Peanut Butter Banana Pupsicles

I finally have the concoction figured out for the boys to get their Pupsicles!  For the past several days I've been paying attention to what foods my boys are the worst beggars about and surprisingly it's bananas that they love most for a people food treat.

A piece of banana, the pieces in a sip of my smoothie, banana bread - all of it sets off a look of pure felicity!

Are they weird or do all dogs like bananas?

My only previous experience with a pet and bananas was with my old cat, Lizzie.  She took a sniff of a banana... once.  And she was so disgusted by it that her whole head pulled back in a big wrinkle that would make the 'bitter beer face' of television fame look like a silly grin.  She shook her head vigorously trying to clear the air and then she retched.  No barf, just a super-dramatic gag.  She very graphically showed me that bananas had no place in her world.

But my dogs LOVE them!

They also love peanut butter.  I can't find any place where it says either of these things are bad for dogs and the vet didn't react negatively during our last visit when I said they'd had a piece of banana bread for a treat that morning.  Nor has she had any cautions when we've said we give them a fingerful of peanut butter now and then.  I'm using apple juice as a base.  Juice is ok.  Only large quantities of apple seeds are harmful to dogs from minute amounts of cyanide in the skin-like covering of the seed.  See?  I think things through and check this stuff out before just randomly handing them a bite of what I'm eating.

Peanut Butter Banana Pupsicles

Add to blender cup and whirl until fairly smooth:
1 1/4 cups apple juice
6 oz vanilla yogurt (1 small container minus a spoonful or so)
2 Tbl (+/-) creamy peanut butter
1-2 bananas broken into pieces




Pour into ice cube trays, or molds of your choice, and freeze.







Pop out and store in a ziplock bag in the freezer to give your puppy as an occasional treat during the hot summer.  It sure makes my boys think they've got something special!

I'm guessing that you saw right off that mine are round instead of ice cube shaped.  I confess.... I didn't go buy the ice cube trays I talked about a few posts back.  We had some of those appetizer-size frozen quiches we got on our Sam's Club trip and the plastic tray they are in inside the box is near perfect (a little bendy, but 'near' perfect) for both these little dog treats and for freezing cookie dough and I can get it in the freezer.  SCORE!!  I love free stuff!

Yes, you could munch these little disks yourself.  Or give them to your kid.  They would be quite tasty, I think, if I hadn't used Greek yogurt.... man, that tangy aftertaste and barf-o-rama smell that stuff carries are a turnoff!   The dogs don't seem to mind, but I do not like it and will be switching back to the plain old regular yogurt we've always got at the store from here on out.

If you object to giving your dog sweet treats, or you have one of those puppies without a sweet tooth, try chicken broth, unflavored yogurt, shredded chicken and mashed up cooked peas and/or carrots instead.  Next time I have a bit of leftover chicken I plan to make that variation for them.

How about that?

My puppies get treats better than some people give their kids!