Dark Chocolate Brownies

The brownies I used to bake had coconut shreds and gf rolled oats which created a very nice cake texture. Skipping the saturated fat level of the coconut, I decided to use cashews and gf rolled oats.

Ingredients:

1 cup raw cashew pieces

3 cups gf rolled oats

2 cups water

2 medium to large bananas

6 pitted dates

4 tbls cocoa powder

1/2 tsp salt

Grapeseed or olive oil to coat the 2.2 liter glass pan

Prep:

Coarse (or fine) grind the cashews with 1 cup of the oats. Oats in first helps keep it from caking too much. I use the Vita-Mix with the dry blender container for this.

Add that to the rest of the oats in a medium mixing bowl. Stir in the cocoa powder and salt until the mix is evenly coated.

In the same blender container, blend the water, bananas, and dates on high. Then blend a bit more at a lower speed to chop the dates better. You can tell the dates aren’t done if you turn the blender off and it sounds like it’s still chunking through something as the blades come to a stop. The dry Vita-Mix blender container isn’t the best tool for this part, but it’s good enough and doesn’t dirty a second blender container.

Pour into the mixing bowl and stir. Pour this into the greased glass pan.

Bake:

Preheat oven to 375 F

Bake for 1 hour with optional turn of the pan at 30 minutes. At the 1 hour mark, turn off the oven and leave it closed until you’re ready to eat and/or put in the fridge. 

Thoughts:

The oats and the banana are binders. No need for egg or flax. Banana also helps remove any chalky texture from the cocoa powder. That’s especially helpful if you’re making pudding with silken tofu, banana, cocoa powder, and a sweetener.

The brownies came out a touch dry. The oats absorb a lot of liquid while they cook. There are a few ways to fix that. One is easy - add more water. The other is to find the best balance between gf rolled oats and cashews. A third option is to add mini chocolate chips. I think my next batch will have 1 1/2 cups of cashews to 2 1/2 cups of oats. I also want to try making a nut-free version using raw sunflower seeds.

These hold together best when cold. They held together better warm than when I made them with coconut shreds.

Egg White Bites (Plus)

I’ve been altering my intake of food for the past 18 months in an effort to be on a more healthy path. So far, I’ve lost the 15 or so pandemic pounds plus a few more that fluctuate a bit. (This is really a recipe post, but I wanted to talk a little about this food journey too.)

First, I swapped foods I was eating for similar ones that had less fat, or less carbs, or less sugars, or a combination thereof. Did this until I was happy with the end result, which meant giving away some food that was a taste bridge too far.

Second, I added regular exercise. Semi-regular, regular exercise. My body was not always cooperative. Figured out a few things, like the pain in my knees was controllable by standing on foot wakers to make my foot muscles unclench. Amazing how connected everything is.

Third, even though I was losing weight, despite the plateaus that lasted 2 months or so, my bloodwork had one concerning value. I did a little research and have adopted slow eating. This basically means fully eating what’s in my mouth before getting more food on my fork or spoon. Remains to be seen if this helps with that one value. It definitely helped me get past the latest plateau.

And now for the recipe - egg whites are not a normal part of my diet, but I’ve had to make some different choices for the next 4-6 months.

Egg White Bites (short version)

Preheat oven at 350 F

1 32 oz carton of egg whites, 7-8 cloves of garlic, spinach, optional Beyond Beef, salt and pepper to taste

Put it all in a blender and rev that up to half speed. Let it blend while you prep the muffin tins.

Line a muffin tin (or two) with paper baking cups. Pour the blender mix into the paper baking cups. Fill about 2/3rds, maybe a little more. This should make 24 large bites. Bake for 40 minutes. The egg whites will sink and the spinach will rise, so these will be white on the bottom half and green on top. Let cool, stick them in the fridge to get them cold, then try to peel off the paper cup. It’ll peel easier when cold, but it still might be a bear.

