I love Chinese Japanese dishes such as sweet sour pork or sweet sour meatball or sweet sour chicken.
The dish “su-bu-ta” (Sweet sour pork” ) is traditionally made with pork shoulder,deep fried and they are coated with thicken sweet sour sauce. The dish got onion, pepper, carrot and pineapple.
Besides Subuta, there are variety of sweet sour sauce dishes such as sweet sour meatball (pork meatball is deep fried and coated with sweet sour sauce and cooked with pepper and onion) or Sweet sour chicken (chicken thigh is cut to bite size pieces and breaded and deep fried and coated with sweet sour sauce.Often times, the dish is with pepper and onion).
I like su-bu-ta but I do not like sticky sweet sweet sour sauce you sometime find at American Chinese restaurants across the country and, when I make the dish, I make less sweet sauce and, I enjoy them a lot.
Chinese influenced Japanese dishes like this is a good dish that you can add in whatever vegetables on hand as well to make it extra nutritious.
I like to add in non traditional ingredients from the fridge sometime.
I think, this sauce would go well with white meat fish as well.
These would also be great recipes for kids to eat more vegetables. I find that sometimes, sauce makes the food taste a little different even if you are eating disliked vegetables.
My mother tried different cooking method, different type of fish (I did not care for fish as a kid.Now I like fish better than steak), different types of sauce and I now can eat fish. It is all due to my mother’s hard work to help me eat better:-)
This is the recipe you can cook up in 30 minutes and, perfect recipe for busy moms out there.
When I make sweet sour dish, I do not deep fry them. There is a little secret to make the meat tender when cook in the skillet.
Since my version does not deep fry the meat, I just call it “Skinny Sweet sour chicken”.
Traditionally, chicken used for sweet sour chicken is thigh but I used breast.
10 oz wt chicken breast boneless cut into bite size pieces Morton Natures Seasons corn starch 2 capful sake (I like to use Gekkeikan Sake brand) 1/2 red onion rough chopped 1 /2 stick carrot thinly sliced diagonally and par cooked 1/8 Green pepper rough chopped 1/8 Red pepper rough chopped shanghai bok choy stem thinly sliced Asparagus chopped
1. Cut the boneless chicken breast to bite size pieces and season them with Morton Natures Seasons
2. Season it with Morton’s Natures Seasons
3. Put the chicken into the small bowl and add handful of corn starch to coat them
4. In the skillet, drizzle sesame oil and bring the skillet to hot
5. When the skillet got screaming hot, add in chicken breast and brown them and once browned,add in 1-2 capful of sake and shake the skillet and cover the skillet for a minutes or so till it gets evaporated fully and take chicken out on the plate
This technique will make the chicken tender
6. Add 1/2 onion rough chopped, par cooked carrot thinly sliced diagonally, shanghai bok choy stem thinly sliced and stir
*** To cook carrot a bit before going into the skillet ***
Carrot takes long time to get cooked and I found that if I cook some in the microwave before finish cooking in the skillet, it saves some cooking time and much easier to make the dish
To cook some, here is what you need to do
thinly slice carrot diagonally and put it into small bowl and cover them with water
Place plastic wrap directly over the water in the bowl
From September 25th through October 1st, you can save more on selected Elk/Venison treats.
*** September 2015 SnackSaturday treats***
Order over $30* (merchandise subtotal after all the discount must be over $30) on Saturdays,and you will receive: one count of free 4 oz Buffalo liver Baguette Biscuits
Bravo! Bonus Bites Freeze dried Venison liver 3 oz made in USA.They use grass-fed venison and animals had no growth hormone or antibiotic in their life.
Normally,it is $9.77,with sales price,it will be $7.94
*** Palette’s K9 Foodie Mystery bag ~ September~ ***
Palette’s K9 Foodie Mystery Bag is the mystery bag that consists of all natural dog treats and toy.
Each Beef Deluxe bag contains 6-9 products per bag and, shipping and handling is already included in the price.The shipping method will be determined by us.
Palette’s K9 Foodie Mystery variety bag is the mystery bag that consists of mystery items from sitewide;can be mixture of all natural dog treats,toy,grooming supplies,gifts for dog lovers,training tool,collars,travel accessories etc…
Contents can be the same or different from one bag to the other.Number of products in the bag also can be different from one bag to the other while the value of the bag remain the same.
