Dog Food Recipe. 9.25.2021

Rufus pretty much lives on this dog food. The recipe is based on one from "JustFoodForDogs.com" although it has evolved a bit. The main ingredients: 5 pounds chicken thighs. Remove and discard skin from 1/3. Water to cook chicken. 1 pound green beans. 1 pound carrots 1/2 pounds spinach 1 large or 2 small apples 3 cups of rice. I often substutute 1 pound of zucchini for the beans, or 1 pound of squash or pumpkin for the carrots. I also use substitute 1 cup brown rice for the white. Step 1. Cook the chicken thighs in 3 cups of water overnight in slow cooker on "slow". Step 2. Separate the juice from cooked thighs and remove the bones. I actually divide everything in half and make 2 batches, which fits my equipment. Step 3. Cook the brown rice in instant pot on high for 17 min, set 3 min, in 1 1/3 cup of the chicken juice.

Step 4. If using frozen veggies, thoroughly thaw before using. While brown rice is cooking, cut up anything that needs cutting. I keep the apple slices in a vitamin C solution so they don't brown. Step 5. When brown rice is done, combine with the deboned cooked chicken thighs. Step 6. In Instant pot, combine 1/2 of veggies, 1 cup white rice, 1 1/3 cup chicken juice. Cook on "rice" setting. Step 7. When that's done, mix with 1/2 of the chicken / brown rice mix. Put the remaining 1 cup rice, other half of veggies, 1 1/3 cup chicken juice into instant pot and cook same as first batch. Step 8. While that is cooking, mix together the first batch of chicken, rice, veggies.

Step 9. If there is remaining chicken juice, put into a bowl and let Rufus drink it. Even though Imonlynuse 3 cups of water to cook the chicken, I usually get 4 cups back (costco chicken) or 4.5 to 5 cups (Winco chicken). Step 10. Portion the mixture into containers, 1 cup each. That is amount for mature 45 pound Rufus.

add the covers and let cool. Step 11. Now the other half is done, so mix together and portion as for the first half. Step 12. Let cool. Six containers go into fridge (3 days of meals) and the rest into freezer, thawed a day in fridge before using. Total is usually about 8 or 9 days of meals. Step 14. Let Rufus lick the bowl. He's been waiting patiently for that.

I have this down to a pretty good routine. Most frozen veggies come in one pound sizes, which is perfect. Except some stores reduced the size to 12 oz so that's kind of sneaky. I want to give Rufus something that I grow, with each meal. I figure zucchini is a good substitute for green beans, so I have about 10 packages of blanched zucchini slices in the freezer. Also pumpkin or squash seems like a good substitute for carrots, so I use home grown for those. But not at the same time as the zucchini. Today I had fresh green beans from my garden, so a pound of those went into the doggie meals. The apples are usually from my orchard. Originally, I used quart freezer bags but the environmental aspect seemed wasteful, so switched to plastic containers. Plus I'm cheap. Being a child of depression era parents, I started saving "plant butter" containers (ie., margarine for okd people like me), similar size but cubic shape so they take less freezer or fridge space and are actually a bit more durable. The original recipe was all white rice, but Rufus got kind of constipated with that so I substitited 1/3 brown rice which did the trick. Brown rice needs longer cooking but this recipe takes care of that. I've seen recipes that did the whole thing in one slow cooker cooking step, but it came out gloppy and not at all pleasant looking. As it is, this is a (bland) wholesome meal,for anyone who is not vegetarian.