From Backyard to Bowzer's Bowl

Near the end of the school year, a co-worker of mine gave me a few vegetable plants--two cucumber plants and a zucchini plant. When I got them, they were tiny, but they didn't take long to blossom into large-leafed, fruit-producing machines. We have already harvested and consumed more cucumbers than I can keep count of, and our zucchini plant just burst forth into fruit last week, though none of its yield is ready to harvest yet.

Between our two cucumber plants, we have already harvested at least a dozen cucumbers, and the plants currently boast at least half a dozen young cucumbers, like the one shown above, which will be ready for harvesting within the next week or so. Like people, dogs can safely enjoy cucumbers. The vegetable can be blended into Froyo, chopped up and added to their food, or eaten as a treat by itself.

Earlier this evening, as I was slicing up some just-snipped-from-the-vine cucumber for myself and considering the fact that there were only two containers of froyo left in the freezer for my dogs, it occurred to me to find out whether or not dogs can safely eat cucumbers. They can--and thus a new, summery froyo flavor was born tonight: cucumber peanut butter. The dogs have also recently enjoyed watermelon peanut butter froyo and cantaloupe peanut butter froyo, a couple other seasonal favorites, though the melons were not grown in our own backyard. Maybe next year.

Cucumber Peanut Butter Froyo is super easy to make. All you need is:

Five to seven large spoonfuls of plain yogurt or plain Greek yogurt
Two or three spoonfuls of Jiffy Whipped Peanut Butter (it's easier to mix and stir than regular peanut butter)
Six or seven slices of cucumber, peeled

All you do is:

Put ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.
Pour into individual, freezer-safe containers (Rubbermaid makes some pretty durable ones).
Cover.
Freeze.

Also see...

Homemade Dog Treats in Three Easy Steps

and

FroYo for Fido!