** Palette’s k9 Foodie Mystery Bag Beef Deluxe $39.26
** Palette’s K9 Foodie Mystery variety gift bag $35.67
In the previous entry titled “Yassy’s note: Liam in NICU;day 15- day 19“, I wrote Liam came to our family about 3 weeks early and he has spent next 3 weeks in NICU.
During the second week at NICU, me and my husband learned about the baby massage and in this entry, I would like to share how you can massage your baby’s Arms and Hands.
Sit on the floor with your baby right in front of you on the blanket.
Start with a gentle conversation to your baby.I used to talk to Liam while I touch/stroke his head to catches his attention.
If the baby were quiet ,calm, and in gentle mood, then gently massage baby’s body section by section.
Massage is not like recipes for one dish. You would work section by section first. Then, when the baby got used to the whole idea of being massaged, then, you can do a few techniques in one session.
If you see your baby yawning,trying to get away from you or crying etc (sign of stress) ..,stop the massage and done for the day.
For today, I will introduce how you can baby massage on arms and hands using the print out we got from NICU.
You can click the picture to enlarge them.
Baby massage; Arms and hands
Pit stop (good from 0 years old) ; 1 set (right and left one time each) is good
Place a couple of drops of oil in your hands and rub your palms together. Make sure you are not wearing jewelry.
Hold baby’s hand in yours and hold that hand up as if raising hand
Use your other hand to stroke the armpit towards the waist
Repeat with other side
According to my Japanese e-magazine article, armpits are easy spot to get heat rash and it is also the spot where the clothe could rub against and easily gets stimulated.
By massaging the armpit area, you can retaining the heat and you can keep the skin trouble at bay.. Of course, creaming the moisturizer after bath every day is needed to keep the skin supple and prevent the heat rash from happening.
Indian milking on arms
Place a couple of drops of oil in your hands and rub your palms together. Make sure you are not wearing jewelry.
Support baby’s wrist with one hand
With the other hand, form the letter “C” and wrap around baby’s armpit
Move in long sweeping strokes towards the wrist
When you reach the wrist, swap hands and repeat the movement
According to Japanese e-magazine article, arms placement for this technique; Indian milking for arms, is a little different.
Since babies tend to have arms bent, and making fists often, they recommend to massage the area by straightening the arms and open the fists.
The way they do is as following
Place a couple of drops of oil in your hands and rub your palms together. Make sure you are not wearing jewelry.
place baby’s arms on the floor inner side up, and support baby’s wrist with one hand
With the other hand, form the letter “C” and wrap around baby’s armpit/shoulder
Move in long sweeping strokes towards the wrist and stroke to the hand (not stopping at wrist point)
When you reach the tip of their hand, swap hands and repeat the movement
They say that by massaging arms to straighten, and hands open,it encourage the hands development (Sense of fingers;grasping/holding etc..)
Finger roll
Roll each finger between your thumb and index finger and pull (letting baby’s finger slip through your grasp) just like you did on their toes.
Now repeat the moves on the other side
Top of hands
Open baby’s hand and support the hand with one hand
Gently stroke the palm and top of the hand with other hand towards fingers
Circle around wrist
Hold baby’s hand so your thumbs will be on your baby’s top of the wrist
Then, using your thumb, gently press around the wrist area in small circles
Swedish Milking
Hold your baby’s wrist with one hand and with other hands, gently stroke baby’s arm from wrist side towards armpit/shoulder
You can find more with illustration at infant massage USA PDF documents here.
From September 18th through 24th, you can save more on selected Grass-fed Moo!Odor Free bully sticks.
*** September 2015 SnackSaturday treats***
Order over $30* (merchandise subtotal after all the discount must be over $30) on Saturdays,and you will receive: one count of free 4 oz Buffalo liver Baguette Biscuits
Lets watch our k9 executive chef “Palette” in action with taste testing “Free range Moo! Braided bully sticks” below.If you are a blog subscriber,please click here to watch the video. Palette and Free range Moo! Braided bully sticks
You can read/watch more on Free Range Moo! Braided bully sticks in the taste testing entry titled “Palette’s note: Free Range Moo! Braided bully sticks” here.
6″ ; Single: Normally,it is $4.47,with sales price,it will be $4.35
6″ 10 pieces: Normally,it is $48.88,with sales price,it will be $39.50
9″ Single: Normally,it is $5.24,with sales price,it will be $4.95
12″ Single: Normally,it is $8.50,with sales price,it will be $6.95
*** Palette’s K9 Foodie Mystery bag ~ September~ ***
Palette’s K9 Foodie Mystery Bag is the mystery bag that consists of all natural dog treats and toy.
