Talk to me about homemade dog food

I started making this recipe when I had a diabetic and continue on to this day because it's great for a normal dog as well. myuntangledlife.com/homemade-dog-food-for-diabetic-dogs/ I make half the recipe at a time, but with the full 5 or 6 pounds of meat.  My vet had me make two changes in order for it to provide "omplete nutrition" Add 1 Centrum multivitamin for every 2 pounds (or something like that, I'd have to check).  Do it just before finishing cooking, so the vitamins don't "cook."  Add a bit of coconut oil before serving. 

My girls absolutely love it.  You can throw in a couple of dog friendly spices: oregano and sage. 

If anyone is really interested, I can give you a couple tips before making it.  I've got it down so that it's no longer a day-long project.  I buy organic ingredients so I really feel like I'm doing the very best I can for my girls. They do get a little Acana dry food as well.  I think I figured out that the cost is equal to about $3/can, about the cost for a premium canned food.

Jun 9, 2016 21:27:55 GMT @nicksmom said:

Jun 9, 2016 20:53:13 GMT BeckyTech said:

I started making this recipe when I had a diabetic and continue on to this day because it's great for a normal dog as well. myuntangledlife.com/homemade-dog-food-for-diabetic-dogs/ I make half the recipe at a time, but with the full 5 or 6 pounds of meat.  My vet had me make two changes in order for it to provide "omplete nutrition" Add 1 Centrum multivitamin for every 2 pounds (or something like that, I'd have to check).  Do it just before finishing cooking, so the vitamins don't "cook."  Add a bit of coconut oil before serving. 

My girls absolutely love it.  You can throw in a couple of dog friendly spices: oregano and sage. 

If anyone is really interested, I can give you a couple tips before making it.  I've got it down so that it's no longer a day-long project.  I buy organic ingredients so I really feel like I'm doing the very best I can for my girls. They do get a little Acana dry food as well.  I think I figured out that the cost is equal to about $3/can, about the cost for a premium canned food.

I am totally interested! Thank you for the link.

Happy to!

Again, I make a half recipe, but do 5 lbs. on the meat. 

By the time all the legumes swell up, the 16-quart pot in this Harbor Freight 4-pot cooking set is perfect for a half recipe: www.harborfreight.com/4-pc-stainless-steel-stock-pot-set-60624.html  The only thing that really sticks is the spinach. The pots clean up easily.

The smaller pots are the perfect size for pre-cooking the meat and the black-eyed peas:

I cook the meat the day before so I know it is thoroughly cooked.  The legumes don't take very long, and the less you have in the pot the better (it gets hard to stir) and I don't want to take any chances on not having the chicken (or any meat) not thoroughly cooked.  I like to slow cook it, so it just shreds by itself.  Easy to mix all ingredients thoroughly when the meat self-shreds.

Quick cook the black-eyed peas either the day before (and fridge them overnight) or before you get started: Cover the peas with water plus 2-inches more. Cover the pot and bring to a boil and boil 1-2 minutes. Turn the heat off and remove the pan to another burner and allow to soak for 1 hour. RINSE and use.  (Or rinse thoroughly before cooking, then you can use the water they cooked in for part of the water the recipe calls for.)

I chop the broccoli even more in what passes for my food processor, otherwise you end up with some pieces in biggish chunks.  I have never found frozen carrots so I buy a pound of fresh baby carrots and chop them up (to shredded size pieces in my chopper thingie). 

Cook all the legumes thoroughly.  Then add in the cooked meat.  Let it simmer just a bit then add in the veggies except the spinach.  The spinach is likely to stick, so add it in very last of all.  Honestly, the frozen veggies don't need to cook like the legumes.  Just get them thoroughly mixed in.  The first time I made this I didn't know what I was doing and got bad tennis elbow from trying to stir this thick concoction with all the ingredients for a few hours. (Go ahead and laugh, I'm not a cook.)  I throw in the Centrum when I add the veggies.  Get everything thoroughly mixed and then add the spinach.

I try to watch the water content carefully so there isn't any excess.  I like to stuff their dinner portions in these Kongs and at least semi-freeze it.  www.amazon.com/KONG-Tires-Extreme-Medium-Large/dp/B007B6VU3W  It's hard to do if it's too watery.

Try to figure out portion sizes and freeze in freezer bags or containers about 2-3 days worth. Remember there are no preservatives.  I always add in a bit of extra pumpkin when I thaw each batch.  Pumpkin is good for every dog. 

You can vary the meat per the vet.  Sometimes the hormone-free, antibiotic-free, hamburger is on sale and I buy 5-6 lbs. of that instead of chicken.  Boil it, then rinse thoroughly before adding to the stew. 

P.S. I had to buy the Chana Dal on Amazon, none of the health food stores near me carry it.    It's an important ingredient, there really isn't a good substitute for it  (I also had to buy a new colander because the pearl barley and lentils were way too small for the one that I originally had.)

By precooking the meat and black-eyed peas, I can throw all this together and have it all cooked in less than 2 hours these days, start to finish.  Packaging it up for freezing takes me longer.  :-)

Let me know how it goes for you!