Chock-Full-Of-Protein Dog Biscuits

So, our neighbors recently got two new puppies and I wanted to see the dogs and would come up with any excuse make them a new-baby treat. Dog biscuits seemed like just the thing! I made a huge amount so that I would have enough for them and my two dogs, but the recipe below would make plenty for a dog or two to last a week or longer.


Ingredients

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup soy flour *
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup smooth natural peanut butter
3/4 – 1 cup hot water

*If you don’t have soy flour, you can use garbanzo flour, or just double the wheat flour and have a little less protein punch.

Process

Preheat the oven to 350°

Mix together the dry ingredients. If you have a stand mixer with a dough hook, the next part will go more easily. Add the peanut butter and 3/4 cup of water and mix well with dough hook. If you don’t have a dough hook, mix the peanut butter and water first and then add it to the dry mix and knead it in by hand. You may need more of the water, but it will sort of depend on your flour use.

You want the dough to be a consistency that you can roll, not too stiff or too sticky. Add a bit of water  if the dough is too dry/crumbly, or flour if it’s too sticky/wet.

Dump dough ball onto a floured cutting board or counter and roll out to desired thinness. For the puppies, I rolled to about 1/8″. For the bigger dogs, I rolled to about 1/4″.  Cut with a cookie cutter and place on a cookie sheet.

Bake for around 20 minutes. About half way through you may want to flip them over. Keep an eye on them after 15 minutes, as the time to cook will depend in part on the thickness and your oven. Once lightly browned, remove from oven and let cool before serving.

I can’t tell you that these are tasty, but Ms. VeganAsana Jr. 2.0 (13) and Mr. VeganAsana Jr. 3.0 (17) tried one and they said it wasn’t bad, though they didn’t care for the soy flour taste. The dogs have each had four so far and keep going in the kitchen to stare at the plate, so I guess they approve!

Top Ten Tuesday – Reasons to Be a Vegan

I stole this blog meme from my sister Angie at Many Little Blessings.
My son helped her with her post (I use the word “help” loosely) today, but no one seems to be helping me, so I’m blatantly stealing.

Top Ten Reasons to be a Vegan

  1. Because it makes it easier to look a cow in the eyes.
  2. Soy milk and coconut milk are delicious and less slimy than dairy milk.
  3. When you make breakfast for a crowd, you don’t have to share your tofu scramble with many people.
  4. You feel highly justified getting dessert if there is a vegan option, because it’s “so rare” that you “just have to.”
  5. People will constantly ask if you are vay-gun, making you feel a little bit like a space ranger.
  6. Doctors get flummoxed when they start to break into their cholesterol and food speech.
  7. What counts as vegan is always a lively discussion at parties, because everyone has an opinion.
  8. You get to play “find the honey” on ingredients lists.
  9. When you really don’t want to eat/wear/own something, you can say you aren’t sure if it is vegan.
  10. You don’t have to worry about undercooked meat.
  11. And the major bonus reason is that it’s good for you and the planet!

The Joy of Growing

This month, in yoga classes at Yogawood, we have been focusing on the theme of tat tvam asi. This basically means “Thou art that.” But, the “that” is the divine or holy or universal – it’s the THAT.

It’s not, for me, about a particular religion or religious orientation, but about the idea that, regardless of what we believe about creation, the bigger force was that created the universe is in us. That may be a god/gods or God whose holy vision is enacted through creations such as us. It may be the energy/matter of the big bang. Matter cannot be created or destroyed, energy arises from matter, thus we are all part of the matter that was “here” in the beginning.

Alternately, or simultaneously, we can think about this as the unlimited potential in us all. Whatever characteristic we wish we could have, it exists in us in some way. Want to be kind? You are. Want to be flexible? You are. Want to be an athlete? You are. Often, we just have to get out of our own way to realize that potential, or direct it appropriately (nope, we can’t all be President of the U.S. but we can all lead in important ways). We know this when we look at an infant and see all he/she can be. We just forget it in our own lives as we grow up and begin to feel like our “selves” have been determined.

Gardening is a wonderful beautiful amazing cool example of potentiality in all being. There is a plot of bare dirt and you throw a little seed in it that is no bigger than a fingernail. And then, time passes and amazing things happen. All the potential of the seed flowers, literally.
What started out as a germ of an idea of food becomes a part of a meal that sustains your being and becomes a part of you.

It’s inspiring to see how so much can happen from such a small bit of visible being. How many seeds of potential are there in all of us that just need a little tending to grow? What part of you should you give some light and care to germinate?

Tat tvam asi!

And a bonus recipe round:

Quinoa with Black Beans

1 cup quinoa
2 cups vegetable broth
1/2 tsp cumin
1 can black beans (or 1.5 cups cooked beans)
1 can diced tomatoes (or 2 tomatoes deseeded and diced)
1 jalapeno diced
1/2 onion diced
1/2 red pepper diced
2 T olive oil
Salt to taste

Rinse quinoa and add to vegetable broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. While that is cooking, add olive oil to a pan and sauté onions and peppers. When soft, add tomato, cumin, salt, and black beans and simmer until quinoa is done. Combine. Serve with fresh cilantro and vegan or regular sour cream.