For the Love of Dog: Ice Cream Tuesday Edition

I had planned a lengthy post that would highlight why I love my dog so dang much, but between work and school, with ballet camp for HRH and a migraine sandwiched in there somewhere, I'm just gonna post some cute but less than stellar quality pics of the world's greatest black and tan coonhound and boil it down to this: your dog wants to celebrate Ice Cream Month, too, and here's one way you can spoil your pup without spoiling her tummy.

"Can I just eat it already, Momma?"

"Om nom nom"

She heard Husband open the door, so she picked it up and ran so she wouldn't have to share.

Made with 99% lactose-free kefir, this is appropriate for those dogs whose tummies don't do well with wheat, which is in the popular commercial brand of doggie ice cream (or those other ingredients that you can't pronounce that you don't want to give your pup, either).

Cool-Yer-Paws Doggie Ice Cream

• 1 large-ish sweet potato, roasted and skin removed (give your dog the skin to snack on)
• 1 overly ripe banana
• 32 ounces full-fat plain kefir, preferably organic
• 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted (or, as we call it in Arizona, "room temperature")*

Combine all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Refrigerate until chilled through. Churn according to your ice cream maker's directions. Upon soft serve consistency, spoon into 1/4-cup containers and freeze until firm.

I suppose you don't need to churn it, but I wanted to give Zooey ice cream and not just a kefir-sicle, so the churning added in some air to the mixture. It has nothing to do with me maybe being a crazy dog lady.

As you can tell by the photos above, Zooey had no problem with the ice cream, unless you count having to wait for it while I took a photo.

*Coconut oil turns solid below 76°, but it doesn't fully freeze; when it's mixed with the other ingredients, it helps to keep ice crystals from forming in this ice cream so that your dog doesn't have to lick her tongue raw trying to enjoy her treat. This might sound like a lot of oil, but because even full-fat kefir doesn't have nearly the fat content that cream does, this will further help the consistency of the ice cream. The oil can help keep your dog's coat nice and shiny (it's great for itchy dogs), and the sweet potato will help keep everything moving in the right direction, if you catch my drift, while the banana makes sure it doesn't move too quickly.