Brownies in bowl
In the evenings (when we have more time), our dogs eat raw food – the best choice for them nutritionally. But in order to stay sane during other busy times, we also need something quick and easy. Mixes make it easy to quickly prepare healthy meals for your dog. Basically, brands like Essex Cottage Farms and Dr. Harvey’s Canine Health package the dog food ingredients that have a long shelf life into one convenient mix. You add the fresh ingredients.
Our favorite mix makes “brownies”. Of course we don’t feed them the chewy chocolate dessert! We call the quick-and-easy food we make for them “brownies” because the end result looks something like the human dessert and is baked in the same kind of pan.
Brownies in pan
I first was turned on to brownies by a local doggie health-food store. The woman who runs the store is a well-studied dog food expert, and she recommended this food to us (and many of her customers). She also preaches variety, and as fate would have it, there is some variety built in to the brownie recipe.
Dog brownies are also as easy to make as human brownies. (I made my first brownies at age 7 or so in my Easy Bake oven, didn’t you?) You throw them together once a week, bake them, and serve them all week long simply by grabbing a “cake” and putting it in the dog’s bowl.
A pre-packaged mix, like the one we get from Essex Cottage Farms, is the starting point. The most reasonable price we’ve found is at www.doggiefood.com. The recipe is printed on the food mix bag; you can see the recipe in action in our video (bottom of article).
The time commitment is about 1/2 hour per week (prep + cleanup) for one dog, and not much more for additional dogs. The cost is approximately $1.50 per individual dog meal (based on a 50-lb active dog example). I am not a great bargain shopper – you can shave a bit off this – but make sure you keep the ingredients fresh and good quality.
A batch makes about 12 meals and costs about $19 dollars:
- Meat $6
- Veggies $2.50
- Safflower oil $1
- Water $0
- Eggs $0.50
- Sea kelp $1
- Food mix $7
- Cod liver oil $1
We also use brownies when we’re traveling. If the dogs come with us, we need something portable that doesn’t require clean-up. If they stay home, the people caring for them probably don’t want to mess with raw meaty bones and “glop”. Brownies are easy, they’re full of healthy natural ingredients, and the dogs love them!
Veggie Dog Food Mix: just add meat and oil!
The other mix I use is Dr. Harvey’s Canine Health, the “miracle” dog food mix. It takes 8 minutes to cook up a single-meal batch. The good doctor has mixed freeze-dried and dehydrated vegetables and fruits (and healthy grains, if you choose); all you do is add hot water to bring them back to life. You also add meat (cooked or raw) and oil, and that’s it. I guess I’m a sucker for good advertising – the only reason I bought Dr. Harvey’s Canine Health was because the dog on the label looks just like my Sage. But I am slightly annoyed by the word “miracle.” It’s great to have a convenient food to give your dog, but it’s no miracle to feed healthy food and get a healthy dog—any more than it would be a miracle if you got more exercise and so lost weight!
