How to Make Easy Dog Treats

Okay, I promised you a dog treat recipe so here it is. And did I mention that it is super simple dog treat recipe? Even if you aren't Betty Crocker or Martha Stewart I have complete faith that anyone can make these.

There is a grand total of 3 ingredients! I would also say there is a pretty good chance you have these ingredients on hand. Are  your ready??

Here it is:

Ingredients:

1 cup milk

1 cup peanut butter

2 cups flour

(Now the hard part, but not really.)

Instructions:

Mix all ingredients together.
Roll dough out on a floured counter top (so it doesn't stick).

Cut dough into dog treat shapes, or if you're like me, little flowers and hearts because you don't have a dog bone cookie cutter. (Trust me, your dog won't care what they look like.)

Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 8 minutes or so, depending on the size of your treats.

I just baked them until they were a little more well done than a human cookie. Basically, not rock hard but not fall apart chewy. (It's an exact science obviously).

Take out of the oven and let cool before serving to your dog. He will love you forever.

I use these a lot as training treats since they are little and I don't feel bad giving Gunnar a handful of them. He doesn't mind either. Let me know if you have questions and enjoy!

How to make Cinnamon Apple Chips

I've been promising a lot of things around this space lately so I'm trying to deliver. Last week I promised a post on how to make cinnamon apple chips and so guess what I'm delivering today?!!

If you guessed "How to make cinnamon apples" you are a smartypants, so give yourself a gold star!

This is actual super duper simple to do, so no worries if you're no Rachel Ray or Betty Crocker. 

Gather your ingredients:

3 apples (I used gala)

Ball Fruit Fresh (can also use lemon juice)

Cinnamon

And supplies:

Apple corer

Mandolin Slicer (or a good knife)

Dehydrator (or oven)

Put some fruit fresh in a bowl of water. 

Slice your apples as thin or as thick as you like. 

Keeping in mind they will shrink when we dehydrate them. 

Then toss them in the bowl of fruit fresh (or lemon juice) to prevent browning.

Lay your apples out on parchment paper.

Sprinkle with cinnamon. A lot or a little depending on your preference.

Lay apples into single layers on your dehydrator trays. 

(See oven instructions below.)

Turn the dehydrator on.

After about 4 hours (give or take) your apples will look all crinkly and be ready to eat.

If you like the apples crunchy (like chips) leave them in the dehydrator longer. If you like them softer (so you can roll them up like me) take them out earlier.

And that my friends is all there is to it. 

Store in a container or a pretty little mason jar that we all love so dearly. 

**Oven instructions - Turn on your oven to 200º and put sliced apples on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Place in oven for 2-4 hours depending on the crispiness you like. Flip apples periodically (every hour or so) so they dry evenly.  

Let me know if you try them:)

P.S. They're pretty good for breakfast!

Super Simple (Healthy) Salsa

Since summer is winding down (I realize it's fall but I don't want to let go of summer quite yet) I decided to share one of my super simple recipes for salsa (or pico de gallo, whatever you want to call it). Bonus, it's healthy!

We've still got a few tomatoes so I made up a batch last weekend and I'm hoping to make more this weekend. Crossing my fingers for more tomatoes.

Anyhow....gather your ingredients. 

Ingredients

Tomatoes (duh)

Cilantro

Lemon (lemon juice works fine too)

Onion

Garlic Powder

Sea salt (prefer the sea but regular works)

Pepper

(If you want to get crazy you can add a jalapeno, but I'm not a fan so I leave it out.)

Hello gorgeous.

Dice your onion. I use about a quarter of a medium sized onion.

Dice your tomato. Two big or 3-4 small-ish ones.

Throw your tomato and onion into a bowl. 

Dice up your cilantro. About a tablespoon.

Add to tomatos and onions.

Squeeze lemon juice onto the mixture.
(Add jalapeno hear if you want.)

Add about a tsp of garlic powder.
I use powder instead of salt so we don't get too much sodium.

Generously add pepper if your husband is a pepper lover like mine.
Plus a pinch of salt or so (you can always add more later). 

Mix it up.

Admire how beautiful and summery it looks.

Next, put it in the fridge for about an hour so the flavors can mingle. 

Most important step right here....taste it! Does it need anything else?
Add it in and stir it up. 

Eat with chips or on a taco salad or off the spoon.
There's really no wrong way to eat this stuff.
(We like to call nachos a taco salad in our house. Sounds healthier!)

That's all there is to it! See, told ya it was easy. 

Now hurry and make some before all the tomatoes are gone. 

Linking up at Tell it Tuesday with One Fine Wire. 

