Homemade treats

My friend Jenilyn makes homemade baby food for her daughter which made me think that I could make homemade kitty treats. And after you look at the ingredients on store-bought kitty treats, they are actually pretty disgusting. I made two recipes out of 4 that I settled on after Googling kitty treat recipes. One the kitties liked and the other they just nibbled at, so I consider that a failure.
The treats they liked are called Savory Cheese Treats. Here's what you'll need:
- 3/4 cup white flour
- 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 5 Tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup plain yogurt or sour cream (I used sour cream)
- 1/4 cup cornmeal (I used yellow cornmeal...I don't know if it matters)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Combine cheeses and yogurt. Add flour and cornmeal. (I wasn't paying attention to the directions and measured the flour in the bowl first, so I just threw everything in at the same time). If needed, add a small amount of water to create a nice dough. (I had to add 4 Tablespoons of water to achieve a "nice dough").

Knead dough into a ball and roll to 1/4 inch. (I did this in small sections because I rolled it out on my cutting board and there wasn't enough space to do all the dough at once).

Cut into inch-sized pieces (I cut mine into smaller pieces) and place on a greased cookie sheet. (Don't skip the grease! I did and it was annoying to get the treats off the pan)

Bake for 25 minutes. (Since I made the pieces smaller, I baked for 20 minutes).

The second recipe had tuna and my house still smells like tuna. Yuck! The kitties didn't like these so much. Charles actually tried one and he said they just tasted like cornmeal. They were very hard. Here's the recipe, in case you want to try it for yourself.

Cat Crackers
- 6oz undrained tuna
- 1 cup cornmeal
- 1 cup flour
- 1/3 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Measure all the ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly with your hands. Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness and cut into treat sized pieces. Place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes (I baked them for 15 minutes). Let cool.

Each recipe makes a good amount of treats, so you should be set for a little while. I'm storing mine in the fridge. This morning when I gave them a cheese treat, I poured a bit of chicken stock on them to soften them up a little to make it easy to chew. They are used to soft treats. They really enjoyed them.

* This post was shared on the following Link Parties:

Someday Crafts--Whatever Goes Wednesday
Reasons to Skip the Housework
Ginger Snap Crafts