Going to the dogs

Now here is a little diversion. I'm going to talk about dog food. As someone who cooks for a living, I finally started making my dogs their own homemade dog food. I was so sick of trying to decipher the ingredient lists on the commercial products on the market. And I was so sick of hearing about dogs dying of cancer. I figure all that processing that the dog food goes through can't be good for it. I actually started with this recipe the last time the dogs were sick with diarrhea.

• 2 packs of ground chicken (each are less than a pound)
• 12 servings of brown rice
• 1/2 cup of flax seeds
• 2 cups of veggies, right now I am using broccoli, cauliflower and string beans.
• 1 large container of plain yogurt, I was using fat free but I'm now experiementing with a full fat yogurt. I do look for the one with the least amount of added ingredients. All we need is milk and active bacterial cultures.

I cook the chicken in a microwave safe dish at full power for about 5 minutes, I then stir it and check for pink. There usually is some in the middle. I add the flax seeds and, if I have room, the veggies. I microwave this for another 3 - 5 minutes. I like the veggies to be good and soft. My dogs won't eat raw broccoli or cauliflower but they like it cooked. In the mean time, I have started the rice on the stove, following the package instructions. Once the meat is done, I transfer all if it, juices and all, to a mixing bowl. I add the rice and let it all cool down, stiring often to help it cool down quicker. Remember, we don't want it at room temp for any period of time. I just want it cool enough to I can add the yogurt without killing the bacteria in the yogurt or making it curdle. Once it is almost to room temp, I mix in the yogurt. This will only last my dogs 4 days so I double it. I feed them a regular kibble meal in the morning and they get this homemade mix for supper. They get 15 ounces or roughly 2 cups. They are 85 and 95 pounds so they are big dogs who need a lot of food. I still feed some kibble in case there are nutrients I am missing in my homemade stuff. But I do find a difference when they get just kibble. They fart a lot, have huge poops and Ollie has big eye boogers.

Aren't they beautiful! They are Bouvier des Flandres. And if anyone is interested in getting one, please contact me. These are not ordinary house pets and I wish someone had told me the truth before I got my beasts. (today blogger is not letting me post pics... check back tomorrow!)