Each Beef Deluxe bag contains 6-9 products per bag and, shipping and handling is already included in the price.The shipping method will be determined by us.
Palette’s K9 Foodie Mystery variety bag is the mystery bag that consists of mystery items from sitewide;can be mixture of all natural dog treats,toy,grooming supplies,gifts for dog lovers,training tool,collars,travel accessories etc…
Contents can be the same or different from one bag to the other.Number of products in the bag also can be different from one bag to the other while the value of the bag remain the same.
In the previous entry titled “Yassy’s note: Liam in NICU;day 15- day 19“, I wrote Liam came to our family about 3 weeks early and he has spent next 3 weeks in NICU.
There, we met the lady doctor who gave us the second opinion on the surgery to put the feed tube in the stomach due to Liam’s poor feeding.
As the days passes by, his feeding got better and better.
At first, he had hard time drinking milk even 5 or 10 ml per sitting in the early NICU days, but by the 19th day, he could drink 35ml out of 50 ml he was expected to drink.
In the end, he yanked his feed tube off, and he was under observation for the feeding without it.
During the second week at NICU, me and my husband learned about the baby massage and in this entry, I would like to focus on the baby massage.
Benefit of Baby massage..
Baby massage has a great number of benefit for your babies besides baby massaging creates another peaceful quiet bonding time with you.
At NICU, we learned it has following benefits.
From Physical point of views, it increase the blood circulation, relieve constipation/gas/colic, helps them relax and sleep better, develops nervous system, promotes muscular development and immune system, enhance the weight gain, decrease crying etc..
From emotional point of view, it reduce stress, creates/developing bonding, develops the feeling of love, develops independence, develop sense of security, builds self confidence and increase leaning capability.
In addition to that, the e-magazine that I read on baby care said that there are plenty of methods/techniques for the baby massage targeting on the specific needs.
In this baby massage series, I would like to cover basic,general massage along with massages with specific purpose section by section.
In this entry, lets focus on legs and feet.
General / basic baby massage (good from 0 years old)
Baby massage is best done with a baby wearing just diaper in the warm room.
Then, use a blanket or towel underneath the babies and massage the baby with sweet almond oil (none scented one).
The instructor’s note says that you could use olive oil or grape seed oil as well but you want to test oil to use to see if your baby would not get any reaction from it by applying tiny dot inside their arm.
To apply the oil, you will put your second finger on top of the opened bottle top and support the bottle with your thumb and upside down the oil so the oil touches your second finger.
Of course, you want to leave any devices that distracts you such as phones, TV etc..
You want the same for breastfeeding time as well.
Except the time you want to do the tummy massage for better digestion or lessen the gas, best time to do the baby massage is before the feed as long as they are not crying for hunger, or after a bath.
We did massage before the feeding under the instruction via therapist who visited NICU for Liam.
Pick the time your babies are not sleepy but alert and in good mood.
When the babies are not in good mood or sick or having jaundice or right after the vaccinations, you should not practice the massage on them.
Tips for baby massage on each developmental stage..
0-2 month; One session should be under 5 minutes. You could pick one massage technique,one section and do the rest other time
3-6 month; It is about the time when babies start showing interests in hands. Giving massage on the arms and hands and stimulate the area would help them develop hand coordination.
7-11 month; They will become more active and probably they would rather like to move around rather than staying on one spot on their back. Synchronizing the massage with the developmental stage such as rolling over or crawling, you could make the massage like a game.
1-1 year 6 month; Getting better understanding the language and they would be able to communicate with you a little by little. Why not teaching them the name of the spot; leg, back, foot etc..
You can tell them you will massage which part of the body and give them a massage.
It is about the time where muscle and nerve on the toe would develop more and Japanese e-magazine recommends to focus on the massage on the toes massage for that reason.
Baby massage 1-2-3..
Now, sit on the floor with your baby right in front of you on the blanket.
Start with a gentle conversation to your baby.I used to talk to Liam while I touch/stroke his head to catches his attention.
If the baby were quiet ,calm, and in gentle mood, then gently massage baby’s body section by section.
Massage is not like recipes for one dish. You would work section by section first. Then, when the baby got used to the whole idea of being massaged, then, you can do a few techniques in one session.
If you see your baby yawning,trying to get away from you or crying etc (sign of stress) ..,stop the massage and done for the day.
