The early spring weather continues to frustrate us around here, and we are still hibernating at times! We got another five inches of snow on Friday, followed by ice. It’s not just the dogs that need things to occupy them when this happens. I’m not motivated to start any spring cleaning or painting projects just yet, I need nicer weather for that. One thing I enjoy doing when stuck inside more is cooking.
I haven’t made any homemade meal toppers for the crew since Sheba passed. The week that we lost her I had taken a turkey out of the freezer to roast, in hopes that the fresh meat would entice her to eat more. She didn’t make it through that week, and of course, I still cooked the turkey but my heart just wasn’t into putting together a whole meal for the dogs. I had started that home cooking for Sheba as part of her cancer diet.
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We had meals from the turkey, and Luke and Cricket did get some meat though. I froze the rest of the leftover meat to use later. We’ve been trying some different brands of meal toppers while I haven’t been cooking – Grandma Lucy’s*, The Honest Kitchen*, Dr. Harvey’s*, and we have a new one we plan to be reviewing soon, Coco’s Canine Cuisine. These are all quality foods and the crew loves them.
I’ve missed cooking though, and the inclement weather finally got me in the mood to do more. I not only cooked a homemade meal, I did some baking recently too!
I threw some things together, still loosely based on Sheba’s cancer diet. Those are the ingredients I’m used to, and of course they are all healthy regardless. For this time, I took some of the leftover turkey out of the freezer, and added the following ingredients to it:
- Fresh brussels sprouts (boiled)
- Steel cut oats (cooked)
- Dried parsley (dehydrated from our own garden last summer!)
- A splash of balsamic vinegar (for flavor)
- Cottage cheese (low fat)
- Chopped fresh organic ginger root
While putting this together, I was also making a tuna noodle casserole (can’t forget to feed the Dadz & myself too), so I poured a little of the tuna juice from the can in there as well. We don’t want to leave kitty Samantha out, so she also got a small dish of tuna juice!
We add the sardines right before serving. I do not worry much about the quantities of ingredients here, because we are just topping their kibble with it, so I’m not concerned with balancing things. If I were to cook whole meals, then I would have to be sure it was balanced, so they got all proper vitamins and minerals.
I used to add coconut oil when I made this for Sheba. Luke and Cricket both love coconut oil though, so they get it at other times, straight out of the jar (the truth is I use it as a moisturizer after shaving my legs and share some with them then!). Sheba didn’t have interest in it by itself, so we had to add it to food for her.
These meal toppers are still a hit with the crew, I’m happy to say! I may never have started doing this if not for Sheba’s cancer, and I think it’s a positive thing when something good can come out of something bad. I also hope that by cooking fresh for the current crew, it will keep them healthier in the future. You can’t go wrong with natural and whole ingredients for your pets, and making them happy is definitely the bonus!
Come back tomorrow when I’ll share the Easy Pumpkin Cookie recipe that I made!
Looks like it was a hit! My dogs love when I put my cooking skills to use for them. They just wished it happened more often.
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My crew thinks I should cook for them daily….however, I have to remind them I don’t even cook for Dad every day! 🙂
When you are adding it as a food topper, do you measure it out and reduce the kibble? I’m currently contemplating a home cooked diet for Delilah and I’m curious how it works.
It sure looks like the crew enjoys it!
Yes, we reduce the kibble by whatever amount of topper we put on. The truth is, we kind of guesstimate, because I haven’t figured out calories, though I probably should. They definitely love it.
I have a book by Dr. Karen Becker, have you seen it? “Dr. Becker’s Real Food for Healthy Dogs & Cats”. I haven’t gotten into it too much yet, but I think it gives specific recipes.
I can honestly say – I have never tried to give the Boys brussel sprouts. Will have to give that a try – thanks my friend
You’re welcome! You might be surprised how much they will like them, and cabbage as well.
This article was so freeing. Years ago I decided I needed to feed my felines home made meals. After copious research and large amounts of cash I was ready. My husband still enjoys telling the story of how excited I was to serve our 3 felines, how I placed the food in front of them like an offering. They sniffed the bowls, looked at me as though to say, “Are you kidding me??” lifted their tails, turned their backs and sashayed off, tails twitching with indignation. This “all or nothing” philosophy kept me from trying anything like this again but the idea of making a healthy topping is brilliant. Lately our 14-year old male has had some constipation issues and we now regularly give him organic pumpkin with this soft food and it helps him tremendously. Thanks for the post, I have a renewed enthusiasm for “cooking” for the Tribe of Five.
I’m so glad I could inspire you to try again! I loved your story. I have thought of trying this for Samantha as well, but she is so fussy that I hesitate. I’m afraid she’d hurt my feelings if she rejected my offering! 🙂 But I still might do it. Please let me know if how you make out if you try again – I think with cats starting out slowly might definitely be in order. 🙂
I have a book on cooking for both cats and dogs but I have yet to get too far into it. It is in my plans though!
Hahahahaha. I love the looks on their faces with excitement. That’s so sweet and such a heart-melter. I give Bear the drained off liquid in tuna as well … you’d think he won the lottery!
The only time Sam didn’t get excited about tuna juice was when we tried to use it to get her to take her pills. 🙂
Yummy! Brando’s got a new recipe!