The Baking Debate

I’ve thought about opening a bakery as a retirement business. A friend recommended I open one now so that it’s established by the time I retire - not that far distant of a future. The tricky bit to that idea is that I’ve already got a lot of irons in the fire. Adding a fairly major enterprise seems exhausting.

Another option is to create a cookbook. I originally started posting my recipes here as an alternative to creating a cookbook. Then I hit on a recipe I didn’t want to share - which surprised me. Apparently there is a part of me who really wants to be a chef (dessert chef most likely - major sweet tooth).

If I create a cookbook, I would start with the minimalist recipes - those that use very few kitchen appliances and/or very few ingredients. Most likely it would be self-published as I don’t have a baking platform to go the traditional route.

As things stand, I’ve opted to hide the dessert recipes here until I figure out what I’m doing next. Hopefully that won’t take long.

Carrot Ginger Soup - Personal Size

Feeling a bit under the weather today, so I decided to make a bowl of soup. I love having a Vita-Mix for this as it will make the ingredients smooth and cook the soup at the same time. I wasn’t planning on adding cashews but decided to in order to make the soup creamier. The amount of cashews can be adjusted to achieve the desired consistency or add more water as needed. Leave the cashews out for a nut-free version - you can add a little milk of your choice instead if desired.

13 Baby Carrots

2/3 cup Water

1/3 cup raw, unsalted Cashews

1/2 slice Onion

1 tsp chopped Ginger

1 tsp chopped Garlic

Salt and Pepper to taste

Blend these ingredients until smooth. With a Vita-Mix, blend on high for 3 minutes to cook the soup. Without a Vita-Mix, blend as best as possible and heat in a sauce pan.

Cashew Cream Sauce - Salad Dressing Base

I wanted both cashew cream sauce and salad dressing last night, so I made a base that could go either way. Starting with this cashew cream sauce recipe, I put it all together except for the nutritional yeast. Also didn’t add any water but you may need to depending on how well everything is blending together.

For the dressing, I separated 1/2 cup of the base and added 1/2 cup vinegar. With that much vinegar on top of the lemon juice, it packs a punch. I like it that way. You may need to adjust accordingly. Perhaps a 1/3 vinegar to 2/3 base combination.

I finished off the cream sauce with water and nutritional yeast and poured that into a container. After I rinsed out the blender, I poured in the dressing mixture and blended in 1/2 banana.

And that’s it. Pasta sauce and salad dressing done at the same time. This dressing - without any avocado - lasts 3-4 weeks.

Cashew Cream Sauce - Updated

This recipe is best if you have a mega-blender or a food processor. It can probably be done in a regular blender though you may get a more chunky sauce.

I’ve made several versions and posted some here. Today’s is my favorite, by far. Ingredient list first and then I’ll walk through the order that may be easiest.

Ingredients:

Juice of 1 Lemon

1 Zucchini - peeled and chopped

1-2 Carrots - peeled and chopped - yellow preferred but not required

1/3 medium yellow Onion

3-4 cloves Garlic

3 oz raw, unsalted Cashews

3/4 cup Nutritional Yeast

Salt & Black Pepper to taste (1/4 tsp @ as a suggestion)

Water as needed

If you’re using a regular blender, soak the cashews in water overnight so they soften for easier blending. Drain before adding them to the recipe. If your carrots are on the small side, then use two. Yellow carrots are preferred simply due to the effect on the final color of the sauce.

Put the lemon juice in first, then add the zucchini. If you notice lemon seeds have jumped into your blender, try to fish them out before adding the zucchini. Blend on low so the zucchini won’t hop away from the blades. It doesn’t have to be blended completely yet. Add a little water to help - probably less than 1/8 cup. 

Add the carrots, blend a little more, but this time work up to high briefly. Add the onion and garlic, salt and pepper. Blend all of this on high until it’s smooth. It should be fairly thin.

