Wednesday-Dog Food Day

Today was dog food day.  Yes, my dog Max does not eat dog food.  He eats people food as he is allgeric to additives in dog food.  Max is 7, so I have been doing this for a long time.  When he was a puppy, he started ripping his fur out.  I took him to the Vet and she said that her guess was that he was allergic to the additives in dog food.  Now I was feeding him a very good brand of dog food that we had discovered when our Canyon was having trouble with hot spots.  I was given two options.  Pay $900 for tests or go home and make dog food and see if it went away.  Her recommendation was rabbit, duck or turkey.  She said our beef and chicken are also loaded with "additives."  Neither of us are hunters, so rabbit was out.  I was not going to buy duck for Max, so turkey it was.  I already had a lot of dog food cookbooks and of course gathered more.  I now have it down to a 28 day cycle.  Unless we have appropriate leftovers, I make what I call 28 meatballs for Max at a time.  It is a tremendous amount of product so I do it when Jim can help.
This recipe for 28 days is for a 70 pound dog.
6# ground turkey
4 c rice. ( I use Japanese rice called Rosas)
4 cans of diced tomatoes
4 cans of green beans
4 cans of sardines
4 # of mixed veg.
You can't just buy mixed veg.  Max can not tolerate corn and you can't give them onions.  Most mixed vegtables in the frozen food section contain onions.  Also watch out for garlic.  Our favorite for him is California blend.  We used to use Normandy blend at Costco, but we had to do too much chopping.  Here CA blend is only available at Shoppers.  Sometimes if I am in a hurry, I just buy in separate bags, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, squash, and greenbeans.  I now use frozen to save money.  I used to do all fresh.  Do you know that the first time I used frozen veg, he looked at me like I was a killer.  I told him get over it, a lot of dogs are eating crappy dog food from China that is on sale that week in the market.
Anyway we have it down to a science as it is the only meal that I make over and over and I promise not to mention it again.
Today we went to the movies to see It's Complicated.  It was great.  We came home and starteed making dog food.  Jim opened up a bottle of wine to make it less stressful.  Huge pots, lots of stirring and packaging is like being on an assembly line in a factory.  Plus the cleanup!  We got the first batch done by 6:10 PM.  Max likes to eat at exactly 5:30PM.  I fed him from the first batch and when he gets his "meatball"  I add fruit and yoghurt.  Tonight he had canned peaches.  Mostly he eats apples, but his favorite is blueberries. 
I have been critized for doing all this for Max.  "He eats better than most children."  But I once figured that I feed my dog for $1.25 a day.  We buy most of it at Costco.  Although Costco, if you are listening, I do not like your latest vendor for ground turkey.  It has something that makes it wetter and we have to strain the mixture before adding it to the rice.
So what did the people do for dinner?  We went to Bertucci's.  I don't know if you have a Bertucci's in your area, but it is really, really good pizza.