Homemade Dog Treats

I was making a cake tonight for a co-worker's birthday tomorrow.  She requested Apple-Cream cheese Bundt Cake - which calls for 3 cups (1 1/2 lb) of finely chopped apples. It seems to me that every time I try to purchase exactly the amount of fruit that I need for a recipe like this, that I end up with not enough or too much.  It was too much in this case.  I had 1.5 lb of Gala apples. . .which made about 4 1/2 c of finely chopped apples.  What to do with my quickly browning cubes of Gala?  Well, it's not in my calorie budget for today to eat them. . .although I would love to. . . how about homemade dog treats?

"Dog treats?" you may be thinking.  Yes, dog treats.  Let me 'splain.

My dog has 2 kong toys.  A "puppy" kong and a regular kong.  After she was a year old, I saw a regular kong for a great price and bought it for her.  I assumed that she had grown out of her puppy kong - as per the instructions.  I was wrong.  The puppy kong has special use.  It is more flexible than the regular and can fit treats that the regular kong cannot.  Enter:  Frozen Yogurt Dog Bites from The Hillbilly Dog Company (My designer dog company. . .a.k.a.  anything I make for my dog).

Here we go.  Tonight, I took my leftover apple dices, some yogurt (I normally use regular plain, but I only had plain Greek), and some peanut butter.

If I had to guess, I would say a cup of apples, 1/2 c. yogurt, and 1/4 c. peanut butter.

Mix it all up . . .and mold.  Here is my dog treat ice cube tray that I use. . .because the size fits into the kong nicely. . .and I love hearts.

And here is my molding process. . .when I use regular plain yogurt, the process is a little smoother. . .

P.S.  The silicone mold is nice. . .the treats pop out easier than I would imagine them to do in a traditional hard-plastic mold.

Then we put them in the freezer.  When I make these, I normally end up doing 2-3 freezing batches.

Here are my frozen treats from another recipe:

I believe I used regular plain yogurt, cranberries, and banana.

Well, the cake is smelling good. . .I suppose I should go check on it!