DIY Sweet Potato Dog Treats

www.bowlfullofblessings.com

 We love dogs. We love Pit-Bulls. We love old man dogs that bark at strangers that are two blocks away. We love spotted puppies that chew through and eat EVERYTHING! We love dogs.

I (me being the mom) don’t love small dogs except for my sister’s 350 year old Chihuahua, Tabitha. My son would like a small dog, he thinks, and don’t let my husband fool you; he would be in heaven with tiny, fluffy dogs lying in his lap.

As dog lovers we want what’s best for our four legged family members. I have been reading a lot about commercial dog food, the awful scary things that go into it and the movement towards homemade fresh dog food and even raw dog food. We have been trying to find a cost effective way to feed our dogs a healthy and natural dog food. I have found, however, that it’s not easy to do it right and be budget- minded.

So, I am going to get creative. I have a couple of fresh dog food recipes I am going to be trying over the next few months to supplement their dry food. But today I am making Sweet Potato Dog Treats.

I have a seen a number of recipes for these, but one in particular that I just fell in love with at {17 Apart.}We tried their recipe and though the treats didn’t dehydrate as much as we were expecting, the dogs went nuts over them. 

Also, as you will see, their recipe is for dog chews. You will understand the difference in what I ended up with and why when you take a look at their recipe. 

Today I am trying again, but this time I broke out my mandolin. No folks, not my mandolin player,

 

my mandolin slicer.

 I tried to use this last time but the slices were too thin, at least per the suggestions of the folks at 17 Apart. So I hand cut the sweet potatoes.

I am not a fan of sweet potatoes; in fact, no one in my house cares for them. So preparing them is not something I have tons of experience with. I found them to be humungous, awkward, and very hard. That being said, I think I man- handled them just fine.

After washing these giant beasts, I started by cutting off both ends of the sweet potatoes. Then I shaved off the sides to help give the potato a flat service. 

After a couple of failed attempts on the mandolin, I decided to cut the sweet potatoes in half, making them easier to handle as I slid them back and forth across the sharp blade.

This produced slices, pieces, chunks, and the like. 

They aren’t pretty but I don’t care. They are also thinner than last time but thicker than when I tried to use the mandolin before. I discovered I could change the thickness settings. Hey, don’t judge me; this kitchen tool scares the crap out of me.

After having successfully scraped as much of the sweet potato as possible while still keeping the tips of my fingers, I spread them out onto four un-greased cookie sheets. 

Advice; grease your cookie sheets. Use cooking spray or olive oil. I found, while often flipping my pieces, I had to carefully peel them off the tray. No good!

I preheated the oven to 175 and moved the racks up as close to the top of the oven as possible. I set the timer for 6 hours. Every two hours I turned the treats over and a couple of times I switched the pans between racks so they each got a turn closest to the heat.

Over all I think each batch took about four and half hours to get crispy and perfect. So adjust your timer or keep your eye on your potatoes.

That’s it. A Sweet Potato Chip that will have your favorite furry companion begging for more.

Thank you to Tim and Mary Vidra for your permission to share this recipe and for the recipe in the first place!

All my love to all of yours!

My Famous "Stolen" Crock Pot Chicken Pot Pie

I grew up loving chicken pot pie. However, the chicken pot pie I am talking about came out of a box or out of a box at a restaurant. It’s a favorite comfort food for me and I have always wanted to learn how to make it.

Then comes the joy and complete bliss that is {Pintrest}. I did some searching and found this post. Unfortunately the link is no longer any good so, I will share this recipe with you admitting completely that it’s not my own creation but it is now one of my favorites.

I really enjoy making this pot pie for other people. It’s such a blessing to be able to provide a family with dinner and this pie makes for a perfect traveling dinner. As you will soon enough find out, it is ridiculously easy to make and this recipe makes two pies.

I almost always deliver one of the two pies to someone, but once in a while I will just freeze the filling and wait to make it another time. I am not a huge fan of that as I find the filling is too watery after having been frozen.

So, I could go on and on about the joys of chicken pot pie, but let’s just get right to it. Below I will condense the recipe for you in a printable format.

Gather up your stuff! Super Easy! 

You need two boxes of refrigerated pre-done pie dough, two cans of cream of chicken soup, 3-4 baby potatoes, 2-3 frozen chicken breasts, frozen mixed vegetables, shredded sharp cheddar, 1 egg, and two pie tins! 

Oh, please don’t forget your crock pot!!!!! Yes folks this is crock pot recipe that is my go to!

Peel and chop your potatoes into bite size pieces. I cut mine in about 1.5” sized pieces or so.

Measure out 1 cup of your frozen vegetables

Add your cream of chicken soup into the 

bowl with your potatoes and frozen mixed vegetables and mix together.

Add your seasonings.

I love adding a bit of 

seasoned salt and fresh cracked pepper. 

Gently mix it all together.

Add your frozen chicken to the crock pot. 

Now, I have tried this with all of kinds of different sizes of chicken breast, and by far it works the best with two giant chicken breasts or three medium chicken breasts. In this case we had three medium.

Pour your mixture over the chicken and set your crock pot on low and let it do its magic for 6-8 hours. (Or on High for 4-6 hours)

Now, what to do for 6-8 hours? Well, what I normally do is go to work. That is one thing I love about crock pot meals is the smell of someone cooking when I walk in the door. All the credit I get for making dinner with such very little effort.

Ok, now look at this…. This is what awaits me when I get home! It smells so good, so comforting.

Pre-set your oven to 350 degrees.

Go ahead and pull the chicken breasts from the mixture. The chicken will be fall apart perfect… you may have to fish out all the pieces from the crock pot.

Take two forks and shred your chicken.

Go ahead and shovel that mess of yummy goodness back 
into the crock pot….

Be sure to shut it off.

Now it’s time to prep those pans

I got these pans from my in laws. They are Marie Callendar pie pans that you get some kind of discount or refund if you return them. I'm sure glad they didn't because these are awesome little pie tins.

Generally with the regular dough I get, I have to work with it cold and fast. This dough I was working this day was breaking all over the place… I had to warm it up to make it work. Not my favorite but it did its job.

Once the pie dough is in go ahead and scoop out your pot pie filling. I scoop equally into each pie.

Look at that! So pretty!

Now you can buy shredded sharp cheddar but I prefer to shred my own.

Shred about 1.5-2 cups and share between the two pies.

Now cover your pies with the other two sheets of pie dough.

Pinch, seal, and remove the excess dough

I cut small slices into the top of the pies to allow venting…

Mix up your egg and one tbs of water...

Brush onto your pies and get them into the oven.

Bake in middle rack for 45 minutes

And then….

Voila!

Chicken Pot pies!

There is nothing better on a cold winter night and quite honestly nothing better to share.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do!

Click here for Printable Recipe Link!