Tweaking a well loved recipe

Dogs are much like people, they do not like to eat the same thing day in and day out....no MATTER what the big companies try to tell you.  Soooooo we have tweaked our dog food recipe.  Here are some of the items we have worked with and found great results!!!

Since we live at the lake and my husband loves to fish, we have started adding fish to the food, the dogs love it and it keeps our cost even lower. 

We have also experimented with replacing the pearl barley (not always easy to find) with rice (found very inexpensively at Sam's Club).

Other replacements instead soy sauce (which can have a lot of sodium), we use a marinate.  This is also purchased at Sam's Club in a large bottle that will make at least a couple of batches.

Since our dog population has grown (will follow with that story), we are now making in much larger batches so below, you will see possible exchanges.  For the sake of the readers, I will not show the increased qualities but understand that this recipe is EASILY doubled/tripled or more!

Ingredients

• 2 lbs carrots
• 2 lbs potatoes
• 1/2 bunch celery 
• substitute/or in addition
•  zucchini
• green beans (institutional size cans @ Sam's)
• corn (institutional size cans @ Sam's)
• 3 lbs of cheap beef (hamburger, mince, chuck or the like) 
• substitute/or in addition
• fish
• ham
• 1/4 cup soy sauce 
• Substitute/or in addition
• Marinates
• Ham Broth (can be salty)
• Gravy [homemade (less salty)/or pouches]
• 3 -4 chicken stock cubes (optional)
• 4-4 1/2 quarts water (as needed)
• 1 lb of dried pearl barley 
• Substitute
• Rice
• Pinto Beans (I know what you are thinking but does not seem to be any worse than normal!) 

 

Directions

1. Start with a LARGE stock pot.
2. Chop or slice the carrots, potatoes, celery or substitutes and meat (other than minced meat) to a size that suits your dog.
3. Add the above ingredients to the pot.
4. Add the soy sauce/marinate and stock cubes to the pot.
5. Add the water to the pot. You may need to reduce or increase (less likely) the amount of water. It will depend on the moisture in the vegetables and meat.
6. Put the pot on the stove top, over a high heat.
7. Let it cook for about one hour.
8. Then -- assuming the mixture has come to a boil -- add the barley. Don't add the barley until the boil happens (it doesn't have to be a big rolling boil).  If using rice or beans, they can be cooked separately and added.
9. After adding the barley, cook for another 30-35 minutes (depending on what the barley package suggests.
10. This recipe really holds its heat, so let it cool for at least four hours before serving. Better still, make the recipe in the morning (weekends are good), then dish up the servings for the evening meal and let them cool all day.
11. Store in the refrigerator/or freezer after completely cooled.  I tried canning and was not "comfortable" with the outcome!  We purchased several containers (5 for $4 as the dollar store) and store our large batches in the freezer.  Keeping about 3 days worth at a time in the refrigerator.  
12. If you are purchasing containers, make sure you get all same BRAND, so that all lids are interchangeable (lesson learned the hard way).

Just so you get an idea of how much we increase it and our usage, below is the "pot" of one batch!!