For one section, repeating the technique is up to 3 times. More than that would stimulate the section too much.
For today, I will introduce Leg section massage technique using the print out we got from NICU.
You can click the picture to enlarge them.
Baby massage; Legs
Indian Milking technique for legs
Place a couple of drops of oil in your hands and rub your palms together. Make sure you are not wearing jewelry.
Support baby’s ankle with one hand
With the other hand, form the letter “C” and wrap around baby’s leg
Move in long sweeping strokes towards the foot
When you reach the ankle, swap hands and repeat the movement
According to my Japanese e-magazine article, root of the legs and behind the knee have lymph node.
When you stimulate the area, circulation on the area becomes better and it makes better digestion and better immune system.
I do not remember why but our instructor skipped the #2 technique;hugs and glide
Thumb-over-thumb technique for feet
On one of her foot, use a thumb-over-thumb motion to massage from heel to toes.
According to Japanese e-magazine article, back of the foot got reflexology that connects with organs；heart and left lung will be connected to left foot reflexology, gallbladder and right lung will be connected to right foot reflexology.
Therefore, stimulating those area would help developing motor nerve and also helps organs to revitalize.
Toe squeeze technique for feet
Gently squeeze and roll each of your baby’s toes between your thumb and index finger
Give each toe a gentle pull
Now repeat the moves
According to Japanese e-magazine article, stimulating the tip of the toe, from head to toe neural transmission gets smoother/better and helps better motor nerve development.
Under toes and ball of foot
With your forefinger, gently press the ball of the foot, just under the toes and gently stroke downwards
According to Japanese e-magazine article, stimulating the back of the foot this way will make the foot warmer as well. When foot is cold, people tends to get sleep shallow sleep.
By warming up the foot this way, it will make the foot warmer and makes babies sleep better..
Japanese e-magazine has pre step before this under the toe exercise.
Before doing the under the toe massage above, they massage the whole leg first
With left hand, support the baby’s leg
With the other hand’s palm, stroke the leg from root of the leg toward the knee and then to the tip of the toe
This exercise is simply warming the legs, they instruct to do the exercise about 10 times.
Thumb press
Hold baby’s foot so your thumbs will be on your baby’s back of the foot
Then, using both of your thumbs, gently press about 10 times all over the foot
According to Japanese e-magazine article, since back of the foot got the spot where it encourages the better digestion,this technique works good for constipated babies;those who cannot poop for many days.
Top of foot
Hold baby’s foot so your thumbs will be on your baby’s front/top side of foot
Gently stroke one after another with thumbs over the top of the foot from toes side to the heel
Circles around ankle
Hold your baby’s heel forming the letter “C” and wrap around baby’s ankle
Using your thumb, gently press around the ankle area in small circles
Swedish Milking
Hold your baby’s ankle with one hand and with other hands, gently stroke baby’s leg from ankle side towards root of the foot
You can find more with illustration at infant massage USA PDF documents here.
There are some other technique listed on Japanese e-magazine article so, I am going to explain on that.
Massaging calf..
Place your thumb over the spot where you see a bit dent/dip on the back of the foot
While gently pressuring the spot on the back of the foot, make small circle downward around calf with other hand from below knee spot to the heel
According to Japanese e-magazine article, massaging the calf would make the blood circulation better and when you pressure the spot on the back of the foot, it would help building the healthy body since the blood would circulate to the back of the foot.
Swaying the legs..
Hold baby’s ankle both side in each hand and gently sway the legs to right,left,right left
Make sure that you are not pulling your baby’s butt up in the air.Butt should be touching on the floor.
According to Japanese e-magazine article,by swaying the legs right left right left, it would loosen up the muscle that connects from legs to the butt and muscle on the back.
When muscle is loosen up, it makes better blood circulation.
Bicycle..
Hold baby’s ankle both side in each hand and gently push up towards their tummy on one side ,and bring that leg down and push other leg up. Then, bring that leg down and push the other side of the legs up towards their tummy.
When you push one leg up toward tummy, gently give some pressure on their tummy but not too hard. And then,continue.
Once babies got used to the motion, you could move the leg in rhythm 1-2-1-2 (a little faster tempo)
According to Japanese e-magazine article,this bicycle move is good to relieve the constipation because this move stimulates intestine.
