Basil Salad

I love summer because fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs abound. In the store, farms, and in my own garden. So far, the only thing that is ready to harvest in my garden is basil and kale. A long, cold spring plus having my garden beds be full of bricks and cinder blocks for the pizza oven = late start on planting. But that's okay. It is going well now, and that is all that matters.

Anyway, I love basil. I love basil so much. There is nothing better than knowing that I picked enough basil for this salad and my plants aren't barren. Hooray!

This salad is super easy to make. The hardest part is clipping all the individual leaves off the plant. Then you just throw everything in a bowl, mix, and you are done. Pretty darn easy. Almost as easy as the dog feast I made for Koda for his birthday. And he loved it so much. I mean, who doesn't love cake and ice cream? And because I love you all so much, I am going to give you the recipe for the salad, the ice cream, and the doggy cakes. Humans can eat these treats too, and the ice cream is actually pretty good. I haven't tried the cupcakes because just because I'm vegan, doesn't mean the pup is.

Ingredients

Basil, lots and lots of it, trimmed from the stalk

3 Roma tomatoes, cut into wedges

1.5 c garbanzo beans

1/4 c Balsamic vinegar

1 tsp maple syrup

1/2 tsp lemon juice

salt, a few shakes

1/4 - 1/2 tsp garlic powder

Directions

1. Trim and wash basil. Dry and put in a bowl.

2. Cut tomatoes and add tomatoes and garbanzo beans to basil.

3. Combine vinegar, maple syrup, lemon juice, salt, and garlic powder and pour over salad.

4. ENJOY

Puppy Ice Cream

3 bananas frozen

1/2 c natural peanut butter

2 strips bacon, cooked

pig ear

1. Put bananas and peanut butter in a high power blender and blend until smooth.

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Cover baking pan in tinfoil and place bacon on baking pan and bake 20 minutes.

3. Scoop ice cream into the pig ear and top with crumbled bacon

Puppy Cup Cakes

-1/2 apple, finely diced

-1 egg

-3 T natural peanut butter

-1 tsp baking powder

-1 dog treat

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Dice apple and combine all ingredients (except dog treat) and stir until well combined.

3. Pour into muffin tins and bake 20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

4. Top with doggy treat.

-Give both treats to the pup and watch him ENJOY.

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