At the moment I have six dogs. I have had up to eight dogs in the house at one time, seven of my own and one foster. Nobody would like to live on bread alone and dogs are happier if they get something other than dry dog food. Our dogs eat a salmon based dry dog food and then I make a beef and rice mixture as a supplement. People always seem surprised that I make my own "dog food" and ask how I make it, so I thought I would share. It is super simple. This post isn't going to win any awards for photography, but I thought some photos would make it a little more interesting. This is the only time that you will see a picture of meat on my blog! The recipe is very simple, just ground beef and rice, cooked like you would for yourself, but without any salt or spices.
Start by cooking your ground beef in some veggie oil on medium heat until brown all the way through. Because meat grosses me out, I make sure it is well done.
We buy the cheap Club Pack of ground beef at our local grocery store, about 5 lbs. I don't worry about what the fat content is, 80% lean or 90% lean - the dogs don't care. I get which one is cheaper. I cook half of the meat at one time and freeze the other half.
At the same time that the meat is cooking, I cook the rice. Our dogs seem to digest white rice better than brown, so that is what I use. I normally do 2 cups of rice and 4 cups of water. Cook the rice just like you would for yourself - bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer until the water is absorbed and the rice is soft. You can of course change the amounts to suit the number of dogs that you have. These amounts last our pack of dogs about 5 days, fed twice a day in addition to the dry food.
Once the rice and meat are cooked, I combine them in a large bowl. I normally add a couple cups of water just to stretch it out a little more.
When I serve it, each of our dogs gets a large spoonful of it on top of their dry food. For some of the dogs I add a little warm water to it - we have some picky eaters! If we have any leftoever veggie stock in the fridge, I'll add a splash of that too. There are lots of dog food cookbooks available with recipes that involve multiple ingredients. We have this one. The beef and rice mixture is the most economical for us, is easy to make, and fills up their bellies.
*This recipe is not approved by a veterinarian, endorsed by a celebrity, or promoted as a special diet. It is simply a way for us to feed our large pack of dogs food that we feel relatively good about giving them. And they love it! I am not happy that I buy grain fed beef from factory farmed cows. I would love to be able to buy organic ground beef for them, or better yet, local organic chicken, but we cannot afford that. In the past we have had several of our laying hens processed and used that for dog meat. We had grand plans for raising meat rabbits, but if you have seen my posts about Maizie, you will see how that turned out. (here and here)
Joining in with livingwellspendingless.com for Thrifty Thursday.
