I'm going to try and make a weekly stew for Bella, any one have any great recipes. I found this one.

www.thepetprofessor.com/secArticles/recipes/Dog_Treats_-_Veggie_Beef_Stew.asp

2 cups large TVP chunks
2 bay leaves
2 celery stalks, chopped
4 carrots, cut into small rounds
1 cup cabbage, chopped or shredded
1 can canned tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon basil
1 teaspoon vegetable broth powder
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1/2 teaspoon calcium powder
1/2 teaspoon kelp powder
1/2 tablespoon soy lecithin
water (soy I would leave out)

1 bunch of carrots, peeled and chopped into large pieces
1 bunch of parsley, chopped
1 head of garlic, crushed and peeled
2 pounds ground turkey
1 pound cheap ground beef
4 cups packaged rice
5 cups of water
Cook carrots in 5 cups of water until tender. Place half of the cooked carrots and liquid into a food processor and grind until well chopped. Return carrot mixture to the water. Place garlic and parsley into food processor with a little of the liquid from the carrots and run until the garlic and parsley are well chopped and mixed together, then add back to the water and carrots. Add the meats to the carrots, garlic and parsley and cook until the meat is done. Crumble any large chunks of meat. As the meat is cooking, prepare the rice by the directions given on the package. Once meat mixture is done, add rice and mix well. Leftovers must be refrigerated or frozen.

Thanks, I'm trying to add a home cooked meal with her duck and potato kibble. I found these great canned stews www.merrickpetcare.com/store/canned_dog_food.php
however at a price of 1.98 per can its cheaper in the long run to make a stew for her.

Veal Stew

Combine 1/2 pound stewing veal, 1 cup canned tomatoes, 1 cup water, 1 chicken bouillon cube, 1/2 onion (chopped), parsley and a dash of garlic powder in a pot and simmer.

When meat is tender, remove all the bones.

For dogs, cut the meat in chunks, and mix stew with kibble or some other grain; for cats, grind the stew in blender, adding a tablespoon of wheat germ or 1/2 slice of whole wheat bread.

My roomate in college had a GSD that she made weekly stews for... she never followed any definite recipe, always used the crock pot and just threw stuff in she had on hand ranging from whole chickens, sweet potatoes, potatoes, carrots, celery, etc... whatever was in the fridge... As long as you are changing it up all the time I little variety goes a long way! :)

Bella is lucky to have you for a mommy! :D

i have been making a breakfast "stew" for maxine that includes:
1 cup cooked lentils
1/2 cup cooked millet
1/2 cup cooked buckwheat groats
1 1/2 cups shredded raw sweet potato
2 cups ground raw mixed vegetables
3 lbs ground meat, usually a mixture of lamb and beef... sometimes i use chunks of meat like stewing beef instead of ground.
3 heaping tablespoons of powdered eggshell

i cook the grains and lentils together and then allow them to cool for a bit. then i stir in the sweet potato and veggies and eggshell and then when it is completely cool i add the meat.

i guess this one wont work for those who are squeamish about feeding raw meat... but my maxine loves it!

one thing that i am noticing about most of these recipes is that there is no supplimental calcium. (except for bellalab's recipe). a bit of meat here and there is fine but if this is something you are planning to feed regularly i would definately research the proper calcium/phosphorus ratios for dogfood.

On a similar note to hhomer's recipe... here's the one I make for Ry and Ty to add to their meaty bone meals... this helps me sneak in their supplements and they LOVE it! This was coutesy of moonhippie (Julie) as it's what she feeds her Emma.

Amounts are relative:

2 cans Wild Salmon (bones in for calcium)
boiled sweet potato and carrots- cooked till soft and smashed
Parsley or other lettuces chopped finely in food processor
lentils and split peas- boiled, drained and allowed to cool
1 can crushed pineapple
1 can pumpkin

Sorry guys! Just want to throw a caution in... (can't help myself, I'm the ingredient police!)

I see onions, worcestershire sauce and bullion cubes in some of the recipes. I'd leave all of those out. Onions are toxic to dogs, Worcestershire sauce contains onions, soy, and lots of salt, bullion can contain LOTS of salt and often MSG.

Otherwise all these recipes sound awesome!! LUCKY DOGS!

On a similar note to hhomer's recipe... here's the one I make for Ry and Ty to add to their meaty bone meals... this helps me sneak in their supplements and they LOVE it! This was coutesy of moonhippie (Julie) as it's what she feeds her Emma.

Amounts are relative:

2 cans Wild Salmon (bones in for calcium)
boiled sweet potato and carrots- cooked till soft and smashed
Parsley or other lettuces chopped finely in food processor
lentils and split peas- boiled, drained and allowed to cool
1 can crushed pineapple
1 can pumpkin
Tried a variation of this last night - ran out of time so didn't get the yams in, used only lentils not peas, ground turkey instead of fish. Wellie LOVED it. Still can't get over that dogs like lentils...:)

Well instead of boullion and w. sauce ( see the sneaky way I get out of trying to spell that!) why not use unsalted liguid canned or better yet fresh broth. You can freeze them in ice cube trays but the additional liquid shouldn't be a problem should it?

Just a suggestion

Cricket

well, rereading my recipe i realise that i mistyped my spoons, that should be a heaping teaspoon eggshell. maxine LOVED this one, but i have moved away from the "stew" mentality of dogfood making because even though she loved it, making dogfood does not have to be this time consuming! my thinking on this is that it is hard to get away from the idea of a stew... carbs protien and veggies all mixed together, because we are all so used to feeding dogfood, which is a stew of ingredients of sorts. now that i am much more comfortable with the idea of balancing the diet over time, say the course of a week instead of the a day, i no longer think that a stew of ingredients is necessary. but in praise of the stew, it was certainly much easier for maxine to transition from dogfood to stew to raw meat meals, and it is certainly much easier to recreate a healthy fresh version of dogfood than it is to balance a meal plan over time. having said that, here is the recipe for a stew that my grandmother has fed her dog for years:

two large stock pots. In each one i cook 2 cups of oatmeal in 4 cups of water. remove from heat. Add 8 beaten eggs to each and allow to set. In another bowl, mix 1/2 cup nutritional yeast, a couple of tbsp vitamin C powder, 2 tbsp or so of powdered kelp, 1/2 cup dry alfalfa, dried eggshells from the previous batch, a head of garlic peeled and blend with water and i quart whole milk yogart. add half of this mixture to each pot. add to each pot one cup (measured before cooking) of cooked lentils, 5 lbs ground beef parts, and 2 lbs whole ground chicken. mix with potato masher and spoon into containers. freeze. add to each dinner about a cup of ground vegetables, vitamin E and a squirt of cod liver oil. garnish with a chicken back or turkey neck.

yum!

And for us non-cooks - where do we find these:

lentils
millet
buckwheat groats (and what IS this?)

And for us non-cooks - where do we find these:

lentils
millet
buckwheat groats (and what IS this?)


lol, okay. lentils are with the dried beans and peas. regular supermarket probably wont have millet or buckwheat groats, i bought mine from the bulk bins at the health food store. buckwheat groats are buckwheat with the hull part removed. :)