Sweet Potato Chews for Dogs

Every day, my three pugs get an afternoon snack: a piece of dried sweet potato. They are tough and chewy like rawhide, but very low calorie (a plus for me, as pugs tend to get overweight very quickly).

If I don't dole out these treats by 3 p.m., the pug thugs start pawing me and looking longingly at the pantry, hoping I'll get the hint.

They looooove their sweet potato snacks! I love that they're low-fat, high fiber, and made of absolutely nothing except the orange tuber. But I don't love the price:

A pound of these puppies costs more than $17, after tax! Ugh.

So I was thrilled when my friend C sent me a link to making these snacks at home. (Why I didn't think of this on my own is another story.) But anyway, just take your basic, grocery-store sweet potato:

Cut it up in slices maybe 1/3 of an inch thick, lay the slices on a cookie sheet, and put them in a very low oven (150 degrees Fahrenheit) until they are dried out but still slightly flexible--overnight works well for me. I pop them in as I go to bed, and in the morning I have this:

Sweet potatoes treats for a fraction of the cost! The only difference is that mine aren't crinkle-cut.

Does that matter to my pugs?

Let's see: Pao's got his tongue out in anticipation, Mu Shu is dancing on his hind legs. Nope!

Nom nom nom nom nom.....