Doggie Treats

This is not for human consumption, is not low-carb, and I’m not providing nutritional info! 🙂  Oh My!  But I thought I’d share this recipe for those out there who are dog lovers with a dog on your Christmas shopping list.  If your fur friends have many skin allergies, these have been tolerated by my allergy-ridden pooches for years now.  I started making these for my two rat terriers (a breed often plagued with skin allergies) about 10 years ago and it’s the only treat my dogs have tolerated without serious allergic reaction.

This recipe makes a HUGE 13×15″ jelly roll pan full which cuts into 195  1″ squares.  So a batch lasts me over a month for two toy breed pups.   If you have larger dogs, you may prefer to cut into larger pieces.  I freeze them in a gallon plastic bag and just take out a small baggie full each week and keep down in the refrigerator.

My dogs just adore these things!!  They go wild when I take them out of the oven to cool!  If using for training treats, to avoid weight gain from over-treating, just break these into even tinier pieces!  If your dogs have allergies to either wheat or oats, obviously these won’t work for you.  You could substitute flax meal for the flour but I don’t know about subbing for the oats.  Sorry.  I’ll have to let you experiment there on your own. Fortunately, my dogs are apparently only allergic to soy and possibly brewers rice/yeast, so often in commercial treats.

I have made these with beef liver, beef heart, chicken liver, chicken hearts, pork liver, pork heart.  You could use sheep organ meat if you have access.  They are received well no matter which meat I use. 🙂

INGREDIENTS:

1 c. whole wheat flour

3 c. whole rolled oats

1 lb. carton chicken livers (with juice), beef liver or pork liver

2 eggs

¼ c. oil

DIRECTIONS:    Preheat oven to 350º.  Process liver in a food processor until smooth.  It’s vile looking, but try not to dwell on that.  Add the eggs, oil, flour and oats and pulse until well blended.  Scrape out onto a 13×15″ jelly roll pan that has been sprayed or oiled well.  Using a rubber spatula, spread out evenly, trying to make it as evenly thick as possible.  Bake at 350º for 10-12 minutes until center is dry to the touch.  Remove and cool.  Cut into 1″ squares.  When totally cool, use a metal spatula to remove them from the pan.  Store in a gallon ziploc bag in your freezer until ready to use.  The recipe rating below came directly from my two dogs.  🙂

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Crumble Topping

I love working with oat fiber.  It brings to low-carb baked goods what flour used to bring, a flour-y taste and flour-y texture.  This tasty crisp made with apple was just DELICIOUS!  I had 4 Gala apples I had bought for my husband (that he wasn’t eating)  that were going to go bad and were really past the crisp, eating stage.  So this is how I used those up!  My typical apple filling:  4 peeled, sliced apples tossed with a few tablespoons of water, a sprinkle of xanthan gum tp thicken, 1/4 c. Splenda or erythritol, along with a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg.  Pour into non-stick pan or baking dish and dot with 2T. butter.

I made the crumble topping below and sprinkled HALF the crumble mixture over the fruit.  I zipped the other half up in a baggie and freeze for another use. Will keep frozen for 1 month. This is not Induction friendly, so wait until you reach Phase 2 of Atkins to enjoy this.  To make this MUCH lower carb, you could instead use peeled, grated jicama, sliced zucchini or chayote squash for half, or even all the apples in this, but cooking time will increase if you do.

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INGREDIENTS:

1½ c. CarbQuik baking mix (or other low-carb bake mix)

½ c. (45 g) oat fiber (DO NOT use high carb oat flour! Not the same thing!)

2 T. cold butter

pinch salt

1/4-1/2 c. water, added slowly

1-2 T. granular erythritol

OPTIONAL:  ½ tsp. cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:  Preheat oven to 350º.  Into a medium bowl, measure out bake mix, oat fiber and salt.  Stir.  Using a fork, cut in the cold butter until crumbly and well incorporated into dry ingredients.  Slowly add 1/4 c. water and work in with fork.  Add more water by tablespoons, stirring after each addition until mixture begins to hold together into pea-sized clumps. When all appears to be mixed well, spoon out half the mixture into a ziploc bag and freeze for future use.  Using fingers, crumble the remaining topping onto your fruit crisp filling mixture.  Bake at 350º for about 30 minutes or until apples are tender and topping is browned nicely.  Serve hot or cold.

NUTRITIONAL INFO FOR TOPPING ONLY: Recipe makes enough for TWO 9″ round pans of apple or berry crisp. I get 4 servings from a 9″ pan.  (8 total servings in both pans).

Total recipe contains:  374 calories, 47g fat, 75.7g carbs, 67.7g fiber, 8 NET CARBS, 24g protein

1 single serving of topping (1/4 of 1 pan) contains: 45.5 cal, 3.1 g fiber, 9.5 g carbs, 8.5 g fiber, 1 NET CARB, 3 g protein

FOR THE CURIOUS: 1 Serving with apple filling made as described above:  219 calories, 18g fat, 39.4 g  carbs,  20.3 g  fiber, 19.1 g NET CARBS, 6.4 g  protein.  Yes, it’s really high carb using real apples, so you might prefer to cut the majority of carbs out and use berries or apple substitutes like jicama, chayote squash or zucchini in your filling!  Just sayin’ that most of the carbs here are in the filling, not the crumble topping. 😉

Savory Casserole Topping

                                              Shown on a Green Bean Casserole

This crunchy topping for casseroles was inspired by Jennifer Eloff’s Casserole Topping recipe.  I added several ingredients that make it quite crunchy and alter the flavor a bit (nuttier tasting).  I can see many uses for this savory crumble topping in my future as my first trial with this, on a classic green bean casserole, was amazing!  I’m simply amazed it doesn’t just sink into the beans, but it doesn’t!  Stays right on top and just gets crunchier the more you brown it!   This recipe isn’t suitable until you get to the grains level or Atkins at or near Maintenance.  Substitute coconut flour to eliminate grains totally, but this will alter the taste considerably.

Looks good, huh?

INGREDIENTS:

½ c. shredded Monterrey Jack cheese

1/3 c. Jennifer Eloff’s Splendid Low Carb Bake Mix

2 T. unsalted butter

10 medium-size pork rinds

1 T. toasted, dehydrated (or fresh, slivered) shallots

¼ tsp. my Cajun Seafood Spice Blend

1 T. hemp hearts (optional, adds a nutty flavor)

DIRECTIONS:   Toss all ingredients into a food processor or blender and pulse 4-5 times to reduce it to a crumbly mixture.  Don’t get it too fine however.  Sprinkly topping over casserole and bake per recipe directions for that casserole. Makes enough to top one family-sized casserole.

NUTRITIONAL INFO:  I’m providing numbers for the entire recipe.  Divide these numbers by the number of servings you usually get out of the casserole you have put this on to figure out what the topping adds to one serving.

Entire Recipe contains:  697 calories, 57 g fat, 8.4 g carbs, 3.2 g fiber, 5.2 g NET CARBS  (halve numbers if only half recipe of this needed for casserole), 37.9 g protein, 575 mg sodium