Cooking with Chef Emoji: Birthday Edition

Hi Friends! Chef Emoji here, and today we’re going to make my Gotcha Day Banana & Bison Muffins!

This is a great healthy snackie for you and–if you’re in the sharing mood–your human too! We love it because you can easily customize this recipe to fit your dietary needs and preferences. We us

First things first, things you’ll need:

3 cups of puffed rice cereal – You can usually find this in the bulk section or in a bulk bag towards the bottom of the cereal aisle
1 ¼ cups of whole wheat flour
1 banana
1 ¼ cups of beef or chicken bone broth (unsalted) – Don’t tell ManFriend we used all of his chicken broth for our recipe
8oz ground meats – The original recipe called for beef, but we used bison for our version. Bison is a great meat option for pugs because it’s not as fatty as other meat options
1 large egg

Now the fun stuff!

Step 1: Find a comfortable spot to supervise your human. If you’re a human, then make sure your supervisor is comfortable.
Step 2: Preheat the oven to 350°F and coat a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray or line it with parchment paper. We use parchment paper because we had 3 batches, and we used the parchment paper for all 3.
Step 3: Place the puff rice cereal into a large mixing bowl with bone broth for 10 minutes or until the bone broth is almost completely absorbed by the cereal. While you wait, thinly slice the bananas, and cut into halves or smaller.
Step 4: Once the cereal has absorbed the bone broth, mix in the flour and meat (in our case we used bison, but beef or any ground meat will do).
Step 5: Take a tablespoon of dough and place on baking sheet–give yourself ½-1 inch of space between each muffin. If using parchment paper, the uncooked muffins are pretty sticky, but once cooked, they will fall off of the baking sheet. We only used one baking sheet. When we ran out of space we waited for one batch to bake and then quickly switched out the finished muffins with a uncooked batch. You can also use multiple sheets! Up to you!
Step 6: Bake for 15-18 minutes depending on your oven. We set our timer for 16 minutes, and the muffins came out perfectly! Let cool for about 30 minutes before tasting because nothing is worse than burning all of your taste buds!
Step 7: Enjoy your fresh snackies with some cuddles with your human! Afterwards, be sure to store them in an airtight container! Place in the refrigerator, and enjoy for up to 3-4 days, or freeze them for up to 3 months! SO just have your human` quadriple this recipe so you’ll never run out!

Why is my plate empty?! More birthday muffins please

This recipe is based off of a recipe from Home Cooking for You Dog by Christine M. Filardi & Dr. Wayne Geltman, DVM. If you’re interested in homecooking for your best friend, we highly recommend grabbing your own copy of Home Cooking for You Dog*! It is a great resource for everyday meals and offers special treats for special occasions. They even have recipes to fill your Kong toys!

*Chat with your vet before changing your pup’s diet, but this can be a great supplement to your pup’s meals.