Bowl Full of Blessings: 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.