Snow Day Experiment - Dog Treats! (Added Video...)
So @merej99 and @barrydutton got me to thinking about kibble, quinoa, and homemade dog food / treats.
So, I decided to put a day off to good use and experiment a little. Official day off, too. No shoes, only slippers to keep the toes toasty when Tinker had to go outside.
It's hurts-to-breathe cold out there!
I gathered up a few items I had on hand. From left to right - quinoa, beef broth, oatmeal, and amaranth flour - for the filling. I snagged a few of Tink's hollowed out bones (which caused a great deal of interest and concern) to use as 'edible containers'. The interior of the bone is rough, so I hoped it would help grip the sticky mess I was mixing up. The amaranth flour helps with making it ultra sticky. Normally, I use it for a thickener in soups.
(I'll put the whole recipe at the end for ease of reading.)
I kept things scaled back since this was an experiment. Mix the dry ingredients in a microwave safe bowl. Add broth. Nuke til the mixture reaches a boil. Carefully remove and allow the dry items to start absorbing the liquid. Stir occasionally to monitor progress. Start gradually adding more oatmeal. I ended up adding about a cup more, a bit at a time.
I was aiming for a very thick consistency - standing up the fork was a good test! I wrapped each bone in foil so the filling wouldn't leak out when baking. You can see I sealed the bottom as best I could.
I also anchored the foil at the top by crimping it over the edge a little. (Turns out this wasn't necessary, but I was erring on the side of caution.) I used a cast iron griddle as a base for ease of access and used another strip of foil as a spill-catch.
Finished product! The uncovered end puffed up during baking and the covered end was so smooth, it looked like real marrow. Even at the lowest heat (200 degrees F), the filling built up enough pressure to crack the bigger bones. The smallest one made it through without any cracks.
The real test came later when I turned it over to Tink. She's had beef broth and oatmeal before, but the quinoa and amaranth flour were new. If I can ever get the video uploaded, I'll add it, but in the meantime, these pics might help you judge for yourself as to the results:
She worked on it for a while. The promising part was that she came back to it at least three times after I initially gave it to her. Yay!
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup Beef Broth
1 cup (reserved), plus 2 Tbl Old Fashioned Oatmeal. (Do NOT use instant oatmeal!)
1 Tbl Quinoa (rinse if package says so)
1 tsp Amaranth Flour (substitute any gluten-free flour, if you can, otherwise all purpose should work)Follow process as outlined above. I had the oven on as low as it would go. Baking time, with periodic monitoring, was easily 5 hours.
I left the biggest bone in the oven to to continue drying even after I turned the heat off.
The side benefit to all this was the kitchen was toasty warm and the furnace ran less. I'm calling the day a success on both fronts!
great article. thanks for sharing!
You're welcome! It was a fun thing to do on a very cold day. Glad you enjoyed it.
That's so cool! I will definitely have to try out your recipe and see if I can't come up with a couple of my own.
I used to bake puppy treats for the local animal shelter when hubby and I had a deli. We had so much food items that I hated to go to waste. Most of the time it went to the local farmers who had chickens, but a lot of the deli ends went into soup or doggie treats. :D
That being said - I never once thought to repurpose the old marrow bones! AWESOME JOB!
hanks! Normally, I stuff the bones with chicken jerky, but that's a little too rich for her tummy sometimes. I figured the oatmeal would be milder. So far, so good.
I would love to try any recipes you come up with too. I think the sky's the limit on that front!
https://twitter.com/merej99/status/810612581505388544
Disclaimer: I am just a bot trying to be helpful.
Thanks! Be prepared for folks asking where they can find amaranth flour. ;-P
UV and RS for you too.
I am not even gonna lie, I would eat that.
If you get bored come visit me for the holidays, we can eat pizza. I cannot do much else.
I am glad you tried this idea, I have been wondering how it would work out!
Nice work sister
Lol! The house did smell good when it was baking - like I had a roast in the oven. Dog's eating better than me these days. I hope to remedy that situation after the first of the year.
Thanks for the boost and the invite! Holidays are my busy time cuz folks are traveling. I already have bookings from before Christmas til after the New Year. Looks like an average of half dozen visits per day, spread out from breakfast to bedtime. Santa ain't got nuthin' on me! Heheehehehe....