What's One Thing That's Been Bugging You?
A little push to solve a little problem & a recipe for your dog's kong
About every 2-3 weeks I batch-make kong filling for our dog, Buster. He’s quite the spoiled little guy, and gets a frozen kong stuffed with the filling I make every night after dinner. It’s relaxing for him, and gives us a little break from entertaining him (he’s a high-energy boston terrier).
The first step in this process is cooking quinoa, which I usually do in the instant-pot, and which I always forget the ratio of grain to water. Every single time I go to make his filling, I have to google “instant pot quinoa” for the directions. It’s actually a funny thing to continually forget, considering I make it so often; one would think I could remember such a simple thing by now. I suppose there are just other things my brain wants to remember, which is actually fine by me.
But, today was the final-straw day of having to take the time to 1. find my phone to be able to 2. google the recipe - again. So, I decided to come up with a better solution:
Put the recipe on the jar.
I usually buy quinoa in bulk and keep it in a mason jar in my pantry, so I just wrote the instructions on a post-it note, which didn’t stick very well, so then I used a rubber band to hold the post-it-note in place.
I feel better already.
And, I am on a roll! Since we moved in to this house almost 2 years ago, our recycling collection vessel (you know, the one you put the recycling in before actually taking it outside to the real recycling vessel) has lived in our garage. For some reason, it feels really far to take the recycling from the kitchen to the garage, so it usually just ends up piling up on one of our kitchen counters.
I remember once hearing an organizing trick: your stuff ends up where it wants to be so stop trying to force it to want to be somewhere else. AKA, find a solution to take care of the problem where the problem already exists rather than trying to force the problem into a different box.
So, I found a spot in the kitchen for the recycling vessel instead of trying to find a solution to get the recycling into the garage.
Aesthetically, I don’t love it, but maybe I can take a tip from my friend Simone and decoupage the outside to liven it up a bit (her compost vessel sits on her countertop and is decoupaged and always catches my eye - in a good way).
So, what’s some small annoyance that you can find a solution for this week? For example: does the mail always end up on a counter instead of in the mail-designated space? How about finding a solution that moves the mail-designated space to where the mail always ends up? Let me know in the comments!
Kong Filling For Your Dog
This will actually be more of a method than a recipe.
Last year, Buster’s Dr. recommended that we feed buster more protein, and suggested we try to incorporate that into his nightly kong filling. Quinoa is a great source of protein, so I replaced the oats I had been using with that. Usually I’ll meal-plan for us humans around whatever day I make his filling: when I make his filling I’ll make extra quinoa for Mr. Domestique and I to have for dinner that day too.
I also incorporate beef baby food and pureed pumpkin to boost the protein and fiber. I’ve also thrown in fresh veggies or apples when I have them on hand, or even plain yogurt sometimes. Then I use some peanut butter to help it to bind together.
I stuff his kong with this filling in the morning and freeze the whole kong. It usually lasts about 20 minutes, and we’ve trained Buster to only eat it on an old towel we keep on the floor so it doesn’t get super messy in the house. During the summertime he loves taking it into the back yard to eat it, but especially when we lived in an apartment the towel trick did wonders to help keep our floors clean.
The “recipe” below is completely customizable, so use whatever you have on hand, or whatever your veterinarian recommends.
Kong Filling
Cooked quinoa or other grain or grain-like thing like oats or rice, or a combination
Meat baby food
Pureed pumpkin or squash (can also be found in the baby food section)
Hemp seeds (optional)
Whole-fat, sugar-free yogurt (optional)
Sugar-free, salt-free peanut butter (I like to get the kind that’s ground in the store, the ingredients are more limited that way)
Combine all ingredients. Start small with the wet ingredients like yogurt (if using), you don’t want it to be very runny. Add just enough peanut butter for the mixture to thicken enough so it will be easy to fill the kong with. I like it to be just thick enough to start sticking together while I’m mixing it, but still easy to stir.
If you don’t have a kong, you could use this filling on a lick mat, or even just coat the inside of a small metal bowl and put it in the freezer.
You can also give it to your dog without freezing it, I just like doing it that way because it lasts longer.
Let me know if your dog likes Buster’s recipe!