From September 11th through 17th, you can save more on selected salmon treats
*** September 2015 SnackSaturday treats***
Order over $30* (merchandise subtotal after all the discount must be over $30) on Saturdays,and you will receive: one count of free 4 oz Buffalo liver Baguette Biscuits
Surf Turf Jerky is made with American fully grass-fed buffalo meat with wild-caught salmon with skin on. We do not use the grass-fed buffalo meat with grain finished.
Normally,it is $7.69,with sales price,it will be $7.36
You can read more on Surf Turf Jerky in the taste testing entry titled “Palette’s note:Surf Turf Jerky”. Please click here to read the entry.
Surf Turf Jerky will be made to order approx. 16 hrs before shipping time,and we offer freshest Jerky on the market.
Please store this Jerky in freezer for longer shelf life in your air-tight zip bag after receiving your order.
Surf Turf Jerky is lab tested,and registered with department of agriculture.
*** Palette’s K9 Foodie Mystery bag ~ September~ ***
Palette’s K9 Foodie Mystery Bag is the mystery bag that consists of all natural dog treats and toy.
Each Beef Deluxe bag contains 6-9 products per bag and, shipping and handling is already included in the price.The shipping method will be determined by us.
Palette’s K9 Foodie Mystery variety bag is the mystery bag that consists of mystery items from sitewide;can be mixture of all natural dog treats,toy,grooming supplies,gifts for dog lovers,training tool,collars,travel accessories etc…
Contents can be the same or different from one bag to the other.Number of products in the bag also can be different from one bag to the other while the value of the bag remain the same.
In the previous entry titled “Yassy’s note: Liam in NICU;day 8- day 14“, I wrote Liam came to our family about 3 weeks early and he has spent next 3 weeks in NICU.
The entry was about his poor feeding, growth day 8 through day14, and breast pump and insurance company.
Also, I wrote that we met the lady doctor who was filling in our initial guy doctor who suggested the stomach tube for Liam.
Second opinion matters…
She said she wanted to get to know him for the next few days and see how he does with bottle/breast feeding. Her opinion was that, it does not need to hurry to decide the feeding tube in the stomach.
Sometimes, each doc has their own opinion and not always agree with each other.
It would give us second opinion and gives us more thoughts on the topic and, I think it was good that the lady doctor stepped in and told us about her opinion.
I too wanted less invasive approach for him. If he did not need any surgery for the poor feeding, then, it would be better,I thought.
If she did not step in, Liam would have gone under the knife because after the family meeting,we thought doctor would know better and if doctor thinks it is the best way to approach,then, we maybe should follow his opinion.
After the family meeting over the skype, we were about to tell the guy doctor what we think.However, over the weekend, the lady doctor came to us and asked us to give her more time to evaluate Liam to get to know him and think what is best for him.
I think waiting was worth it. I liked how the lady doctor approached Liam’s issue and that she did not push for/jumping into the idea of the feeding tube in the stomach.
She said that since he is not a critical patient, he would not get the stomach tube surgery over the weekends anyway and, she wanted time to get her thoughts together.
When we visited Liam next day, I met the physical therapist working with Liam.She said he needs more muscle tone and giving him massage that would help strength the muscle tone.
She offered to teach us how to at home. Therefore, we scheduled more learning time at NICU next day.
After that, we met the lady doctor again and she told us that Liam was making some progress since weekend even a little. Her suggestion was to give him a chance to see if he can improve without any intervention.
That means, his “coming home” day maybe a bit later than the day we could have him with the tube in his stomach but, if he did not have to have the tube in the stomach with his best effort to take food via mouth more, we preferred that way.
Therefore, we agreed to have him stay at NICU until original due date and see how he does.
She thought that he was born a little early so, he needs time to catch up and he would improve as time goes by.
To be able for him to come home, his test was to take food via mouth for 2 days without the feeding tube. That is his test he needed to clear.
That day, I heard from nurse that he took 30ml out of 50 ml previous night feeding time and the day, with me, he took 20ml out of 50 ml.
Next feeding time, my husband did bottle feed him. Liam took 25 ml out of 50ml.
He was getting better in the feeding. He was drinking 10 ml-15 ml of milk before and he was out like a light.
Now, he drunk more and more awake, more wiggly and now and then, I saw him opening eyes more.
It was the time I thought feeding issue would improve over time just like the lady doctor told us he would.
When we went to 2nd feeding time, the nurse who care for Liam before was taking care of Liam’s neighbor at NICU.
She said to us “You guys are doing great with Liam, and I can see your level of confidence is up”.