Add the cashews and the nutritional yeast. Work up to high slowly when blending so the yeast gets pulled into the mixture instead of decorating the inside of the lid. Blend on high until smooth.

At any point that it seems this will not blend nicely, try a tamper or add a little water.

If it’s too thin at the end, add more cashews and/or nutritional yeast. If it’s too thick, add more water or lemon juice.

Salad Dressing Basics

I’ve tinkered with the recipes a few times now and have found what works for me. The base of the dressing is a vinegar, an oil in the form of avocado and/or nuts, an optional sweetener (banana, dates), and water to achieve the desired consistency. The additions can vary pretty widely.

For some dressings, the vinegar/water measurements are: 1/2 cup vinegar, 1 cup water. When the mixture is thicker, then the measurements become: 1 cup vinegar, 2 cups water - especially if you have avocado, nuts, and banana in the recipe. Some vinegars may overwhelm the flavors if there’s more than a 1/2 cup. Lemon juice could be used instead of a vinegar as well.

In general the water is twice the vinegar.

Base:

1/2 cup Vinegar

1 cup Water

1/2 cup raw, unsalted Nuts (cashews, walnuts, etc) - optional

1 Avocado

1 Banana - optional

Equipment choices and preparation: If you have a Vita-Mix, food processor, or equivalent, then you can thoroughly blend in most ingredients. If you’re using a standard blender, some ingredients would work better with a little prep. Nuts may need to be soaked overnight to soften them for blending. Carrots will most likely make a chunkier dressing, but it’s not the end of the world. People often put carrots on salad. Onion, garlic, and harder veggies like carrots may need to be chopped before being added to the blender.

For the flavor profile, it depends on what you wish. I like to add zucchini and carrots to give it more depth of flavor and add more veggies to my day.

Zesty dressing:

1 peeled Zucchini

2 peeled Carrots

2 tsp chopped Garlic or 3-4 cloves Garlic

1/4 yellow Onion

1/2 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Pepper

Mustard dressing:

(I’ve made this with Amy’s German mustard but not yet with the mustard seed)

4-5 tbl prepared Mustard or 1-2 tbl ground Mustard Seed

1 Banana (extra sweetener for the Honey Mustard idea)

Salt and Pepper to taste - optional

Balsamic dressing:

(contains sulfites)

For this dressing, I added nuts, avocado, and banana so the base had 1 cup Vinegar and 2 cups Water

2 tsp chopped Garlic or 3-4 cloves Garlic

Salt and Pepper to taste - optional

Fruit dressing:

(I haven’t tried this yet, but here are my thoughts of what this would look like)

5-6 oz Fruit - could be frozen or fresh

Banana or Apple to taste - depending on the sour/sweet aspect of the fruit

Salt and Pepper to taste - optional

Because the oil is also a thickener, these generally don’t separate. The fruit one might because some fruits like to do that.

These dressings last about 1 week.

Mustard Salad Dressing

1 Avocado

2 Bananas

½ cup Apple Cider Vinegar

1 ½ cups Water

4-5 tbl Amy’s German Mustard (or other mustard you like)

4 oz (~1 cup) raw Cashews

Blend

The Amy’s mustard has apple cider vinegar, so it should be safe if you can do ACV. If not, maybe use rice vinegar and skip the prepared mustards. Instead add ground mustard to taste - maybe 1-2 tbl. You might also need some salt and pepper if you go the ground mustard route.

Salad Dressing

I played with two different versions of a salad dressing. The first one was probably too heavy on the vinegar and it contained oil. When poured on salad, the vinegar taste was diminished enough to be quite enjoyable. If I make that particular one again, I’ll cut the amount of vinegar in half and leave out the oil.

The second recipe came from the desire to play with a new acquisition - ginger juice - and an avocado that was at the use it or lose it stage.

Nut Free: Because both the avocado and the cashews add the creamy consistency, the cashews are optional. Cut back on the initial amount of water and then add as needed for the desired consistency.

