I am done looking for healthy dog treats at pet stores. I tried many and while Marlo likes them all, I don’t after reading the labels. All the treats have all sorts of preservatives and artificial ingredients, colors, and flavors. Why would I ever buy that when I can make something totally scrumptious and very healthy myself?

Dog treats are super easy to make and the consumers are usually very forgiving and flexible. Most dog treat recipes call for peanut butter and pumpkin puree. I didn’t have pumpkin puree this time, so I found something with carrots that sounded good. Marlo always enjoys peanut butter and raw carrots, so I was pretty confident that he will enjoy the treats with both of those ingredients. I also wanted soft treats and they came out perfect!

It took about 30 minutes to prepare the treats and 25 minutes to bake them in the oven. If not for my dog biscuit shapes, preparation would’ve taken just 20 minutes, but I wanted to test my new silicone shapes from Chewy instead of using cookie cutters.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Jason’s Creamy Peanut Butter
• ¾ cup organic whole milk
• 1 organic egg
• 1 organic carrot, grated
• 1 ½ cup of organic whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon of baking powder
• A handful of organic rolled oats

I started by taking a medium size bowl and combining peanut butter, milk, egg, and peeled and grated organic carrot.

Mixing everything with a wooden spatula was easy.

I recently ordered personalized wooden spatulas and spoons from Personalization Mall and working with them was a pleasure.

Before I continued with the rest of ingredients, I preheated my oven to 325 degrees. I also sprayed my silicone dog bone and paw shapes from Chewy with coconut oil.

Those shapes are small, but amazing! It took just 2 days to get them from Chewy and I couldn’t be happier with them, because nothing sticks to them and baked treats just fall out without me doing anything.

Next step was to add 1.5 cups of my favorite King Arthur whole wheat flour and a tablespoon of baking powder. At this point mixing becomes a bit tough because the dough is dense, so you can continue kneading by hand on a floured surface.

I was able to mix it in the bowl.

During the last step I added a handful of oats to the mixture and folded them in slowly.

If you have cookie cutters, roll out the dough to about ¼ inch thickness, cut desired cookies, and place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet.

As I mentioned above, I wanted to use my silicone shapes from Chewy, so I spend extra time filling each small shape by hand. It took me a bit longer, but I didn’t mind.

I baked my dog treats for 15 minutes on one side and then took them out and flipped the shapes upside down on the baking sheet.

All the treats fell out and I was able to place them back in the oven without shapes for another 10 minutes of baking. If you prefer crispy treats, you can add another 5 minutes.

Once the treats are done baking, take them out, and let them cool off fully. Then store them in an airtight container for up to a week. Marlo absolutely loved them and spend a good time begging for more after I let him try a few, so I call it total success!