#puploaf

If you follow my blogs, you've probably heard about puploaf. Puploaf was originally invented by me as an easy way to serve a home cooked high quality meal to your dogs without having to worry about using a lot of supplements. I used Honest Kitchen Preference as the base mix for the puploaf to ensure that dogs would be fed high quality vegetables along with all the vitamins and minerals that were needed. Puploaf has been extremely popular and is now a common household term throughout the country and around the world! Honest Kitchen has since come out with a new product called Honest Kitchen Kindly. The Kindly base mix is similar to Preference, but without sweet potatoes. So for pets with allergies to potatoes or pets with cancer that need a low carb diet, the Kindly solves the problem! For those who missed it, here is the puploaf recipe:

2 pounds lean ground meat (beef, bison, turkey, chicken, veal, venison, or a combination)

1/2 pound ground organ meat (hearts, liver, gizzards, kidney)

1/2 - 1 cup Honest Kitchen base mix rehydrated (amount depends on whether you like your diet to be meat heavy)

1/2 cup cooked barley or quinoa - not essential, eliminate if you want your puploaf to be grain-free

3 to 4 eggs

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, place in loaf or square pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes, depending on thickness of the loaf. Add probiotics at the time of serving. Serve at room temperature. Can be refrigerated up to 3 days. Can be frozen for later use. At our house we make it in large batches, 35 pounds at a time.

Anyone who knows me or follows my blogs knows that I often criticize the processed food industries for the horrible ingredients used in human and pet foods. High salt, sugar, and fat in processed food products are killing us all. Food waste products, 4D meats (disabled, dead, decayed, and diseased carcasses), euthanasia solution, sugars, dyes, carcinogenic preservatives and inedible fillers are used routinely to make pet food.

So why do we continue to eat these products and feed them to our pets? Two words: convenience and advertising. The advertising gurus know how to put a good spin on the worst products imaginable. "Made with real beef" could mean as little as 3% of the product is actually beef. "Real beef flavor" means there is no beef, just a chemical additive to give the flavor of beef. Because consumers don't know the definitions of the words used in advertising, they are misled into thinking something is better than it really is.

My response to this dilemma: I refuse to buy processed foods. For our dogs, we are left with feeding raw or home cooked foods. Puploaf is one of our favorite things to make and it's one of their favorite things to eat. I have posted photos of puploaf and everyone keeps asking for the recipe, so here it is: (we make 35 to 40 pounds per batch, so adjust accordingly!)

10 pounds ground beef 85% lean or higher (use 96% if your pet has a history of pancreatitis). Can substitute other meats if needed

6 pounds skinless chicken breast ground (we use Kitchen Aid mixer attachment for grinding). Could use ground pork, veal, turkey, lamb, whatever is best for your pet.

2.5 pounds chicken livers ground

2.5 pounds chicken gizzards ground (up to 1/3 of the meat in the recipe can be organ meats, but they also can be omitted if you can't find them; any organs are fine, can be from any animal)

6 cups dry Honest Kitchen Preference Base mix re-hydrated with 9 cups really hot water; let stand 10 minutes before mixing with meat. If your dog cannot tolerate the potatoes in this base mix, use the Honest Kitchen Kindly instead.

1 dozen eggs

Grain source if desired: 2 cups barley, quinoa, steel cut oats, or brown rice cooked in 3 cups water.

Mix everything together (we use a giant lobster pot and I mix it with my hands because I haven't found a big enough, strong enough spoon; this is when most vegetarian and vegan friends sign off).

Put mixture into loaf pans or lasagna pans (we oil them first so the puploaf doesn't stick).

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes, depending on thickness of loaf. It's done when it doesn't run bloody when cut in the middle.

Can be refrigerated for up to 5 days. Freezes well. You can also make it in cupcake pans for single serving sizes for small dogs. (We call those puppins).

Feed 2 to 3% of body weight daily. So for a 25 pound dog, feed 8 to 12 ounces daily (4 to 6 ounces twice daily), 50 pound dog gets 16 to 24 ounces daily (8 to 12 ounces twice daily).