Oatmeal Raisin Bars

I adapted a recipe I found on Pinterest that originally used toffee or cinnamon chips. I prefer raisins with my oatmeal cookies, but I think you could try any similar dried fruit.

Ingredients:

1/2 C canola oil

1 C brown sugar

1/2 C granulated sugar

2 Eggs

2 Tbsp. milk

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. salt

3 C old-fashioned rolled oats
1 3/4 C flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 C raisins

Sea salt to sprinkle on top


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine oil, sugars, eggs, milk, vanilla, and salt. Beat on medium for 2-3 minutes or until sugars have dissolved.

Add oats, flour, baking soda, and raisins. Stir until just combined.

Pour into 9x13 pan. Batter will be very thick. I lined my pan with nonstick foil first so I could easily lift the bars out and slice them. Then sprinkle top with sea salt.

Bake 15-20 minutes or until top is golden. Remove from oven and cool slightly before slicing and serving.

*I like to under bake mine just a smidge so they are soft and chewy, even after they've completely cooled. But that's up to you. I also like my cookies slightly under baked, too.

Holiday Dog Treats

Tis the season for holiday presents! We give presents to our friends and family, and how could we leave out our pets? For pet owners, pets are part of the family, too - so what can we give them? How about some home made treats? They are easy to mix, only a few ingredients needed, then roll them out, and cut out shapes like you would for your sugar cookies or gingerbread cookies! It's easy to make these festive by using seasonal cookie cutters. You can make them any size you want - customize them as small treats for your small dogs or big treats for your big dogs! Plus, I've read that pumpkin is kind of like Activia for dogs!


Ingredients:
2 1/2 C flour
2 Eggs
3/4 C pureed pumpkin
2 T Peanut Butter
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon

Note: It is much easier to stir this recipe with a good sturdy spoon rather than trying to whisk. The dough will be very thick. Also, I measured in approximate amounts of pumpkin and peanut butter rather than measuring exactly. When the dough was ready to roll, I needed a little extra flour to balance out the extra (I'm sure) wet ingredients.

Directions:
- Preheat your oven to 350 F
- Stir flour, eggs, pumpkin, pnb, salt and cinnamon. The dough should be stiff but workable to roll out. You may need some additional flour to help roll the dough and prevent it from sticking.
- Roll out dough and cut in any shape desired.
- For smaller sized cookies, bake about 25 minutes. Cookies will puff a little and brown slightly. If making larger or thicker cookies, you may need to bake them for 35-40 minutes. I rolled my dough to about a 1/4 inch thickness for small dogs. If you have a large dog, you could probably do a 1/2 inch thickness.

The recipe made a nice sized Ziploc bag full of treats. I think I baked about 3-4 trays worth. Of course the number of cookies you will get will depend on the size you make them! Happy baking!