Ingredients for recipe 1

1 cup ACV

1/4 cup Olive Oil

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Pepper

2 very small Zucchini

2 yellow Carrots

1 small Avocado

2 tsp chopped Garlic

1/4 yellow Onion

1/2 cup raw, unsalted Cashews

Water to achieve desired consistency

Ingredients for recipe 2

1/2 cup ACV

1 cup Water (more later if needed to achieve desired consistency)

1/2 cup raw, unsalted Cashews

1/2 tsp Salt (I added a little bit more at the end to brighten the flavor)

1/2 tsp Pepper

1 Avocado

1/2 tbl chopped Garlic

2 tbl Ginger Juice (or other desired flavoring)

Put everything in the blender and blend on high until creamy. This may require adding more water to allow the blender to keep going strong. I used the dry container on the Vita-Mix to help get the cashews well macerated. If your blender is not up to macerating nuts, I suggest soaking them in water or ACV to soften them up first.

I’m a big fan of strong flavors. If mild is more your style, cut the amount of ginger juice down to 1 tablespoon. Once this is on salad though, it should lose more of the flavor’s strength. 

This lasts roughly 1 week in the fridge.

Carrot Hot Dogs

Just heard about these Carrot Dogs and they look good.

https://www.peta.org/living/food/carrot-hot-dog-recipe/

Personally, I would skip the liquid smoke (carcinogenic) and replace the soy sauce with tamari (no wheat). To cut out the soy, maybe use salt instead. If sulfites don’t bother you, try a little balsamic vinegar. Sometimes figuring out what tastes you fancy and creating a marinade based on that is your best bet.

The bun is another story altogether. Something to think about for a future recipe.

Green Cashew Cream Sauce

We’re out of zucchini and I wanted a pasta sauce, plus I needed breakfast smoothies for this week. 

First I made an unsweetened cashew oat milk.

1 cup raw, unsalted Cashews

1 cup gluten-free Rolled Oats

6 cups water

Blend this on high in a Vita-Mix liquid container for 3 minutes to cook the oats. This can be done on the stovetop. Check the links here for vegan milk to find the stovetop directions link. That might mean making the oat milk first and then adding the cashews in the next step below.

I poured the milk into another container and then started on the cashew cream sauce in the Vita-Mix.

2 cups unsweetened Cashew/Oat Milk (see above)

1/2 pkg frozen Spinach (~8 oz)

3 peeled Carrots

Blend this on high until smooth. Add in -

1/2 medium Yellow Onion

4 cloves Garlic

2 tbl Apple Cider Vinegar

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Pepper

Blend this on high until smooth. Add in -

1 cup Nutritional Yeast

Blend on medium or whatever it takes to get the mixture spinning. If you want a creamier texture, add more cashews.

The rest of the milk became smoothies by adding the other 1/2 pkg of spinach and a bunch of different fruits.

Walnut Cream Sauce - Italian Style

Playing with a different pasta sauce and came up with this today:

3 carrots - peeled
1 zucchini - peeled optional
1 cup walnuts
1/8 cup ACV
1/2 cup coconut milk - the unsweetened pseudo-milk kind
1 tbl each: chopped garlic, oregano
1/2 tbl each: salt, pepper, basil, thyme

Blend everything together in food processor or Vita-Mix (requires tamper)

This was a bit of a pain to get it to blend as carrots are not as smooth as zucchini for blending purposes. The pepper really hangs on afterwards, so I might cut back on that next time. It’s heavy on salt too, but that’s how I like it.

The coconut milk was more about trying to get it to blend. This ingredient could probably be water without noticeably changing the flavor.

Reminds me of the carrot ravioli I used to get at The Newsroom. Still liking the taste so maybe I’ll go with it as is. Decisions, decisions.

Coconut Bacon

I recently had some very delicious vegan cajun food at a newer restaurant - Krimseys Cajun Kitchen in North Hollywood (http://krimseys.com/). They topped their soup with maple coconut strips, which gave me the idea for trying it at home.

