Christmas Cheese-a-licious Cookies

Cheese-a-licious cookies are excellent as party appetizer or as dog training treats. Because of the “rich” ingredients I used in this recipe, I prefer to reserve this treat for special occasion, like Christmas. Hence I named this recipe Christmas Cheese-a-licious Cookies, aka C.C.C.!

With only 5 days away from Christmas Eve, you still have plenty of time to perfect this recipe to your liking or your dog’s. For your dog’s health reasons, you might want to opt out almonds (about 411 calories), otherwise it is as good as I presented here—darn delicious if I might add.

Warning: Be prepared for second baking. Some human guests will eat them without your knowing. So don’t blame the dogs for eating too fast. Dogs aren’t the only greedy ones, y’know!

Servings: 18 C.C.Cookies

Ingredients:

• ½ cup of low-fat Cheddar cheese, shredded
• ½ cup of low-fat cottage cheese
• 2 tbsp of canola oil
• 2 cups of whole wheat flour
• ¾ cups of almonds, chopped. (Optional, but never substitute it with macadamia nuts)
• ¼ cup of water

Methods:

1. Preheat oven at 375ºF
2. Mix cheeses, flour, oil, and almonds thoroughly.
3. Add water and stir until dough forms a ball.
4. Divide dough into 18 pieces, rolling each into a ball and placing on greased cookie sheet.
5. Use a fork to press down on each ball.
6. Bake for 30 minutes or until brown at the edges.
7. Either serve them when cool or chill them overnight in refrigerator for next day serving.

Special note:

It doesn’t have to be 18 cookies if you want them to be smaller or bigger. If you have a chubby dog, my advice is to make the cookies much mooooore smaller.

If your dog is lactose intolerance, limit his intake. If your dog is in excellent health, go ahead and double up the cheese. This means double the fun.

If you fear your human guests will consume way too much for your liking, you could use a dog bone cookie cutter instead of the traditional cookie shape. This might ward off some guests. This method used to work for me but ever since friends and family discovered my “recipe secrets”, they could care less whatever shape my food is, they just eat.