I think she was right. I remember how scary it was to hold tiny Liam when I was still at the hospital because he was so tiny and neck is not stable and I never really had opportunity to hold babies who does not have stable neck.
I have hold my sister’s babies before but by the time we visited them, their neck was stable. So, holding Liam for the first time was scary and nervous but now I got used to it and I thought I mastered how to diaper change,how to take temperature, how to swaddle,how to hold/burp him etc.. through the learning from NICU nurse.
He being in NICU is not good, but on the flip side, we could learn all of these from nurse and it was good that we could learn one vs one.
Next day, we learned how to massage him for strengthening the muscle.We were learning something new each time there.
Baby massage…
Next day, at the first feeding time, me and my husband learned massaging Liam.It was kind of like aroma therapy minus aroma (scent). Therapist used sweet almond oil on Liam and Liam looked like enjoying the massage whole bunch.
The massaging was done on his face and legs. It was funny to see how he made his face while we were working with him.
I would like to share the method on how to baby massage but, it is a rather big topic and I would like to share the information in the next entry.
After the relaxed time, we did feeding and he took bottle 25 ml out of 50 ml (50%) and I was glad.All milk inside the bottle was my breast milk, not formula.
The nurse on that day commented that he seemed to drink more (seemed to like better) when the milk is breast milk as opposed to formula.Maybe because I eat yummy stuff for him, and he must have liked what I ate:-)
Then, the second feeding time, he was more awake and surprisingly, he opened up his mouth wide when he saw the bottle, and took it so well (again, milk inside was breast milk).
This time, he took 35 ml out of 50ml.
The doctor and nurse told us they were impressed with the little progress he made.
One point time on the second feeding time, he got his bottle in his mouth and he was putting his hand over my hand as if he is trying to make sure not letting the bottle go,lol.
After that feeding time, nurse who was taking care of Liam came by and talked to me how she liked our country ; Japan.
She said she lived in Japan for 4 years due to her husband’s job (Air force and stationed in Misawa Japan).So, we chat a bit and we enjoyed the conversation with her very much.
She said that Liam did not get mad a lot at NICU and when he gets fussy it was usually when diaper change is needed. He was a good sweet boy,she said.
After the day, since my husband had to go back to work and my mother in law was going to fly out from VA to her state and then going to yearly family trip in MI, I did not get to see Liam next day.
Therefore, for that day my husband was the breast milk delivery guy for Liam:) Then, he was checking Liam here and there on his way to work.
Getting to know the little ones..
One thing we did with our Corgi “Palette” for the arrival of our little son “Liam” was that we let Palette sniff Liam’s hat and his shirt and swaddle towel from hospital.
Many days until Liam comes home, She was sleeping on the hospital towel Liam was wrapped in at NICU.
Now Liam is home crawling around the house, and he wants to grab her fur rather than touching to pet her, I do not let the two together without my supervision.
Palette seems to understand the daily routine and, she does fine with Liam as long as he is not flopping around his hands or trying to reach her or crawling after her.
Interesting thing is, Palette never ever touches/mouthing Liam’s toy even though I would assume that many of Liam’s toy would look like hers but she never mistakes with her own. I am amazed and I wonder if it is because she recognize the scent and differentiate it from her own toy.
Feeding tube no more!
Next day, Liam said “I want no feeding tube!” (Yanked the tube out from his nose at NICU).
Liam 17 days old without feed tube…
Therefore, he was without it one day and the lady doctor let him be and decided to observe his feeding without it. The nurse was going to let him try taking milk via bottle without feeding tube.
That day,the nurse told my husband who brought breast milk for Liam that he did really good in terms of taking milk via mouth although she did not tell him how much he took.
From September 4th through 10th, you can save more on selected Odor free beef bully sticks
*** September 2015 SnackSaturday treats***
Order over $30* (merchandise subtotal after all the discount must be over $30) on Saturdays,and you will receive: one count of free 4 oz Buffalo liver Baguette biscuits
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Offer ends on September 7th 11:59pm US Est
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I cannot believe she is with us for such a long time already. SHe was with us since 12week old. Time flies!
For Palette, it was different year to previous year because just before her birthday last year, Liam came along.
Good thing for her would be more nibble time for her since Liam sometimes drops food on the floor and she will be called in to vacuum up the floor squeaky clean:-)
I think she would not mind that cleaning job at all.
Since the time our little prince Liam turned around 11 months old, I started including once a day snack time.
