Wednesday 3 September 2014

Doggie Dinners

During our holiday in Norfolk I ventured to the town of Sherringham one day, to visit the local market there and spotted this book for sale on one of the stalls.



Now I know that I'm not supposed to be buying any more books this year, but this isn't a reading book, it's more practical than that, and the little fellow on the cover and the price tag of £3, meant that it was hard for me to resist it.

A while back, our puppy, who is now no longer a puppy but a discerning 2 year old, became very picky about what food she would eat.  We tried no amount of different foods, dry, tinned, raw, cooked, but she was very hard to please.  In the end I started to cook up meat and vegetables for her a couple of times a week and am still doing so to this day.  She is slightly less picky now, but still doesn't really like dry foods, which we find we have to mix in with other foods to get her to eat them.

In an attempt to give her a bit more variety, I bought this book, which appears to have lots of different recipes for meals, snacks, biscuits and treats.  The food in many of the recipes is better than we would eat ourselves most of the time.    The doggy birthday cake, for example, sounds much like a cottage/shepherds pie, made with 1lb of minced beef and a recipe for beefy crunchy snacks made from 1lb of lean beef slowly cooked and dried in the oven over 3 hours sounded like quite an expensive snack.  They do sound good though, but I might just want to eat them myself.

Although I might not be cooking up lean beef, lamb and chicken for the dog just yet, I may substitute some of the ingredients for lamb/beef/pork liver, heart or kidney which I currently use regularly.

It's a great little book though and I will definitely be trying some of the recipes.  I particularly like one for snacks made using sausagemeat, breadcrumbs, milk and golden syrup and might give this a try, plus there's a great recipe for a glossy coat containing hard boiled eggs, fruit, carrots and unsalted chicken stock.

There are also lots of fish recipes, low fat recipes, recipes for when your dog is unwell or is constipated (usually, in our experience, after eating something found in the park, such as a balloon!), plus there's also a gluten free crunchy cure for wind.  A definite must.

A great little book called Cooking for Your Dog by Ingeborg Pils, published by Parragon.

4 comments:

  1. I like the sound of the cures - is there one for bad breath ? !

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    1. I think there's one for biscuits for healthy teeth which are coated with shelled sunflower seeds.

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  2. Looks like a good little book. My dog loves anything, but i am careful and give her healthy wholefoods only.

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    1. Most of the recipes are using wholewheat flour or brown rice and vegetables. They seem very healthy.

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