This is very similar to the Bacon-ish Bits recipe posted here previously. I didn’t have maple syrup, so I used coconut sugar instead. The online recipes I’ve seen for vegan bacon include liquid smoke. That’s a bit too carcinogenic for my liking.


Equipment needed: Mason Jar with lid (holds at least 3 cups), 1 cup Measuring Cup, 1 tbl Measuring Spoon, Glass Baking Pan (could be metal or silicone or...), Oven

1 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
2 cups reduced sodium Tamari (contains soy)
2 tbls Coconut Sugar
Coconut Flakes

Or 3 cups of your marinade of choice. The resulting flavor depends on what’s in your marinade.

Fill the mason jar to near the top with coconut flakes. Add the rest of the ingredients. Put the lid on and shake over the sink in case it leaks. Refrigerate overnight or at least 6 hours. The timing on this is flexible. I like to do overnight to be sure the coconut absorbs a decent amount of the marinade. I also like to sit the jar on a paper towel to absorb any drips.

Pre-heat oven to 250 deg (F)

Drain the coconut. If you like the marinade and want to make more “bacon”, save it. I drained mine into a container of sunflower seeds. Those will get baked soon.

Spread the coconut into the baking pan. It can be layered - I recommend less than 1” deep. Bake for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. You may need to scrape the bottom of the pan to loosen any that are stuck. Turn off the oven and allow the coconut to crisp up as the oven cools.

Yuca Fries

I’m looking at doing this potato chip style but not sure how it will work out. So far, my research says yuca must be cooked properly or it can kill you. Nice one, yuca. So boil it first and then play around with recipes. Got it.

Here’s an existing recipe that looks really good: https://www.thehealthymaven.com/2015/03/crispy-baked-yuca-fries.html

Cashew Cream Sauce

Update (6/18) I add 2 carrots to this recipe these days. Makes for a richer flavor profile.

Basic recipe:

1 Zucchini - peeled and chopped

1/4 cup chopped Onion

1 tbl chopped Garlic

1/8 cup Apple Cider Vinegar

3 oz raw, unsalted Cashews

1/2 cup Nutritional Yeast

1/4 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Black Pepper

Put everything in the blender/food processor and blend until smooth.

This misses being strictly vegan because of the nutritional yeast. It’s probably easiest to make in a Vita-mix. The onion and garlic measurements are approximations, and there’s no need to chop them into small pieces as the blender/food processor can do that for you. If you’re comfortable with putting in a couple of garlic cloves and two or three slices of onion, that should be fine.

If you don’t care about color, you can leave the skin on the zucchini. Turns it a bit green. Without the peel, it winds up yellow - closer to the color of the nutritional yeast.

No-Egg Salad

This recipe idea originated here: Isa Chandra's Tofu Frittata

Replacing the tamari/soy sauce was easy enough. How to replace the tofu took more thought. Technically this recipe is not Vegan because of the yeast. It depends on your personal viewpoint on yeast. Also Dijon mustard might be problematic for some people. I suggest using another mustard that works for you if need be, or leave it out completely.

Equipment needed: Blender or Vita-Mix with the Dry Container or Food Processor, Spatula, 1 cup Measuring Cup, ¼ cup Measuring Cup, ¼ tsp Measuring Spoon, 1 tbl Measuring Spoon, Small Bowl with Lid, Larger Bowl with Lid, Knife, Cutting Board, Tamper (optional), Peeler (optional)

¼ cup Walnuts or raw Sunflower Seeds
~¼ cup Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV)

Soak the nuts/seeds in the ACV overnight in the fridge. The ACV should cover the nuts/seeds. Use the small bowl with lid or a coffee cup with some sort of cover.

