Whole Wheat Peanut Noodles

Spring Fever! The sun is shinning, the birds are singing, the grass is greening and I’m feeling the urge to get out and enjoy it. So I did. Yesterday I gleefully went outside and raked my lawn wearing shorts and a tank top! Now I have a beautiful leaf-free lawn and a blister on each hand. Oh the things we put ourselves through for a pretty patch of green in the backyard.

I also made my way down to The Farm Store and picked up a gorgeous bag of fresh organic produce. Thanks Jen for bringing this wonderful resource to our community. Can’t wait to see what goodies you have next week.
Feeling inspired by my purchases and the warm weather I decided a cold pasta salad was just what the day called for. A pasta salad that only takes 15 minutes to make and is packed with a little sweet, a little spice and a little salt. What more could you want in life. Peanut noodles can be made using practically any combo of vegetables. Because lets be honest…anything smothered in peanut butter is good…right? The only rule I follow is to use at least one crunchy vegetable to offset the chewy noodles and creamy peanut sauce. Snap peas, sweet red pepper or even broccoli will do the tick. This time I went with thinly sliced carrots and combined them with a European cucumber and some lovely scallions. Perfect.
Veggies get sliced…matchstick style for the carrots and cukes, little round slices for the scallions. Don’t worry if your matchsticks aren’t perfectly shaped. No one cares.
Peanut sauce with lots of lime and sweet chili paste!
Peanut sauce + veggies + noodles = Peanut veggie noodles! Simple, simple, simple. Now I can go back outside and give myself some more blisters. Enjoy.

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Peanut Butter Cranberry Dog Treats

Yup, you read it right… dog treats. What? You don’t think dogs deserve homemade treats too? Well my dog definitely does. In fact, I think he expects them. Oh, you’re making cookies…are they for me? (You have to read this sentence in a dopy dog voice) Many years ago I used to make my own dog treats all the time. I made this really complicated recipe that included things like bone meal, protein powder and all sorts of other hard to find and expensive ingredients. Then I discovered Buddy Biscuits bake at home dog treats and all that difficult ingredient collecting went out the window. Buddy Biscuits are kind of like Betty Crocker brownie mix for dogs- except they use really healthy ingredients- and the box comes with a dog bone shaped cookie cutter!

I got of out of the habit of making them though, and it’s probably been at least 3 years since I made any sort of homemade dog treat. Well, lucky for my dog about a month ago I stumbled upon this recipe for Cranberry Oat Dog Treats and decided that it was time to give them another try. Since I already had quite a few baking projects this week, and I’ve been a a roll with the human treats,  it seemed only fitting that I should expand my baking repertoire to include something special for my canine friends.

This is Phineas waiting patiently for his treat

And here he is eating his treat – he’s very gentle for such a big guy

I didn’t end up following the recipe that I had discovered exactly, in fact I didn’t really follow it at all. Instead I found another recipe from this website that was similar except that it included peanut butter. I ended up with a kind of combination of the two recipes using peanut butter and cranberries. I had my heart set on including the cranberries because I really liked the way they made the treats look. Also, dogs need antioxidants too- right?

I’ll be back in a few days
with more treats for
humans but until then
give your dog some
love and make it a
special homemade
holiday this year.

Oh, and one final note- a certain non-canine member of my household thought these looked good enough to eat. The verdict? Dry and bland…very dry and bland. For dogs only!

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