Last summer when I saw dog ice cream for sale in the pet store I thought it was such a cute product. I bought some for my dogs and they loved it. Dog ice cream comes in pints, but it also comes in small little one-use containers. I preferred the containers – you just take the lid off and give it to them. Take the cardboard container away when they are finished (or they WILL shred it and leave pieces of it all over your house – I know from experience).
But these dog ice cream containers only came in a pack of four – and they weren’t cheap. After looking at the ingredients it became clear to me that it would be really easy (and way more cost-effective) to make my own dog ice cream at home.
I’m not going to share any specific recipes with you today, there are plenty of other sites that will provide those. This is for kind of lazy, cost conscious dog owners. Like me.
Ingredients: whatever dog-safe stuff you have around.
I use Trader Joe’s 0% Plain Nonfat Greek Yogurt as my ice cream base for every batch I make. You can use whatever yogurt you want, as long as it’s plain and 0% nonfat. I like Trader Joe’s version because I work near a Trader Joe’s so it’s convenient to get, but also because they sell it in these giant containers for a really affordable price. I like to make big batches so I need a lot of yogurt.
In this particular batch of homemade dog ice cream I am including peanut butter (I usually include peanut butter), cream cheese, and some left over stuff from the fridge. The red container represents any dog-safe leftovers you have around, but for this “recipe” it represents left over turkey bacon and sweet potato fries.
There are three big pros to making dog ice cream:
- It’s pretty fun to do. You feel sort of like a culinary genius whipping up a custom dog dessert.
- It’s cost-effective. You can make a lot more dog ice cream for a lot cheaper than buying it in the store.
- It’s a good opportunity to get rid of some miscellaneous leftovers.
You can put a variety of things in dog ice cream. I’ve used left over bacon grease and other meat juices/grease (but just a drizzle for flavor, you don’t want to put too much), cheese, gross raw dog treats we bought but don’t like to give them because we have to wash our hands every time, left over dog cookie crumbs, boiled and mashed sweet potatoes, the list goes on. That’s part of what makes it fun – getting to experiment and create something different every time.
I put the dog ice cream into small plastic containers with lids. They are small enough to be able to just give them the whole container (though I don’t let them eat the whole thing at once, I usually take it away after they’ve eaten about half), they are reusable and washable, and easy to put into the freezer.
I put all of the ingredients in a bowl (with the yogurt being the primary ingredient):
Isn’t that pretty? Almost looks like something I’d want to eat. Then I mix it all up:
Not so pretty anymore. Then I scoop it into the containers:
Then I pop the lids on and stick them in the freezer:
Of course during this entire time my dogs are sitting at my feet looking up at me longingly. They know what I’m making and they don’t want to have to wait for it to freeze. So I always let them lick the bowl:
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