National Cook for Your Pets Day

Did you know that yesterday was National Cook for Your Pets Day? Seriously, I'm not making this up! There's a website with a pledge and everything. I took the pledge (mainly because they promised to send free recipes) and then I realized: I don't cook for my family, what makes me think I can cook for the dogs? Feeling brave, I searched the Internet and found a couple recipes that looked doable. Plus, I already had the ingredients in the house. (It was raining outside and I didn't feel like driving.)

The first recipe I found was Beef and Cheese Balls over at Kol's Notes. The ingredients: two pounds ground beef, two potatoes, a cup of cheese, an egg and a bag of freeze dried liver treats. (Yes, I keep freeze dried liver in my pantry. Doesn't everybody?) A little bit of boiling, frying, mashing, smashing and baking later and voila:

My notes: I made my balls larger than 1" and still got over 3 dozen. The recipe calls for a 4 oz. bag of liver treats; I had a 2 oz. bag and that was plenty. I like that these meatballs are cooked (unlike satin balls) but I still wasn't going to taste them. I couldn't get past the liver smell.

But more importantly, the dogs' notes: Why do they have to cool before we can eat them? Why can't we eat them all now?!

I found a second recipe on Cesar Milan's website for Healthy Pumpkin Balls. These ingredients were also simple: canned pumpkin, molasses, water, vegetable oil, whole wheat flour, baking soda and baking powder. (I left out the cinnamon. Jedi and Roxy don't care for it.) I mixed the ingredients, plopped it on to a greased cookie sheet and baked for 25 minutes. This is what we got:

My notes: There's no egg, so I tried the raw dough. Kind of bland, but not bad! I rolled the dough into 1" balls and got almost 3 dozen cookies.

And more importantly, the dogs' notes: Where's the meat? We want the meaty ones!

So, are feeling inspired? What are you cooking for your dogs? If you'd like to try these recipes just follow the links to original sites. And if you have a recipe you like, please share. -- K