Grain Free Stew

Recently we have noticed that little dogs, like many humans, are experiencing more allergies than ever before. The most common allergy experienced by dogs seems to be grain related. In response to this, here is a modified version of our Chihuahua Stew that removes all grain products such as rice and pasta and replaces them with buckwheat.

You can download a PDF of the recipes for your own reference: Chihuahua-Recipes_Grain-free-stew.pdf.

Before you start

The vegetable mix we usually use is: carrots, celery, pineapple, green beans and broccoli. You can use whatever vegetables you have on hand really, but never use potato, onion or garlic.

Ingredients

2 x 500 gram packets of raw buckwheat

500 gram packet of raw buckwheat.
2 kg minced beef
1 egg, beaten. The egg is optional.
water
1 packet of 250 gram frozen spinach
2 cups of chopped pumpkin or sweet potato (or half and half)
3 biggish carrots, roughly chopped up
2 sticks celery, roughly chopped up
1/4 small pineapple, roughly chopped up
1/4 cup green beans, roughly chopped up
1/4 cup broccoli, roughly chopped up
1 x 125 gram tin of sardines in oil

Cooking Instructions

Place Buckwheat in a big saucepan or heat safe dish and cover with very hot or boiling water. Leave it to soak for an hour.
Chop up the carrots, celery, pineapple, green beans and broccoli roughly, i.e. into big pieces.
Take the carrots, celery, pineapple, green beans and broccoli and put them in a blender with the sardines.

Take the carrots, celery, pineapple, green beans and broccoli and put them in a blender with the sardines.
Blend them together for a very short time until you have a roughly chopped mixture, not a fine paste.

Blend them together for a very short time until you have a roughly chopped mixture, not a fine paste.
Chop pumpkin and sweet potato.
Blend pumpkin and sweet potato together for a very short time until you have a roughly chopped mixture, not a fine paste.
Place the meat, pumpkin, sweet potato and spinach in big pot and barely cover with water. Bring to boil.
If using egg, beat the egg (stir it quickly to break it up into a smooth light yellow mixture) while the rest is coming to boil.
When the meat, pumpkin, sweet potato and spinach are boiling, lower the heat to keep it on a low boil.
If using egg, add in the beaten egg now.
Add the buckwheat and stir to mix well.
Stir as needed until the buckwheat becomes really soft.
Turn off the heat and add the raw vegetable and sardines mixture.
Stir thoroughly until well combined.
Allow to cool before putting into containers for freezing.

Storage

In the fridge, the stew should be OK for two days, but seems to off quickly after that. Store in any suitable freezer container but remember to allow the mixture to stand until cool before refrigerating or freezing. Choose container sizes that will let you store two days' worth for each dog you have.

The stew can easily be kept frozen for a month, but not much more than that. We suggest putting a sticker on the container and label it with the date you prepared the food so you will know if it has been kept for too long. Discard old frozen mixture.

Feeding instructions

You must feed all Chihuahuas twice a day, tiny ones especially.

Give them stew in the morning: 1/2 a cup to 3/4 of a cup depending on the dog's size. Add to this at least a tablespoon of good quality grain free dried dog food (available from any supermarket).
- Optionally, top the stew with a level tablespoon of raw beef and a level tablespoon of chopped, cooked, chicken meat. You can do this with each meal or infrequently: two or three days a week is fine.
- If the dog does not eat their food within half an hour, take away the bowl, cover it with glad wrap and refrigerate it. You can then offer the same dinner again in the evening. They may test you for up to 24 hours before eating, but they will eat it and soon they will love it!
As their second meal of the day, give them 1/2 a cup to 1/3 of a cup of good quality grain free dried dog food (available from any supermarket).

Serving sizes are very much up to your own judgement for how much your dog needs. Never over-feed them.

Please remember that the grain free stew has very little carbohydrates, so some very active little dogs may require a small dot of Manuka honey on top of their stew each day.

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