Monthly Archives: March 2012

Beef Doganoff

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Meaty Beef Stroganoff for Dogs
Rhymes with Beef Stroganoff, but no mushrooms or sour cream in this dish as it’s Fido Friendly!

This is such a basic and easy pasta dish for your dog. I was cooking ground beef for spaghetti sauce, so I kept some of the cooked ground beef and noodles aside.

I skipped the mushrooms and dairy and replaced them with hearty and healthier ingredients for Hank and Miko. Ground beefy goodness, whole wheat egg noodle pasta, topped with shredded egg and gravy. It took very little time to make and if I liked eggs I might be tempted to try it. I know, it’s weird, but to me eggs are a triple threat: Taste + Texture + Smell = No Thanks. I do, however, look at egg dishes like omelettes and sunny side up alongside some homefries and think that they look mahvelous…so I don’t mind cooking them for The Others.

INGREDIENTS: (serves two big dogs, modify as you see fit!)
1 Cup of cooked Ground beef
2 Cups of Cooked Pasta (whole wheat, egg noodles or other)
1 hard boiled egg
1 cup of beef stock (without onions, preferably low-sodium)
2 TBS cornstarch

Heat the beef stock in a saucepan over medium heat and whisk in the cornstarch until it thickens, then remove from heat. This makes a simple “slurry” (shout out to Laura Ducharme for adding this to my lexicon!) In Australia, slurry is slang for a promiscuous woman. But here in North America, slurry is basically a suspension of solid particles in a liquid. Usually you add it to a sauce or what not to thicken it. But for this dish, I’m using it as a “cheat’s gravy” – something fast and easy for The Boys.

Place your pasta in bowls and top with ground beef. Shred the egg over top with a grater. Drizzle the beef slurry generously over top of the pasta dishes.

In a couple of weeks I will be posting about our season finale – A Dogtoberfest extravaganza down at Steam Whistle Brewery, so stay tuned!

Cheers my friends,
Jen

I’m neither a vet nor an animal nutritionist.  This recipe is not meant to replace a proper and balanced diet for your dog.  You should to speak to your own vet before trying new recipes or feeding any home cooked foods to your dog.

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Super Salmon Supper, only $1.25

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Would you believe that this from scratch salmon dinner cost only $1.25 to make?? Well, I pinky swear that it’s true.

Our latest episode of Fido & Wine, Dog Dinners on a Dime, set out to bust the myth that it’s too expensive to home cook for your dog. My team (Hey-yo Melissa Auger!) went on a mission to pet stores and grocery stores in our area and calculated the average cost of a half a can of wet food and a cup of kibble. (The amount of food each of my labs would need to eat twice per day). The processed meal averaged out at $1.45, so it was a challenge to create some divine dinners with wow factor for less than this!

In the first part of our episode, Kim Clancy of the popular website frugalshopper.ca shared cost saving tips with our hostess with the mostest, Laura Ducharme. She had a lot of great suggestions, and the one that worked really well for us in this case was to check the flyers for sales. We found a great deal on frozen wild salmon filets – $4 bucks each. Portioned into four, and served with two sides – this dinner deal rang in at even less than the average processed meal. TAKE THAT PROCESSED FOOD! Fresh, wild salmon, pot barley (a better carb for dogs than rice), and vibrant green peas that we always have kicking around – topped with dollop of plain yogurt. I know a lot of people say that salmon is too expensive to eat often, and yes, the unfrozen, thick ruby beauties at the seafood counter are more appealing and cost more than these – but you can turn the less expensive frozen filets into a beautiful meal – just look at the picture! The trick, which I learned while developing this recipe, is to dry the bejeezus out of the filet first with some paper towels. You will get a mushy result if you simply thaw and broil, but a dry fish to roast will give you a nice crust on it like you see in the picture.

CLICK HERE FOR SALMON SUPPER RECIPE & MORE DINNERS ON A DIME.

The other dinner Laura Pants will show you in tomorrow night’s episode is a Fluffy French Omelette – only 97 CENTS!! KA-CHING – get cooking for your dog already – don’t let me hear you say it’s too expensive!! Ok, sure, if you’re feeding cheap kibble only, it’s going to be cheaper than these meals…But if you’re buying even a medium priced kibble and mixing with cans or feeding a can as a meal – you will not be breaking your bank with these dinners! Real food for your dog IS an option.

ShamBowWow Treats

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St. Patrick’s day is almost upon us, and for once I had the foresight to buy me a Shamrock cookie cutter! We’re getting ready to film our “Luck of the Irish” episode with an amazing Irish character, champion oyster shucker and owner of the hot pub/restaurant The Ceili Cottage, Patrick McMurray. I produced the first season of The Heat With Mark McEwan (now host of Top Chef Canada) and Patrick was shucking away in one of our episodes and he just charmed the livin’ daylights out of the crowd, so Laura and I are super pumped! He’s going to make an Irish stew that people and their dogs are going to go crazy for.

I’ve got my Irish on (not up), so I thought it might be fun to make a green treat for My Dog’s Breakfast. I don’t like using food coloring, so I used two of nature’s emerald beauties to naturally color them. Spinach and Peas!! They turned out well, and they actually taste like those roasted pea snacks. The dogs love them (surprise, surprise).

Happy St. Patty’s day and I leave you with my favourite Irish saying:

“Don’t give cherries to pigs or advice to fools.”


INGREDIENTS:
1 cup of whole wheat flour
I cup of cooked peas (from frozen, they’re greener than the canned ones)
1 cup of spinach
1/4 cup canola oil
1 egg
tsp sea salt

Optional – 1 additional egg for egg wash

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a big bowl, add the cup of flour and tsp of sea salt.

Now, puree a cup of peas and a cup of spinach with the canola oil. If you don’t have a power tool – get one. Ok, if you don’t, just mash your peas and chop chop chop that spinach like a chump. Er, champ!

Add the green mixture to the flour, and crack in your egg on top. Blend together until dough forms – it will be a damp dough. Now, I like to wrap in parchment paper and put in the fridge to chill for about 20 minutes, but you don’t have to.

Look at how beautiful this emerald dough is!!

Now, sprinkle dough with flour and roll out to about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. You don’t want them too thin or they will turn brown on the edges in the oven. Use your shamrock cookie cutter to cut out your shapes, or use your wily ways with a knife to make them look like a shamrock. OR…you can make circles or squares, they’re still gonna be green and be festive for St. Patty’s day.

*Optional – lightly beat an egg and brush it on top of the treats to make them glossy. You don’t have to do the egg wash, they’ll still look great without it.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

“Sláinte!” (Cheers!)


* Please note that I’m neither a vet nor an animal nutritionist, so it’s advisable to consult with your own authority when trying new foods, and also to ensure that your dog’s home cooked diet is balanced & includes all of the nutrients that are necessary for your dog’s health.