The Blog Life

Yesterday as I was getting ready for bed I decided I felt like I had a blogger kind of day. 

I worked my normal 8-5 job and emailed a bloggy friend, read some blogs, and perused Pinterest during downtime. 

After work, I stopped at a hardware store and picked up some paint, a gunny sack and a few pieces of bamboo. Might sound random, but it's not. 

Stopped in at Hobby Lobby to discover that even though it's 97° outside and June, that won't stop them from putting out the fall decorations. Instagramed that obviously. 

seriously??

Texted my cousin about the cute 4th of July outfit she should totally get her daughter. 

Couldn't decide what shoes...

Stumbled upon several aisles of 80% off home decor and went a little crazy. Okay, not too crazy but crazy enough that when the husband called I said, "Sure honey, you should totally buy that new golf bag!" I also managed to find the two items that I went in for in the first place. Winning. 

Swung by the Dollar Tree to pick up a couple crafting items that were needed and found a couple additional bargains. No big deal.

Made it home in time to do a little spray painting, burlapping and other crafting (that will be seen here tomorrow) before it got dark. 

Played with the puppy and watered my rapidly growing garden.

Came inside and made up a quick Pinterest chicken recipe that was super yummy. 

Watched some reality tv, Pretty Wicked Moms. Followed it up with an episode of Call the Midwife and fell asleep. 

If that's not the blog life, I don't know what is.

Blueberry Lemon Cookies

Well as I posted on Friday, I was in the mood to bake something. So that's just what I did. I made it home in time to take a little one hour siesta, because I was draggin', and my husband wouldn't be home for awhile still. 

I woke up with an even stronger urge to bake so my husband walked in the door to Betty Crocker mixing up a batch of Blueberry Lemon Cookies! I'm so domestic. Not. 

In true wife fashion I managed to ask my husband to fix my broken garbage disposal since I was going crazy without it. Apparently I broke it by dropping a pop tab in it? No idea how that happened, but I guess it's good to know that if my hands ever getting mangled I just need to drop a pop tab down the drain to stop it. 

My cookie making was obviously interrupted approximately 5 times while I helped "fix" the disposal. Let me tell you, no matter how clean you think the inside of the disposal is, it's not. It's actually DISGUSTING. So much for that baking soda/vinegar mix from earlier in the week. 

Well, I finally managed to finish the cookies after washing my hands 27,000 times.  I thought they turned out DELISH! 

Here's the recipe that I adapted to these...

Cookies

2 cups blueberries (mine were some I got a few months ago and threw in the freezer, they freeze beautifully)

3/4 cup crisco

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 zested lemon

2 eggs

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt (all I had was sea salt, worked fine)

1/2 cup milk

Preheat your oven to (about) 375°F.

Mix Crisco and white and brown sugars together.

Add zested lemon and eggs to Crisco/sugar mixture and beat well.

Before the beating.

Slowly add in dry ingredients and milk. (I had to add in a little more flour because I thought they were way too runny. I would probably not add the milk the next time.)

Gently fold in the blueberries. 

I added LOTS of blueberries. 

Drop the cookie dough onto cookie sheets by the spoonful. (I swear by airbake pans and would never use anything else for cookies)

Ignore this awful photo. 

Bake for 10 minutes or until they look right. They will not turn brown on the top, mine didn't anyway. 

These have the glaze described below. 

Let cool.

Devour. Or...

Glaze

I added a little drizzled glaze (I'm sure that's the scientific baking term for it anyway) that was super easy.

1. Pour some powdered sugar into a bowl.
2. Add lemon juice squeezed from zested lemon.
3. Stir. 
4. Add more powdered sugar or lemon juice until it's a nice runny consistency that can easily drizzle. You can also use milk if you run out of lemon juice. 

Stuff your face because they are basically healthy with all that fruit;) They taste like summer and have more of a cakey texture than cookie. It's all good!

Realize that your husband doesn't like blueberries so he isn't a fan of cookies with blueberries. News to me unless he thought they were gross, but I assure you they are not. He is just picky. 

Next time I will probably mix half of the batter with blueberries and the other half with raspberries or strawberries so he will eat them since he loves lemon. 

Enjoy! 

Linking up with Give Me the Goods:)

Freebie: Recipe Cards

I have a slight obsession with all things adorable and kitchen-y. So, I made some Super Cute (I think anyway) recipe cards for you to use:) 

Just go to this link and/or this link print out on some heavy cardstock. Cut out and voila! Adorable recipe cards for you to use as you please. 

I think the second one is my favorite. 

Which one is your favorite?

Let me know if you like them and feel free to share with a link back here.