Frozen Natural Dog Treats

I don't know about you, but our dog, Shooter loves this weather!  He will swim and run until he passes out and we always keep an eye on him for an hour or so after we get back inside in case he overheats.  Over protective much? Probably.  However, to alleviate this we made some wonderfully tasting frozen summer time dog treats; all natural!  And, surprise surprise... he LOVES them!  Give these easy dog treats a try for your active pup and keep them cool and healthy all summer long!

 

We made three different flavors for Shooter; mainly because I had so many left over dog favored foods!  We had a few bananas that were too ripe to eat, and half a sweet potato left after we made fries last week.  Plus peanut butter... what dog doesn't love peanut butter?! 

 



Ingredients:

Peanut Butter

Sweet Potato

Banana

Low fat milk/almond milk/organic yogurt.... (your choice; I used what we had, low fat milk)

Dry oats

Honey

 

Cook Time:

20 mins

 

*Food processor is also helpful here

 

 

 

 

First, we made sweet potato treats.  Peel, cut and boil sweet potato.  Place into food processor with oats, milk and honey.  Test out the consistency and place into ice cube tray.  Freeze and enjoy! 

 

Keep going with any flavors your dog likes.  Like we said, Shooter loves peanut butter so we made a batch with peanut butter, oats, milk and honey.  Make sure to stay away from flavors that are bad dogs... i.e. chocolate, raisins, grapes, garlic. Also watch using the milk if you know your dog has an allergy to protein.  If that is the case, yogurt is a better option. 

 

The bananas were the same, use your bananas and add oats, honey and milk. 

 

When removing the treats from the trays, we found that it was easier to use a butter knife and cut the treats out.  Feed to your dog right away; they melt fast!!

 

 

 







Coconut Rose Sugar Scrub

Derek recently had surgery on his ACL and spent a week at home with me.  Needless to say, as you all know how whiney men can be when they are under the weather, I was in for a long week.  He was actually much better than I thought he would be, and after he went back to work he sent me some roses as a thank you <3

After a few days the roses started to wilt and I didn't want to just watch them die so I figured I would try to make a rose scented body scrub out of the petals!  Spring time is the perfect time to maybe give a little extra love to your skin as it is dried out from the winter.  This is a very simple recipe to follow and requires very few ingredients.  You can make one jar for every rose you have; in this case, (my cat ate one of my flowers lol) I have five roses to work with. 

You will need:
Rose petals
Half pint jars with lids
Coconut Oil
Sunflower Oil
Cane Sugar (In it's coarse, natural state)

You can really use any size jar you want, but what I found is that one rose is the perfect amount for a half pint size jar. 

You can also substitute the sunflower oil with almond oil or jojoba oil.  These oils are all wonderful for your skin and will absorb nicely as well and keep you moisturized.  After researching the properties and benefits of each oil, I found that I wanted to use sunflower oil because of its high vitamin E content. "The health benefits of consuming vitamin E, or using it on the skin, have been studied for years and can be beneficial to your body in a variety of ways. This vitamin is crucial in the prevention of damage to sensitive skin cells by ultraviolet light, or UVA, from the sun. Additionally, studies have shown that vitamin E may prevent scarring, smooth the appearance of existing wrinkles and generally improve the appearance and health of your skin."

So here we go!  There are no measurements needed in this spring time scrub; all you need to do is fill each ingredient into 1/3 of the jar. 

Step 1: Start with your coconut oil. 
Coconut oil is sold by the olive oils at your local grocery store.  It is an oil, but at room temperature has the consistency of butter. 

Step 2: Place rose petals on top of the coconut oil.
By placing the rose petals between the layers of oil it gives the petals room to be absorbed by the oils and create the amazing rose scent.

Step 3: Fill the remaining 3rd of the jar with your cane sugar. Leaving about 1/4" at the top of the jar.

Step 4: Slowly pour sunflower oil on the sugar and let it absorb.
The oil will sit at the top for a few seconds and will absorb down into the sugar.  Pour oil onto the sugar until the sugar no longer looks dry.  This may take up to 3 Tablespoons of oil.

Step 5: Screw lid into place!

You are ready to use the scrub at any time; just be sure when you open it to mix the ingredients together with a spoon.

Enjoy!!