Our Favorite Senior Pet Food Recipe

For those with fur babies, you understand that your pet is a part of your family…like another kid kind of part of the family.  For us, that extends to cooking our dog’s food.  We do include a high-end kibble to ensure that our three dogs get the vitamins they need.  However, most of their diet is some form of food that has been cooked at home.  We like to do this because it means we know exactly what our fur babies are eating and, I’ll admit, gives me a bit of control…and I might be a bit of a control freak! 

One of the most popular recipes we make for our senior pets is an Instant Pot meatloaf recipe.  Our senior fur babies LOVE this recipe and there is no way to screw it up!  You just mix the ground meat with seasonings, wrap it in foil and drop it in the Instant Pot.  One of the benefits of this recipe is that it is flexible enough to allow you to change the spices or to add additional things like spinach or peas. 

Without further ado, our favorite senior pet food recipe!  Read to the end for several tips to make this recipe a success!

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds ground grass-fed beef
• 1 cup tomato sauce
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1-2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 large egg
• ¼ cup corn starch or other thickener (tapioca, arrowroot, cassava, etc.)

1.  Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix by hand.

2.  Form the mixture into a ball shape in the mixing bowl.

3.  Place the ball mixture on a sheet of foil and wrap the foil over the mixture so that the foil is sealed on the top.  A second sheet of foil wrapped from the opposite direction may be needed, depending on the size of the mixture.

4.  Pour our one cup of water into the Instant Pot and insert a metal trivet or steamer rack that will fit inside.  We use a trivet like this one.

5.  Place the foil packet of meat on top of the trivet or steamer rack and close the lid on the Instant Pot.  Make sure the pressure valve is closed on the lid.

6.  Select the Meat/Stew setting and set the time for 35 minutes, with the pressure setting on Normal.

7.  Once the Instant Pot has completed cooking, do a quick pressure release of the pressure valve.

8.  Open the Instant Pot and grab the foil packet with a set of tongs.  Use caution as the foil will be VERY HOT!

9.  Carefully open the foil a bit to allow steam to escape and to let the meat mixture cool. 

10.  If you don’t intend to use it within 5-7 days, the meat is freezable.  We suggest wrapping the meat in plastic wrap and then in foil, before placing in a seal-able plastic bag, to preserve freshness.

• Use HEAVY DUTY foil when wrapping the meat mixture.  It’s easy to find wide rolls and you use just one sheet instead of two.  Heavy Duty foil also doesn’t rip as easily and has a ton of other uses.  We use this kind of heavy-duty foil.
• Depending on how much fat your meat has, you may have to adjust the amount of starch used to thicken the mixture.  We always use 80/20 ground beef, 80% beef and 20% fat content.  Feel free to try other ground beef mixtures, or even try another kind of meat like ground chicken or lamb.  Just ensure that you adjust, just a bit, the amount of starch.
• A quick way to quickly “grind” chicken breast or other type of meat is to use a food processer or a blender.  We use a Ninja Blender and it works amazingly well to chop chicken into a ground consistency.
• When mixing the ingredients, use your hands (we wear disposable gloves) and mix just until everything is combined before transferring to the foil sheet to be wrapped.  It is important to ensure the mixture is not over mixed as doing so will cause the meat mixture to have a very stiff consistency…unless that is the consistency you are going for!