Since he is completely weaned off from breast milk or formula now, I am planning our son the snack time 2 times a day;one in the morning, one in the afternoon so he can get supplemental nutrition from those snacks.
I make homemade healthy snacks for him, and it makes my schedule a little tight and limit things that I can do in a day.However, I decided to bake something special for our little princess;Palette too..
What I came up with was using the similar ingredient with Liam’s and tailor to her liking.
Since she does not get to taste peanut butter often, usually I make her peanut butter something for her special day. Of course,with the healthy amount of peanut butter.
I ended up making peanut butter blueberry cake for her.
Let me tell you she really really liked it. When I tell her to sit and wait, her drool bubbles came out from her mouth and I could tell she really loved it.
If I let her,she would eat the whole loaf in one sitting:-) Guaranteed!
She loved the cake very much so I gave her 2 slices but that is the max that I gave to her. After that,she is enjoying one slice a day.
Many dog bakery offer peanut butter treats but bad thing about it is that you cannot tell how much of peanut butter is in them. However, I would imagine they would put more than 1 tbs peanut butter in the batch of cakes or biscuits.
Dogs obviously love peanut butter, but it is not the healthy food for them to put a lot in the treats.
Peanut butter is high calorie food. The creamy peanut butter 1 tbs is 90 kcal, so it means if you fill the small size kong toy for example, you are giving 158kcal (out of the 158kcal, 117 kcal comes from fat) just for your dogs to lick them each time.
I used peanut butter but it is the amount for her to be able to smell it and not a lot of peanut butter in them.I wanted to make healthier cake for her even if using the fatty food ingredient.
Since there is nothing people cannot eat it, my husband tried her birthday cake too.
At our house, he usually asks me “Is it for a dog or for people”.
I take it as compliment, but it is funny that it is the question he asks when he sees me making something or he sees the snack type placed on the counter:-)
Anyway, our Palette loved the cake so much that I decided to share the recipe with you.
Make one for your furriends and you will become their best of the best friends enough for them to stalk you to everywhere you go.
Peanut butter blueberry birthday cake..
This is sugar free , salt free except from tiny bit of peanut butter in it but it is healthy treat for your dog.
Many pupcake recipes on the internet calls for peanut butter (1 tbs of peanut butter has 90kcal. It will make the homemade treats very sugary,fatty,high calorie treats if not careful how much to pit in), and some sort of sweetener such as honey,molasses,or sugary frosting and so forth, but fruits itself is already sweet enough and, I did not think it needed more ingredients as sweetener,and this one does not have those.
For our little son, I make snack but like Palette’s principle, I do not like to make sugary fatty snack for him. His snack is very low sugar and free from sugary frosting and I try to incooperate fresh fruits etc..
I hope your dogs would like them as much as Palette did.
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Ingredients for Peanut butter blueberry pupcake with yogurt;
1C unbleached all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
7 tbs whole milk
1/2 egg
1 oz whole blueberry
Yogurt (whole milk plain yogurt.I love stonyfield yogurt)
<Peanut butter blueberry pupcake with yogurt>
0. Preheat the oven at 425F
1.To the bowl, add 1C unbleached all purpose flour,1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda and mix well
2. To other bowl, add 1 tsp peanut peanut butter, 7 tbs milk and mix
3. Add 1/2 egg to the peanut butter-milk mixture and mix well
4. To the egg mixture bowl, add flour mixture a little at a time and add 1 oz fresh blueberry and gently stir to combine
5. place the cake pan with non stick foil and pour the batter and shape it to rectangle with about 1″ thickness
6. Bake 15 minutes or toothpicks in the center comes out clean batter
7. Slice the cake to about 1/2″ thickness and serve with drop of yogurt on top
Makes: 1/2″ thick slice about 11 slices
Here is the video to show you how much Palette loves the pupcake.
Palette and Peanut butter blueberry pupcake with yogurt I
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Palette and Peanut butter blueberry pupcake with yogurt II
If you are a blog subscriber,please click here to watch the video.
**peanut butter blueberry cake whole amount is roughly
about 578 kcal (you can see more detail at nutritiondata.self.com
website here.)
One slice of the cake served is 52.5kcal. So, Each pupcake is still lower kcal than 1 tbs of peanut butter served (1 tbs peanut butter is 90 kcal).
You can certainly cut the cake into quarter, and feed it to your dog to lower the daily intake from treats.
