Lifestyle


## Context

I love my dog so much that I want her to live longer. So, I make her food from scratch because I don't trust the stuff they sell in stores. I want this to be cheaper than store-bought food but also healthy. However, maybe the store-bought stuff has all those extra things for a reason, so we actually do half and half to make our lives easier and just in case that factory food does provide some kind of nutrition. We think of it kind of like a multivitamin for our dog.

## Deciding What Kind of Food

My wife and I decided to use chicken thighs because they are very cheap—two dollars per pound (1 kg). Then, we add a vegetable, so an easy and cheap option is frozen vegetables. That way, we can always vary the type of vegetables too. Next, we add brown rice as a base and sort of as a filler. These are the three main ingredients. And because maybe the kibbles add some kind of vitamins or nutrients, we add a little bit of that into the mix as well.

## How Much to Make

This part involved a little math and trial and error. Mishka was eating kibbles before this, which she was still happy with. I just took the amount of kibbles she normally ate and looked up how many calories she consumed daily, which was about 800. This is really low for a 70 lb dog, but I guess huskies have a special metabolism. This was the amount where she wouldn't gain weight. Then, I looked up the calories in chicken thighs and rice and essentially tried to match the calories per day. It ends up looking something like this:

### Per day, about 800 calories:
1. 1 bone-in chicken thigh (210 calories)
2. 1/8 cup of brown rice (100 calories)
3. 1 cup of vegetables (broccoli, carrots, spinach, etc., 100 calories) 
4. 1 cup of her old kibbles (Merrick regular dog kibbles, 400 calories)

## How We Prepare Dog Food for 16 Days

Why 16 days? Well, chicken thighs are usually sold in packs of 2 lbs, and creating 16 days' worth of food is the best balance for us in terms of prep work and ease of storage.

### Ingredient list:
- 8 lbs of chicken thighs (about 16 chicken thighs)
- 2 cups of rice
- Lots of veggies
- 1-gallon storage bags

### Steps to prep ingredients:
(Note: All can be done in parallel)
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Place chicken thighs on baking sheets and put them in the oven for 1-1.5 hours until the meat falls off the bones.
3. Put all frozen veggies in a 12-inch skillet, cover, and cook on medium heat until the veggies are cooked through, about 20-30 minutes.
4. Make brown rice in a rice cooker.

### Steps to prepare and store food:
1. Take four containers—four works for us.
2. Place cooled chicken thighs into the containers evenly and debone them using your hands, tongs, or a fork. Try to shred the chicken. Discard the bones.
3. Evenly distribute the vegetables among the containers.
4. Evenly distribute the rice among the containers.
5. Mix the ingredients together.
6. Transfer the contents of each container into 1-gallon bags, which should create four bags. You can save one container for immediate consumption for the next four days.
7. Flatten and fold the gallon bags in half for ease of storage.
8. Freeze the bags.

(Note: If you're like us, only do three bags and keep one container for the next four days.)

To defrost, place a bag in hot water when you're ready to use it, and transfer it to a container. Each container or bag will last four days.

## Conclusion

Now, we have Mishka's food prepped for the next 16 days.

### Pros:
1. Mishka LOVES the food, and she is so happy.
2. It makes us feel good about ourselves since we're giving Mishka whole food.
3. Maybe it makes her healthier?
4. Way cheaper than store-bought whole food. For reference, one of those bags costs $30+, while all the ingredients we use are about $15 for 16 days.

### Cons:
1. It is a decent amount of work and clean-up.
2. It takes up space in the fridge and freezer.
