Healthy Sweet Potato Puppy Treats

The wait is over...

My puppies are my babes (for now) & while I love giving them treats, I want to keep them as healthy as possible. My husband and I feed them certain SAFE fruits and veggies all the time, depending on what we have in the fridge. But I wanted to come up with a snack for them that was more like a crunchy treat! So I checked out pinterest, but wasn't feeling spunky enough to make my own dough. SO I decided to make baked chips of one of their FAVORITE "table scraps".... SWEET POTATOES. Here's how I did it!!

Wash a your sweet potatoes WELL if you're planning to keep the skin on like I did.

Cut thick slices.. maybe 1/4" or more and place on a cookie sheet or stone, like I used.

Decide what temperature you'd like to cook them at, depending on how much time you have available. I've heard some people will cook these around 100+ degrees for 8 hours. I simply didn't have that kind of time. I ended up deciding to cook these at 225 degrees for 3-4 hours. 

*Go off your visual and how they feel for doneness*

Watch them while they bake, this is what ours looked like about half way through- notice the corners are curling up a bit. I decided to flip mine halfway through so they'd cook evenly!

Don't freak out, some pieces will end up darker than others but for the most part, they'll look like this! Be sure they cool completely for the pups and give them maybe half so they can explore the crunchy texture!

I hope your babies are as happy as mine with this recipe & give it two paws up.

Find me on Facebook and share a photo of your happy pooch!

Blueberry Banana Bread Muffins

With my mom and youngest sister coming to town in a few days (YAY!), I decided to make a few things ahead of time.. as we usually keep busy doing things like bike rides, card games & playing with the pups.

I started paroozing for a healthy banana bread recipe, but the last few I've tried have been BAD.. with mushy/gooey insides. YUCK! I found this one through allrecipes.com and only made a couple of small changes that turned out great. Oh and I prefer muffins over bread loaves, so I switched that up too. Next time, I will find a substitution for the brown sugar!

Ingredients:

2 c. of flour (I used 1 cup of whole wheat & 1 cup of gluten free all-purpose)

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 c. brown sugar

1/4 tsp. salt (I used himalayan salt)

1/4 c. butter (I used 1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce)

1/8 c. non-fat greek yogurt (I used 0% greek)

2 eggs

2 1/3 c. mashed bananas

2 palmfuls of blueberries (yep, palmfuls)

cinnamon

coconut oil cooking spray

Directions: 

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray muffin tins

-Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon & salt in a large bowl

-Beat butter (or applesauce), yogurt, & brown sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth

-Add eggs one at a time and beat until smooth

-Stir in mashed bananas until well blended

-Pour banana mixture to flour mixture; stir until moist

-fold in blueberries

-pour batter into muffin tins

-bake for 20 minutes or until tops are golden & muffins are baked through.. let cool before storing!

*you can opt to make this in a 9x5 bread pan, but you will need to bake it for about an hour*

This recipe was adapted from:: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/healthier-banana-banana-bread/

Try this recipe and let me know what you think.. I accidentally ate 2 already! Time to go burn those carbs off.. Enjoy!

April FAVORITE Things!

Time to share a few more of my favorite things!!

1. precious prints:

Printstagram AKA "Print Studio"

OH MY LANTA, these prints are adorable. I recently received a sweet little card from a friend with a portrait of her pup on the front and HAD to know where she had ordered them through.. this is how I found printstagram! I checked out a few other websites, including instaprints, but this is by FAR the best value and look!!

I ended up ordering a bunch of the small square cards using multiple photos from my instagram! I was able to pick exactly how many of each photo I wanted- SO easy to use. Oh, these little cards come with baby sized brown envelopes too.. yes, stinking CUTE!

The insides of these little guys are blank so they can be used for basically ANY occasion!

2. furball treats:

Bark Box

Treats to your door for your favorite furry friends! PLEASE go to the site and read up on this amazing subscription service.. What's the best part??? 10% of the proceeds go to rescue groups!!!!!!!!

Moose and Tannyn get SO excited when their box comes in each month.. gotta give the credit here to Nate for this find!

|| Okay, so skip the crazy pet store and get treats, toys and goodies straight to your door || All of the treats are 100% natural.. tasty for the pups and good for their tummies || every month is something different with  a new theme (february: mardi gras// march: movie night) || pay a couple extra bucks to get more "resilient" toys for those moderate chewers || Give back to shelters || 

We are anxiously awaiting box #3 as I type.. can't wait to see what the girls think this month :)

3. colorful blossoms:

 The Bouqs

Fresh-cut, long-lasting blooms from eco-friendly farms. Flat rate, LOVELY arrangements with shipping included!

The Bouqs offers a concierge service that allows you to set up an auto-ship of these lovely blossoms how ever often you'd like them. The more often you have a shipment delivered to your door, the better discount you get each time. Also, each time a friend or family member signs up using your referral code (every 2 referrals), they send you a free bouq! SO fun!!!

My conseriege service is set up to send me an automatic shipment every 3 weeks. The first time I received my bouq, I hand selected the arrangement. The second order, I actually set up my service so they would surprise me! In a couple weeks, I alternated again and picked my own. There's just something about bringing nature inside..

If you decide to give this a whirl and brighten your home with some colorful flowers, I'd love you to use my referral link here.

4. daily devotions:

#SheReadsTruth

((visit online OR download the free app!)

Need a daily devotional, but not sure where to start? Been meaning to download a bible app so you can read the whole thing in a year? Try out one of the free bible studies from #shereadstruth or purchase one for a few bucks that you can access from any of your devices! You can even follow the 365 plan and read the bible in a year by following the daily reading list!

This adorable apps also offers scripture based lock screens for your phone!

What makes these studies so special? WELL, they are hand-written devotionals by a few different ladies that love the Lord and wanted to provide a convenient and accessible option for women of all walks of life to read truth!  

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I have SO enjoyed sharing with you and can't wait to hear what you think about these goodies.

love && smooches,

LINDSEY