Ralphie Rough Road

When we adopted our boxer from the Humane Society I wanted to feed her high quality food.  After much research and much frustration, I arrived at the conclusion most of the dog food on the market is junk.  Even some of the “top of the line” brands are full of things I do not want my pet eating.  Much like a lot of the convenience human food on the market today, there is so much in our food that we really should not be ingesting.  After reading the labels of a lot of “store bought” food I changed to cooking most of our food from scratch and I wanted to do the same for our pets.

So back to researching I went and was pleasantly surprised to find many homemade recipes for pet food and treats.  After running a quick cost analysis I found I could make our dog’s food and treats for less than the expensive dry dog food.

Although this requires some of my time and the convenience factor is gone, I find it is worth it for my dog’s health.  Better to spend the extra now and avoid expensive vet bills later. She knows when I am cooking up a big pot of her food.  The house smells amazing.  When I portion it out into her food bowl I know she is thinking “you are the best human ever”.

What is this magic homemade recipe you ask?  Simple & nutritious is the answer.

I buy whatever meat is on sale, lately it has been chicken breast.  Then I pick up a bag of potatoes, some celery, carrots, squash &/or zucchini.

Once every 2 weeks or so I boil a big pot of water, add potatoes and let those cook for about 20 minutes.

While those are boiling I chop up the celery, carrots, squash and zucchini.

After 20 minutes I add the chicken breasts and all of the vegetables and let those cook another 20 minutes.

Next I allow everything to cool down and then portion out her meals in freezer bags.

Done!  She has nutritious and delicious meals for 2 weeks and I feel great about what I am feeding her.  This simple recipe can be adapted to pork or beef and any number of vegetables. If I run out of vegetables I substitute cooked rice to go along with the chicken.

Bonus, the cats enjoy this meal too!

As for homemade treats, I plan to try a few new ones out in the coming months.  For now Josie loves her peanut butter cookie treats.

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup milk

1 cup of flour

1/2 tbsp of baking powder

Combine the peanut butter and milk until smooth, mix in flour and baking powder.  Roll out the dough and cut into various treat sizes.  Bake for 20 minutes at 375.   Cool them and then share this delicious, no preservative treat with your favorite canine friend.

In the end homemade pet food may require a little more time and effort.  It’s not the cheapest alternative but when compared to the pricing of expensive dog food found in many pet stores it is worth the cost and time.

Josie a happy and content dog after a very satisfying meal.

P.S  Our neighbor always jokes and says our dog eats better than he does 🙂  Bonus, you can eat this too, just add some seasoning!