Monday, September 17, 2012

Harry's Hors D'oeuvres

Two Christmases ago, one of my favorite and most useful gifts was my food dehydrator.  I've used it over the last year to make some seriously good beef jerky.  Pears turn out pretty good after spending six hours in there too.  I've been looking up dog treat recipes on the internet and I found a super easy one for making healthy treats utilizing a tool I already have. 

Sweet potatoes are an exceptionally healthy treat for dogs.  Beta-carotene helps stabilize blood sugar, plus sweet potatoes are high in Vitamin A, B6, C, copper, manganese, potassium and dietary fiber.  Even better, they taste good both to us humans and our fur babies.  There was a simple recipe here, but it really was as simple as slicing, no recipe needed!


I started with about two pounds of sweet potatoes, leftover from what I bought to make these tasty sweet potato corncakes.  One by one I rinsed and scrubbed them and laid them out to dry.  

Using a sharp knife, I sliced the sweet potatoes into 1/4 inch thick medallions tossing the ends.


I laid the sweet potato medallions on a tray in my food dehydrator.  Mine is a "Waring Pro".  I put as many as I could without overlapping on a tray before adding a tray on top and repeating the process.  Then, I set the temperature to high and let it go while I enjoyed the rest of my Sunday.


Every two hours I'd shuffle the trays moving the bottom to the top and so forth.  After about six hours the potatoes looked like this.  Shrivelled, chewy, orange discs that tasted sweet.

Harry immediately devoured his home made treats.  And I don't mind indulging him when he's being good on a walk with them because they're good for him.  However, just as a baby turns orange from eating a lot of carrots, so does Harry's poo after eating sweet potatoes.  It's completely normal, but it freaked us out the first time it happened.  If you don't have a food dehydrator, you can still make these yummy treats by using your oven, and your dog will appreciate it!  

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