1 Zucchini
1 cup cooked Brown Rice

Drain the nuts and put them in the blender/food processor with the rice and the zucchini (chopped to make it easier to blend). This may require tamping. This can be anywhere from a coarse blend (more textures) to a smoother mixture (possible sandwich spread) depending on your preference. If using sunflower seeds, they can be added later for more texture or put in the blender. For a smoother texture, add avocado to the blender. The following ingredients might need bumped up if adding avocado.

Empty blender into the larger bowl.

3 tbl Nutritional Yeast
½ tsp Dijon Mustard (or just do a small squirt)
¼ tsp Turmeric
Diced Onion
Diced Garlic
Salt and Pepper to taste

Stir all ingredients together. Let sit in the fridge for an hour to allow the flavors to meld.

Onion Rings - Proof of Concept

I’ve been pondering buttermilk and batter, and here’s where my mind went with it…

1/2 cup Rolled Oats

1 1/2 cups Water

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Black Pepper

This works best in a Vita-Mix, using the liquid container. It takes 3 minutes to cook oats in the Vita-Mix on high speed. Adding all of the above to the container, work up to the highest speed.

At the 2 minute mark, add:

1/2 cup Raw, Shelled, Unsalted Sunflower Seeds

1/2 cup Raw, Unsalted Pumpkin Seeds

This will be thick, but still able to spin in the blender. Stop at 3 minutes and empty the mixture into a bowl.

Using a cast iron pan (or other frying pan), add 1/4” of olive oil. Turn on the stove at a low heat. Let the oil get hot.

Disclaimer: I’ve never made onion rings before. Or fried chicken, or anything remotely like this.

Dipping the onion ring into the batter probably works best with a fork or ice pick. I used my fingers.

The first set lost the batter when I turned them. For the second set, I let them cook awhile before attempting to flip them with tongs. The batter stayed on the onion.

Pull out when brown and place on paper towels.

The best ones had the center of the onion - the ratio of onion to batter leaned more towards onion. As a proof of concept attempt, it went well and tasted really good.

Bacon-ish Bits, Part II

For use as a salad or pasta topper, or as a snack

I tried these with balsamic vinegar (contains sulfites). These came out caramelized and very tasty.
Tip: Do not breathe in when opening the oven door while baking a strong vinegar ingredient. Your lungs will thank you for holding your breath. 

First baconish bits recipe

Here’s today’s shot at it without soy and without sulfites, and straying from a baconish flavor…

Equipment needed:

Blender, 1/2 cup Measuring Cup, 1/2 tablespoon Measuring Spoon, Bowl with Lid, Baking Dish (9"x13" or thereabouts), Spatula or Spoon, Oven

1 cup Apple Cider Vinegar

~1/2 cup diced Red Onion

2 cloves Garlic

1/2 tbl Salt (optional)

1/2 tbl Black Pepper

1 tbl Oregano

1 tbl Thyme

1 tbl Basil

Blend the above ingredients. It will probably be frothy and separate rather easily. Pour into the bowl.

Raw, shelled, unsalted Sunflower Seeds that can be covered in the mixture: ~1 1/2 to 2 cups

Add sunflower seeds and stir in as you go. Be sure the seeds are covered in the liquid. Cover, shake gently, and place in the fridge to soak. I soaked these about 8 hours and they absorbed nearly all of the liquid, so straining was not required.

Pre-heat the oven to 300 degrees

Rough strain the liquid if needed - this can be done by holding the lid against the top of the bowl but not quite sealed so the liquid can drain out or by using a strainer. You don't have to get it all, just most. Pour/scrape the remaining contents into the baking dish. This may be an inch or so deep.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, stirring occasionally. These are done when they're crispy, but not burnt.

Carrot Chips or Carrot Wafers

This is a dehydrator recipe and I'm not certain if it can be done in the oven.

