15 Dollar/Week Dog Food

greengirl512's Note:

My recipe I'm developing for my little darlings to see if we can affordably cook for them instead of having to worry about them eating rat poison. Adding up the cost of all ingredients, it adds up to around 15.00/week, which is the most I can afford to spend! This makes enough to keep 2 55 pound dogs happy and fed for a week. You still need a supplement, one with a good amount of calcium and phosporus and zinc, but I did spend hours amending this recipe to make it match a 55 lb dog's nutritional needs-I just couldnt get enough zinc, calcium or phosphorus! I left a little wiggle room as far as calories-around 300 calories/day extra for treats, dog friendly table scraps, etc. My dogs adore this! It's important to use soybean oil or (even better) safflower oil, as this oil contains a high amount of linoleic acid, which dogs need.

• Total Time: 1 hrs 30 mins
• Prep Time: 1 hrs 30 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 14

• 1 ½ cups dried black beans
• 1 ½ cups dried red kidney beans
• 1 (16 ounce) can sweet potatoes
• 3 cups dry lentils
• 1 lb ground turkey
• 2 lbs chicken gizzards
• 2 ½ cups brown rice
• 2 ½ cups white rice
• 2 cups oats
• 1 lb frozen spinach
• ½ lb frozen carrots
• ½ lb frozen peas
• 2 cups blackstrap molasses
• 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
• ¼ cup flax seed
• 3 cups powdered milk
• 1 banana
• ¼ cup soybean oil

Directions:

1. Cook the beans and the rice until they are nice and soft. For this step, I usually use a slowcooker-add beans, rice, and enough water to cook(this filled up mine completely, so I really didn't bother to measure.) No soaking necessary, just let them cook for about 4-5 hours.
2. Mince chicken gizzards. Again, gadgets make life easy here-I recommend a food processor.
3. Pour soybean oil into a very large stockpan. Add gizzards and turkey. Simmer until meat is cooked.
4. Add lentils, oats, approximately 4 cups water(I eyeball this also), and simmer until lentils are soft, about 15 minutes.
5. Add everything else, simmer til veggies are heated through.
6. Mix beans and rice with meat and vegetable mixture, put in large container to go in fridge or divide into smaller portions and freeze some for later.

Reviews

[New England Clam Chowda]

Well, you certainly have an interesting recipe! I have to agree 100% with the previous poster, try for a more simplified recipe. I don't want to rain on your parade, but.... I am concerned about the fat content (I suspect it's the chicken gizzards, which should not be fed consistently in high quantities). Also, the carbs and fiber are quite high. Beans are good, but in moderation; they are not the easiest to digest and can cause the stomach to rumble (ever eat too much chili?) In the "Nutrition Facts", where is all that sodium coming from? Dogs should have very little, if any. The sugars are also a little high but that could be the combination of the sweet potatoes, rice & molasses. The potassium ratio is incredibly high. You might want to tweak this again, using no more than half the quantity of black beans, kidney beans, lentils and considering all but eleminating the molasses. I'm assuming by 'oats' you mean oatmeal. I would think the 2 cups is more than enough fiber. Too many beans/lentils can lead to kidney problems as well as either the runs or constipation. Did you try figuring in kelp, wheat germ, brewers yeast, canned pumpkin (not the pie kind, the vegetable), a small amount of beef liver (equal to no more than 1-2 T per day), egg(s), adding a few spoonfuls of plain, low-fat yogurt or a low/non-fat, unsalted cottage cheese when serving? Consider working up 4 recipes, each with about 1/3 the number of ingredients. Feed 2 meals per day and over a 2-day period, serve one of each of the 4 recipes. Variety is the key, not quantity all at once. You can even make up a quick fifth meal of scrambled eggs (make in microwave & you need no fat). After cooking the eggs, put in their bowl & add a cut up piece of whole wheat or multi-grain broken into bit-size pieces, add a few tablespoons of no/low fat cottage cheese, top with grated apple (or unsweetened applesauce) and perhaps a tablespoon of a grated hard cheese (parmesan, romano, etc). Can substitute apple with a seasonal fruit: blueberries, banana, strawberry. If you mix everything well, your little friends should clean their bowls. (I think you have more than enough phosporus and possibly zinc with all that powdered milk. You might want to recheck both your source of nutritional/mineral/trace element requirements and your calculations. Too much of something is just as bad, if not worse, than not enough.) Good luck.

[Chef #863906]

As humans we see a multitude of ingredients and think "GREAT! MUST TASTE GREAT!" Stop thinking like a human when you feed your dogs. Dogs do not digest different food the way us humans do. They have a MUCH shorter intestine and meats, veggies, fruits etc digest differently. Of course any dog would eat this and would be happy but be simplictic when feeding your dogs. Minimize the items and offer them variety over a period of time rather than all at once.