Tastes Like Food

I am now a proud owner of a puppy: a 10 month old Yellow Lab (yeay!). Since I care so much about food, I figure my pooch must too. We started out feeding her some regular dry kibble. Then after a little research and reading, I decided I’d start mixing in some fresh cooked food with her dry food. The doggie’s first batch of food is a mix of lamb, veggies and rice. Here’s what I did:

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground lamb
• 2 cups chopped carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley (stems included)
• 2 cups beef broth
• 2 cups rice (uncooked)

Directions:

1. Cook rice per directions
2. Brown ground lamb in a small amount of olive oil
3. When the ground lamb is most-of-the-way through cooking, add carrots and beef stock.
4. Cook until meat is done.
5. Turn off heat, add parsley and cooked rice.

It was super easy and relatively inexpensive. That night, I cut her normal dinner to about 2/3 it’s usual size and mixed in a cup of the warm Lamb & Rice Dinner — Marla (the dog) loved the new-and-improved dinner! She went back twice to her food bowl to lick the empty dish a few times more. I put some in the fridge to be added to more of her dinners, and froze about 2/3 of the rice and lamb meal. In the future, I’ll add different vegetables, and switch to brown rice for more nutrition. This is people-grade food, so I can eat it too, though it seemed a little funny… (If you do this at home, don’t use onions or garlic — they’re not good for dogs.)