Equipment needed:
Vita-Mix with the dry container or Food Processor, Vegetable Peeler, Cutting Board, Knife, 1 cup Measuring Cup, 1/4 tsp Measuring Spoon, 1 tbl Measuring Spoon, and Dehydrator

Ingredients
1 cup coconut water
2 tbls chia seeds
4 carrots
1/4 tsp salt

Peel, rinse, and chop carrots into ~1" pieces - just to make them easier to blend. Put those in the Vita-Mix dry container. Add the coconut water, chia seeds, and salt. Blend very well.

I actually started with the coconut water and chia seeds, then added the carrots one at a time, blending in between each, to be sure of the number I wanted to put in there. When the blending became harder to do and the mixture was somewhat thick, I stopped adding carrots.

Because I wasn't sure how this would turn out, I did the next step two different ways.

1. Pour mixture into rectangular candy molds, filling each between 1/2 to 3/4 of the way to the top. Once done dehydrating, these will be fairly thin. Shake gently to settle into flat shapes. This "filled" 24 molds.

2. Pour remaining mixture in the middle of a pendaflex/silicone sheet that fits your dehydrator. Spread out towards the edges, then shake gently to settle into flat shape. You may need to nudge it back a little from the edge. This created a semi-square 13"x13" shape.

Dehydrate at 125 degrees for about 10 hours. If you don't sleep through the middle of this time, you can try flipping them halfway through to get the color roughly the same on each side. I made these at night and pulled them as is in the morning.

If you're a raw purist, drop the temperature to 105 degrees or less and dehydrate longer.

The first way made rectangular chips about 1/8" thick. Some broke in two coming out of the mold. Some had holes in the middle. It's entirely possible that filling the molds to the top would have prevented that, but the chips would also be a bit thicker.

The second made a beautiful, very thin wafer (with some holes.) Interestingly, my wife who prefers crackers liked the chips, and I - the cupcake monster - preferred the wafer. It reminded me very strongly of the Italian pizelles our downstairs neighbor used to make starting at 4 in the morning. Ah the culinary memories...

Dog Food - Renal Care, Not Vegetarian

We tried a new renal diet for our eldest dog and the results were underwhelming. His blood work showed no improvement, and he needed his anal glands expressed for the first time in his 14+ years of life. That renal diet contained so much rice - it was listed as dry weight so the actual amount in the food once it was cooked was even more. We've gotten his stool back to normal and hopefully that means his glands will be fine.

He's on lamb, and we found out that boiling lamb removes some of the phosphorous. The old thinking was lower the protein. The new thinking is get a better balance between calcium and phosphorous and maybe lower the protein.

Disclaimer: We're not veterinarians nor nutritionists. We also have not had him on this diet long enough to see how well it does for his kidneys. I'll report back once we get there.

We start with the Honest Kitchen Preference base. For 1 day of food for a roughly 15 pound dog, we add 6 oz of boiling water to 1.8 ounces of HK Preference. Allow that to absorb the water for at least 3 minutes. Add 2.5 ounces of the boiled lamb (more on that below). We feed him 3-4 times a day, 2 main meals and 1-2 snacks. He was having some issues with his stomach being too empty prior to getting breakfast, so he definitely gets a snack right before bed.

For the 2 main meals, he also gets 1/4 tsp psyllium, 1/4 to 1/2 tsp salmon oil, and 1/4 pill of InflamAway HA which is a glucosamine/chondroitin with extra anti-inflammatory herbs.

For the boiled lamb, we get 2 pounds of ground lamb from the grocery store. That's roughly a 1 week supply of meat for him.

Take a small stock pot and fill it halfway with water. Roll the lamb into meatballs about 1/2" to 3/4" in diameter. They will shrink some. Put them in the water one at a time. Having the water in the pot will help them not stick together. Bring the water to a rolling boil, stirring occasionally to break up what forms on top and unstick any meatballs at the bottom. Lower heat as needed to maintain the rolling boil without boiling over. Boil for 30 minutes. Drain and rinse.

He likes this well enough though he has trained us to add some treat sprinkles on top sometimes. Once he gets started, he finishes his meal.