cooking for the dogs

I cook for my dogs once or twice a month. I don't use a recipe, just throw some stuff that is good for them and that they like together. Sometimes it's because we're running low on their usual food, Natural Balance Vegetarian Formula, and need to fill a meal before we can get to the store and sometimes I just want to spend time cooking and have totally caught up on all my cooking and baking for humans. Today it was a little of both. We definitely have to go buy some dog food after the boys training class tomorrow morning, we're running low. These dogs eat alot!

So here's what I used today:



I boiled the carrots and peas, added the cooked chickpeas, mashed everything with a potato masher, added a heaping spoonful of peanut butter and smaller spoonful of flaxseed meal, and topped it off with some shakes of nutritional yeast. I then let it cool for an hour.

Buster, my little devil and best eater, practices waiting patiently:



Bootsy licks his lips and also waits patiently:



And here they go:





Bootsy has some dry kibble with his becuase we need to maintain somewhat of a routine for him since he's still learning what it's like to be in a real home where you get to eat on a regular basis (it was actually his 4-month anniversary of adoption yesterday!). It was becuase of him that I started cooking for the dogs and transitioned them to a vegan diet. He refused to eat when we brought him home. We tried all kinds of meat kibble and snacks and canned food and he would not do it. In desperation, I cooked him some oatmeal with peas and peanut butter and he ate it up. We tried some vegetarian kibble and he ate that too. So we tried it with the other dogs and Buster loved it! Lilou was uncertain at first, but she is so militant about her food being exactly the same every day. We transitioned her more slowly and now she's fine with it. She's not as into my homecooked stuff as the boys are (which is why I didn't take any pictures of her) but today I put a little bit over her kibble and she ate it up.