Monthly Archives: March 2019

Treats for Cayde

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Cayde

When we moved into our new home in the summer of 2017, I promised Mathew and my Mom that we would get a dog. They wanted a puppy but, honestly, I just didn’t think I had it in me to do the training; sure Mathew and Mike promised to help, but the bulk of the work would be on me. I am home more than they are. The idea of a puppy was wonderful, but the initial investment and work was far more than I was willing to add to my already overflowing plate.  So for over a year, I looked online weekly and visited shelters. As with house hunting, we had very clear requirements and weren’t going to take the first available dog; it had to measure up. Finally, we found Max (now known as Cayde) for Mathew’s 15th birthday at the local SPCA. We are still in the honeymoon stage but he is a wonderful, sweet and extremely gentle dog. Gentle is very important because my 87 year old Mom uses a walker and is a bit unsteady. When she walks, Cadye gives her room but watches her attentively. He is very smart, and with a treat available, he learned to sit, on his first day, so Mathew could put on his harness. Perhaps, we can teach him to push my Mom’s ottoman into place when she needs help. He is definitely strong enough.

We have no information about Cayde’s past life. All we know is that he came from a kill shelter in Alabama and was flown up to Ithaca the week we adopted him. The SPCA said he was around 2 years old, but our Vet thought he was more likely 4 or 5, given his teeth and his disposition. He is sooooo mellow, too mellow to be a 2 year old. We wanted to start the relationship off well with clear rules and boundaries, so we got him a crate to sleep in, at least in the beginning, and when we need to leave him unsupervised. We got him a Kong to play with and to stuff with treats. It bounces, so he can play catch with himself. As a bonus, my Mom can gently toss it so he is occupied  with trying to catch it. What a cleaver toy!

The milk bones we bought are a bit too big to stuff in a Kong, so I decided to make special treats for Cayde for that purpose. At the SPCA, they stuffed peanut butter into it, froze it, and tossed them into the rooms at night. This is they way they said goodnight to the dogs. Frankly, peanut butter seemed too messy to deal with, Cayde is not one of those vacuum cleaner dogs. He rarely licks up the crumbs from the milk bones.

I searched the internet and books in the library for examples of dog treats and then experimented with recipes. I finally adapted a recipe by Anne Jonna from book her “The Healthy Dog Cookbook”.  It contains all the elements of a great recipe – easy, limited effort, natural ingredients, and yummy.  I am able to shape the treat into balls so I can create the perfect treat plug for the Kong, plus when they sit around for a couple of days after you bake them, they bounce ~ another added bonus.

Peanut Butter Ball Treat

Mash up 1 banana

½ cup water

3 heaping tbsp. peanut butter

1 ½ cups whole-wheat flour

Mix ingredients, wet hands and roll into balls.

Bake 350° for 20-25 minutes

Makes about 24

Treat in Kong

Store in jar, keeps for about a week, but they disappears faster.

 

First Foods for Mathew

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Mathew’s first taste of applesauce.

When Mathew was transitioning to solid foods, we looked at the options: pre-made foods or making our own. We looked at a variety of factors involved: quality, ingredients, chemicals, ease, and waste. We concluded that making our own baby food met all our needs.

  • We had the most control over what ingredients were put into the food.
  • There was very little waste. Many times a little one will not finish the contents of the jar, so it is put in the refrigerator and after a couple of days in the refrigerator, it must be thrown out, and the jar needs to be recycled. There can be quite a bit of waste and energy involved.
  • It was incredibly easy.

The general philosophy to starting a little one on solids is to try one food at a time for four days in order to make sure there is no allergy to that specific food. Then try another for four days, and so on and so on. You do not want to combine foods until you feel confident that there are no food allergies.  I made Mathew’s food in small batches and filled an ice cube tray with the leftovers. Once frozen, I put the food cubes in a bag and labeled it with the food name and date. An ice cube tray contains 14 cubes or 14 meals. After a month or two of trying new foods and freezing them, you have quite a stockpile of food cubes. Then you start combining them. I bought a baby food mill to process the food but soon realized that a hand blender created a better and smoother consistency.

Mathew was never a big eater, and at 15 years old he still isn’t, so this method was ideal. I made and froze food every fours day for a month and a half and then fed him from the freezer. By the time, we worked through all the food cubes in the freezer he was ready for real solid foods.  Basically, I spent about 20 minutes, twice a week, preparing wholesome nutritious food for Mathew. Then after a month and a half of making food, I simply defrosted cubes. They traveled great, I would pack our outing bag and put the frozen cubes in a container, and by the time Mathew was ready to eat, they were defrosted.

Each child has its own preference, so experimenting is best. When Mathew was 7 months old, we tried his first food – applesauce – very appropriate since his Dad grows apples. We used Empires and unfortunately he was not thrilled, possibly too tart. Later on, we tried Matsu, which he preferred.  For the next couple of months, Mathew tried a new food once a day at dinner; it felt like he was simply humoring us, since he really didn’t seem excited about eating. Within 4 months, he appeared to enjoy eating and was ready to eat real solid food. Just in time since, the freezer was empty.

Mathew loving his beets!

I started with fairly simply foods and processed what we were eating. We were hoping to create a food connection and family meals.

The first foods Mathew ate:

  • Applesauce *
  • Rice cereal mixed with breast milk
  • Sweet Potato *
  • Pearsauce *
  • Apricots *
  • Carrots
  • Bananas
  • Beets*
  • Avocado #
  • Yogurt
  • Kiwi
  • Asparagus
  • Oatio’s

* LOVED! 

# hated and still does

I always hear how expensive a baby is, well there are ways around some of the expense. Breastfeeding and making your own baby food is easy and very inexpensive.

All information is shared for educational purposes only and has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.  This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.