Monday Mo(a)nings

Photo courtesy of Dog Treat Kitchen

I had been meaning to make these treats for the fur-kids fur-ever… so over the weekend I finally got my rear in gear and made sweet potato chews.

Talk about easy-peasy! Just wash and thinly slice yams or sweet potatoes and let a dehydrator do it’s thing. It’s not even necessary to de-skin them. A few hours later (depending on the thickness of your slices) and Voila! ~ sweet potato chews.

Dehydrated chews ready for noshing

Don’t have a dehydrator? No sweat. Bake them in in a 250° F oven on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper for 3 hours, turning half-way through. They should come out soft but chewy. If you want something a bit crisper, add 30 minutes to the baking. Cool and store in an airtight container in the frig for up to 3 weeks (or freeze them for up to 4 months). I used a mandolin to slice mine because it’s quicker (or so I thought) but be careful, those amazing slicers suckers can slice through anything…including your hand. It took longer to treat my wound than it did the actual slicing and placing on the racks. Apologies for the image exposures for these last two images. I felt lucky to be able to take a photo with my left hand.

So I learned two things this past weekend…(1) how to make a tasty, easy-to-make and healthful treat that my dogs loved and (2) be careful with trying to force something through the slicer as you are likely to slip especially if you thought you could do ‘one last swipe’ without the benefit of the food guard which should be used without exception. For anyone with an IKEA nearby, I suggest buying their fabulous Band-Aids, those things are truly AMAZING and super inexpensive.

So did you do anything productive over the weekend? Hopefully it was something safe. Happy Mo(a)nday.

Live, love, bark! <3

64 thoughts on “Monday Mo(a)nings

  1. Tippy loves sweet potatoes! I haven’t made her any treats yet, but I bought her some sweet potato, chicken jerky treats and she’ll do anything for those! She loves them. I’ll have to try making some myself…I’m sure it is a lot cheaper. Hope your cut isn’t hurting too bad. It looks awful.

  2. Those sure do sound like great treats! I used to make something like that for our pups. I should do it again soon! I hope that your hand is healing.

  3. A mandolin is by far the most dangerous instrument in a kitchen! My catering partner refuses to use it! Good idea though. I recently made the latest treats you posted. Will make these too.

  4. You are the third blogger in the last few months that I have read about hurting themselves with one of those contraptions. Think I’ll stick with a sharp knife or the slicing attachment for my food processor. This weekend I had 3 new dogs to groom – 2 were puppies 3 months and 7 months. Think I’ll blog about it – all were so sweet.

  5. The things we’ll do for our dogs. The treats look fabulous . . . your hand not so much. 😉 Hope it’s getting better. Normally I might suggest dog kisses, but I think that might not be the best course in this case. 😉

      1. Yes! A few years back we spent hours the night before T-giving at the Exempla Lutheran ER after my husband had an avocado cutting accident. He ended up having to go to a hand surgeon!

    1. Honestly, they were so easy and quick to do. I’d have been done in less than 15 minutes if I hadn’t had to play Nurse Cherry Ames. Both dogs loved them too so I’m sure your gang would as well.

  6. Oh no! Ouch!

    I have been meaning to try out my food dehydrator for some bananas, as I am currently obsessed with these dried bananas I have to order from Hawaii. It would be a lot easier if I didn’t have to regularly order those!

  7. LadyMum just groaned aloud Lady Monika….are you OK?? That wound lookss nasty!
    What you luvley Hu’manss do fur us 4 leggedss!!!
    Hope Sam an Elsa reelly enjoyed thee chews; you putted yur blood, sweat an tearss innto them!!!
    Siddhartha Henry =^,.^=

    1. It’s better today, still a bit sore, but that’s expected considering how deep and how much it sliced. Blood, sweat, & tears indeed! That made me laugh out loud. And yes, the fur-kids 💕 them.

  8. My peeps do the same thing except the sweet potato is cut cross-wise, not length-wise which means smaller treats, but Kaci and Kali are small dogs.They go into mass production mode around the middle of November because Sprouts has the potatoes on sale as a loss leader for Thanksgiving.

  9. Guess what???? I had just enough parchment paper around, AND….I had just bought a bag of sweet potatoes (or Yams, didn’t check to see) on the weekend, and I am making a small batch for Dakota right now!!! Thanks so much! I didn’t use a mandolin (don’t have one)…….so I sliced mine as thin as I could, I think they will still be good. Thanks a million! Love you!!

    1. Fantastic…how cool is that?! I’m sure Dakota will love them. Keep us posted how they turned out and how much Dakota loves them. Both Sam & Elsa were more than eager trying them out. I think there needs to be training similar to when you purchase a gun when you get a mandolin. LOL

    1. Funny thing is I was using the guard but it slipped (I haven’t gotten the rhythm and ‘feel’ down for it yet) and decided “it’s the last swipe, I can do this.” Um…apparently not so much. 🙂

  10. ouch… that screams for vetericyn… I learnt it the hard way too that is not effective to hold my fingers in the knives of a blender….. to wait till it is done is much better :o)

  11. do the dogs love them? Cole loved sweet potatoes hot from the oven with butter but the chips were not as attractive. I wanted him to like them but he had other ideas. I hope the next pup will like them as these look fairly easy to make.

    1. They were very keen on them and super simply to make. Elsa of course noshed immediately. Sam was a bit hesitant (must have some sort of prejudice against orange food or something) but when he saw the Ninja happily trot off with one he was more than excited about the idea. I admit, I had a taste or two myself since sweet potatoes are my favorite root veggie.

  12. Treats sound good and easy to make – might give it a go on Thursday – Tuesday – Annabell and the Ladies / ditto Wednesday – so it has to be Thursday before I can safely get into the kitchen.

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