chomping:

Ingredients:
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Latte loved it, we loved it. It's sweet and tasty!

• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 medium carrot (grated)
  
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/4 cup natural, unsweetened, unsalted peanut butter
  
• 1/8 cup olive oil
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vanilla essence (try not to use the artificial flavouring)
  

1. Mix the flour and baking soda. (Optional: Sift the flour)

2. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix.

3. Pour into a greased (use very very little butter) round cake pan (around 20 cm or 8 inch). Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 30 minutes.

4. Let cool and let your dog love it!
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Dog Cookie Recipe: Honey Minty Rings

Here's a dog cookie/treat that's minty and fresh tasting : ) While we might love to snack on chocolate mints once in awhile, our dogs can't enjoy any chocolate. It's bad for them! So these minty rings will do as substitutes, ha!
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Latte greedily gobbled up the Honey Minty Rings and we had to ration them, resisting his begging. We loved the minty aroma that filled the air while we were baking - wicked!
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Ingredients (Makes approximately 45 bite-size ring cookies)

• 1 cup wholemeal flour (we use organic)
  
• 4 tsp dried mint
• 1 tsp dried parsley
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
  
• 1 tbs olive oil
  
• 1 tbs honey
• 1/4 cup water
  

1. Pour the wholemeal flour, mint, parsley and basil into a bowl, stir to mix.

2. Add the olive oil and honey, mix again.

3. Add the water slowly and start forming the dough. (We use about 1/4 cup water, amount depends on your local humidity). We always try to achieve an easy-to-manage dough that's like putty.

4. Form little honey mint ring cookies (Our dog was eyeing our every move intensely - hilarious)

5. Bake at 180˚C for 40 mins until golden brown. I usually recommend shapes that are relatively thin and flat as it takes a much shorter time, saves energy too : )

6. As usual, let the cookies cool in oven and it'll be extra crispy and crunchy.
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Dog Cookie Recipe: Double Seeds Gone Nuts

Today's Latte's birthday and he gets a double treat! Besides baking him a huge batch of Double Seeds Gone Nuts cookies, he got to chomp on his own doggy birthday cake - a Honey Peanut-Butter Cake.
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I always steal a little of his cookies (i bake it anyway :p) and found it a little too bland for me. I believe in not adding too much flavoring like sugar and salt since dogs don't need their food to taste 'good' in our human sense.
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Latte loves these cookies and I bet all the baking helped release the aroma from the double seeds and nut. Check out an earlier post on the nutrition of flaxseeds and sunflower seeds.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of wholemeal flour
• 1/4 cup flaxseeds
• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
• 3 tbs natural peanut butter (no salt and sugar)
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 3/4 cup water

1. Grind the flaxseeds and sunflower seeds in a blender until coarse.
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2. Mix everything except the oil and water in a mixing bowl.
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3. Add oil and water to the flour mixture - add the water gradually while kneading the dough. It's one of the best doughs we've worked with, it's non-sticky and very easy to handle - great for cookie cutters.
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4. Bake at 180˚C for 20 mins. Let the cookies cool in the oven and store in an air-tight container.
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Dog Cookie Recipe: Cheesy Carrot Crunch Redux

We spiced up an old recipe and it turned out better, much more fragrant than version 1. This rebux recipe includes ground dried basil and flaxseed which gives an interesting additional 'mini-crunchiness' to the already crispy cookies.
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Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 2 small carrots (yields 1/2 cup after blending)
  
• 2 slices of breakfast cheese
• 1 tsp ground dried basil
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 2 tbs brown flaxseed
• 1 1/2 tbs plain flour (for easier kneading)

1. Blend the carrots (coarse) and oats (fine). Pour into a mixing bowl and add the cheese, basil, olive oil and flaxseed.
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2. Add water by the tablespoon and start kneading into dough, I use about 1/3 cup water (The amount of water to use will depend on your local humidity). Adding the plain flour helped us achieve an easy-to-manage dough that was like putty. We tried making little bones but it was so time consuming,we stuck to the flat round biscuit shapes.
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3. Bake at 180˚C for 20 mins until golden brown. I recommend shapes that are relatively thin and flat as it takes a much shorter time, saves energy too : )
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4. As usual, let the cookies cool in oven and it'll be extra crispy and crunchy.
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Dog Cookie Recipe: Cheesy Carrot Crunch

These Cheesy Carrot Crunch are real crispy and packs a nice crunch - I couldn't resist chomping down a few, all in the name of testing.
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Tip: After you finish baking the entire batch, pour everything back into the tray and let it cool with the oven. This will help remove additional moisture from the cookies and keep them extra crisp.
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This recipe will yield around 40 to 50 cookie-sticks.
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Enjoy!
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