A nice relaxing day off – yeah, right

It’s Vegan Mofo time again! All through October vegan blogs across the universe are posting daily recipes, food thoughts, menus, etc. There is a group of RSS feeds that you can sign up for since there are WAY too blogs involved to be able to get to every one. I signed up for the Healthy, Whole Foods group while staying away from the Desserts group. There were over 1000 posts in my RSS feed as soon as I signed up. I cleared those and started from today.

I also have been reading Dr. Khalsa’s Natural Dog: A Holistic Guide for Healthier Dogs which is about nutrition. She advocates mixing fresh foods into a dog’s diet if they are eating dog food. Ideally, she advocates cooking the whole diet.

With the combination of these two cooking inspirations I hit the kitchen. First I cleaned out my pantry cupboard. I threw out the food that expired in the last decade. I found enough canned tuna, salmon, and herring (still in date) to serve as a base for the dog and cats’ food for a while. I also had a lot of almost empty bags of pasta. So I decided that Jules needs to eat better too. She refuses to eat her high quality, high dollar, organic pellets and wants seeds. I cooked up some pasta for her. She’s had a few noodles and some cooked frozen veggies today. How did that go over? Let me demonstrate what she does.

1. Run enthusiastically to the bowl when I put it in.
2. Grab a zucchini piece and jump over to a perch. Take a bite while I smile at what a good bird she is.
3. Spit in onto the floor of her cage after the first bite.
4. Repeat with other veggies.

Oh well, at least she’s getting a few bites of each one.

Freckles had a piece of pear and then tuna mixed with canned pumpkin as a topping for her food. She was thrilled with everything but the pear.

The cats got tuna and some herring. The tuna was a hit. The herring – not so much. (Why do I even have herring? When I think herring I think of The Holy Grail and the need to cut down a tree with a herring.)

If you don’t want that Riley I’ll clean it up for you.

This

Is becoming vegetable stock in the slow cooker. It is old vegetables and some marked down short dated mushrooms from the store. My house smells amazing!

Then I made some Pickled Riley. You’d think that since my animals live with a vet that they’d have quality health care. Here’s the truth of how it works.

1. I notice that Riley has crusty nasty spots on his head. I say, “Damnit, Riley, knock it off.” Wait a week. It gets worse.
2. Repeat the “Damnit, Riley” and reapply his fleas meds. Give him a steroid injection. He quits itching. The spots stay. Wait a week.
3. Repeat the “Damnit, Riley” and give him some antibiotics since they are a bit oozy. They don’t ooze anymore but they are starting to spread. Wait a week.
4. Start using stronger cuss words. Think this might be ringworm. Try to apply topical meds. Get in fight with cat who then licks it off. Consider bathing cat in antifungal shampoo. Swear more.
5. Sit at the computer with a glass of apple cider vinegar and water. Dip a flea comb in the mix. Look very busy with important computer things which draws a Riley cat like a magnet. Comb him with vinegar mix. Be surprised at how long it takes him to notice that he is getting wet and he smells funny.
6. Consider finding getting him some antifungal drugs. Think about how bad he is to pill. Swear more.

Then I went to visit the Prizeypony. She had a job interview on Saturday. The equestrian team from a local college has moved into her barn. They rode her Saturday to see if they want to play with her some. I hear that she behaved herself but they didn’t seem overly enthusiastic about working her. I just want somebody to ride her. I keep forgetting to take pictures of her so she can be on the blog. I took the camera today so she could be represented. I still forgot to take pictures.

Now I’m making pumpkin bread and muffins. The bread has chocolate chips in it. The muffins are plain so the bird can have some as a treat. Notice that in all this cooking this is the first thing that I can eat. Guess what the highlight of my culinary day was?

BooBerry cereal is back in the grocery store for Halloween. I love that stuff. I never was a Count Chocula fan and Frankenberry is ok but I love me some BooBerry! One again the pets all eat better than me. LOL