A family dinner menu to accompany the children’s book Buddy Unchained.

This month’s theme for Family Dinner Book Club is Animal Shelters and Rescues, and our lead book is Buddy Unchained by Daisy Bix. Here you’ll find a menu that can be prepared with the help of your children. Head over to Growing Book by Book for a full reading list of books about Animal Shelters. Then visit Sunny Day Family for family activity ideas. We invite you to share a picture from your dinner with us anytime during the month on our Family Dinner Book Club Facebook or Instagram page!

This book was an emotional roller coaster! I felt so sad for Buddy, and then so touched and happy for him. I thought this month it would be fun to make a menu that can be shared with our canine family members! Vegetables are great for dogs, especially sweet potatoes which help with their digestion. Many dogs are allergic to flour, so if that is your dog, then don’t give him the dumplings, but the rest of the stew should be okay to serve.

The cookies are totally dog-friendly! Actually, I’ve been calling them human-friendly dog treats. They have no flour whatsoever. I did add chocolate chips to half the batter for the humans, but keep this ingredient out for the dog. The green beans are from a can! These are my family’s favorite green beans, and I have tried recreating the texture with fresh green beans and it just isn’t the same. So canned it is.

Buddy Unchained
Family Dinner Book Club
Menu
Chicken and Dumplings
Candied Sweet Potatoes
French Green Beans
Milk
Human-Friendly Dog Cookies (recipe below)

Yield: 8 large cookies

Human-Friendly Dog Cookies Recipe #FamilyDinnerBookClub

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Additional Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Cookies you can share with your canine family members!

Print

Ingredients

• 1 ripe banana
• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips, optional for humans only

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325F. Line a baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper.
2. In a mixing bowl, mash the banana, then use a fork to mix well with the remaining ingredients.
3. Place the mixture in the fridge to firm up for about 15 minutes.
4. Remove from the fridge and spoon onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake until the bottoms are golden brown and the cookies are set, about 20 minutes.