In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, we wanted to make a green treat for our dogs–but without any food coloring. The answer? Green peas. After a little experimenting in the kitchen, we’ve come up with St. Patty’s Day dog treats sure to please your lads (or, in our case, Labs) and lassies!
This recipe was fast and easy to make. I started getting my two flours together. You can adjust the proportions of each depending on what’s in your pantry.
Use kitchen shears (or sharp scissors work fine, too) to cut the bacon strips into little chunks:
You can use fresh, frozen (thawed) or canned (drained) peas…your choice:
So that you’ll have plenty of time for the bacon to cool down a little, your first step is frying up your bacon. (You can also opt to microwave it, too, but don’t put paper towels beneath the bacon…you’ll want to reserve the drippings to use in this recipe!)
While the bacon cools, it’s time to blend the peas using either a blender or food processor.
You’ll blend them until they’re a creamy mixture with just a little bit of chunky peas remaining. They’re a little pasty but your next step will add oil to the mixture.
After the bacon cools a little (you don’t want to burn your fingers!), pour the bacon and the drippings over the blended peas:
Add your flour to the peas and bacon mixture. I also added two tablespoons of water but that might vary depending on the moisture in your peas. If your dough too dry, add a little water at a time; if it’s too sticky, sprinkle with a little more flour while kneading on a lightly floured surface:
Now it’s time for the fun part…the cookie cutter! Since these are St. Patrick’s Day treats, I thought it would be fun to get a shamrock cookie cutter. Well, every other cook in a 30-mile radius must have had the same thought; every store was sold out of shamrock cookie cutters (who knew??) Not to be deterred, I used the dog bone cookie cutter. I used one bone to make the horizontal leaves, then made a second bone trimmed with a butter knife for the top leaf and the bottom stem.
Not perfect…but, to be honest, the dogs don’t care 😉 Plus, we break the treats in smaller pieces anyway when we give them to the dogs.
Here’s the nearly-finished project. I had some leftover peas that hadn’t been blended and put them on top of some of the treats, sprinkle style, barely pressing them into the dough:
About half an hour later and the finished product–slightly green (and with no food coloring)–was ready! We’re ready for St. Patrick’s Day!
St. Patrick's Day Dog Treats
Ingredients
- 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour or oat flour
- 4 strips bacon, cut into small pieces
- 4 cups green peas, drained (about two cans)
- 2 tablespoons water
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Mix dry ingredients.
Fry bacon and reserve drippings; cool.
Put peas in blender or food processor and blend. Mix blended peas and bacon with drippings; add dry ingredients and mix well.
Knead dough and pat out or roll to under 1/2 inch thickness.
Cut with cookie cutters to desired shape and place on lightly oiled cookie sheet.
Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes or until browned.
Cool and serve.
Notes
Prepared treats can be refrigerated for up to six days or frozen for six months.
Cooks: Don’t miss our My Dog Says I’m a Great Cook™ cookbook with over 100 dog treat recipes from the publishers, readers and fans of DogTipper! This paperback book is available in our YUCKY PUPPY gift store!
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