He’s going to love it! 🙂
Those look like yummy meals. I need to make some tuna noodle casserole. We are watching salt intake here and the way I make that has a lot (canned soup has a lot of salt and canned tuna too). But hubby has been cleared to eat a bit more salt so maybe I can make it now. 🙂
I don’t use the canned soup, I make my own homemade white sauce, so it’s healthier. More work though! 🙂
Tallulah and I are packing our bags and moving to your house. Our maybe we should send our mommy your way so you can train her. 😉
Come on up! You can play in the snow too. On second thought, maybe we’ll come down there! 🙂
The pups recently had a bite of Mommy’s canned sardines as well and loved them 😉 We feed raw now and the pups have never been healthier. It’s truly amazing what a change in nutrition can do. Enjoy your meals, Luke & Cricket (& Sam)!
I consider raw, but I think I would have to take that transition slowly (we do try some of the commercial raw toppers though). At least we’re headed in the right direction towards being healthier!
Yes, you definitely are!!
Looks like they all loved it!!!
It sounds so delicious I wish mom would cook for me! But I’m not as patient as your two and I can only dance in circles for so long. Love Dolly
Cricket is pretty impatient too, but she usually gives up after a while (maybe that’s just because of her age, and she’s tired)!
The boys eat Dr. Harvey’s every day so we add the proteins and oils. If they get kibble, I would definitely add a tasty topper like this!
I definitely want to try more of the Dr. Harvey’s, we have only tried the one that we won from you (and they loved it)! It is my plan to drop the kibble altogether at some point, but I think sometimes old habits die hard? So I guess we have to take it a little slowly! 🙂
Poor Shadow can’t handle fish oil at all. I tried the Natural Balance chicken and veggies kibble a few months ago – it was the only one I could find without pro- and prebiotics – but the salmon oil in it just messed her up. (And I only gave her about 2 tablespoons with her regular food per meal to start with.) The food went to the shelter – minus about a half cup – and Chewy refunded my account for the full bag. So, now both girls are on canned food. When I cook a chicken (or turkey breast) at home, I’ll let them have some; but I don’t trust the rotisserie chickens from the grocery store. Ya never know what actual spices are in the “blends”. Maybe I AM paranoid as hubby says, but I’m not taking ANY chances.
I think you’re making the right call on the rotisserie chickens. Of course, my hubby also accuses me of being overly paranoid. 🙂
Yummy…sounds good enough for peeps to nosh on! It’s hard to slough off cabin fever when you’re buried. Hopefully the inevitable spring melt will start soon. ????
More snow on the way this weekend. At least it’s been a little warmer and the current snow is soft enough for the crew to be able to play in. It helps to at least be able to get outside and get some fresh air!
Sheba is watching from the Rainbow Bridge. It’s hard to do the same things when you loose a friend. I found I didn’t want to do things I had done with Sable as it was painful and it seemed like I was betraying her in some way. Time moves on though and pain eases.
I don’t feed Tu-Lei kibble, she has wet food but has additions similar to Luke and Cricket the favourites being Sardines and Coconut Oil. I researched healthy eating for dogs as Sable had epilepsy. The herbs and vegetables help a lot. Hugs xx
I’m so glad that eating healthier is helping Sable with her epilepsy. I really do believe it can make a difference, both long and short term.
That is a whole lot of serious yum!
You have some crazy snow days. Mom cooks my food too. We do like your recipe
Snorts and a woof,
Lily & Edward
We have more snow on the way this weekend. Pretty soon I’m going to be so depressed about being cooped up, I’m not even going to feel like cooking! 🙂
Mmmm….everybuddy got a tasty snack!
I’m so impressed! I have a hard enough time convincing myself to cook for myself, so I don’t cook for the pets–they do get veggies when I cook and they always get bites of turkey when I make a sandwich (and they steal coconut oil when I use it for my skin, too!). I do occasionally make some treats for them, though, and some peanut butter banana treats are on the schedule for this week!
Oh, peanut butter banana, Luke would love those! I never used to cook much either, but wanted to eat healthier so started changing our habits for all of us. But one thing I’ll never get used to, or like, is the fact that cooking from scratch fills my sink with dirty dishes (I have a dishwasher but usually wash bigger stuff and stuff I use all the time by hand).
Once in a while I have to threaten my hubby that if he doesn’t take a turn washing some of those dishes, I’ll stop cooking completely. 🙂
We love toppers! That’s great that you cook for your pups, but Mom just doesn’t have the desire to cook for us all the time. We have a mix of things we eat. It’s healthier than what we used to have. I’m sure you guys love the fresh meals and we all would love tuna juice at my house but Mom won’t have tuna since it is fish, can’t even stand the smell!
I think anything other than plain kibble is definitely an improvement! I like that there are a lot of options for different things these days.
Sorry about Sheba, that’s really tough. The others will definitely benefit from the toppers and I do a lot of the same ones. Never tried Brussels sprouts before though- I will give them a try!
I was very surprised at how much they love the brussels sprouts. Luke even likes to have one all by itself when I’m mixing things up! Cricket did at first too…but once she figured out it was a vegetable, she wanted nothing more to do with it (but when it’s mixed in the meal she loves it).
ooooh the sardines… they scream my name ;o) I love the way with meal toppers… think that’s something we should add to my bowl too :o)