Vegging . . .

While everyone else was probably doing something interesting, or at least watching TV, I spent the evening Vegging.  No, not "vegging out" (relaxing), just vegging.  Or maybe it was vegging up?  Whatever.  What I did was spend a few hours making ten 24-oz containers (cottage cheese cartons) of veggie mix for the dogs.  It should be enough to last a month at least, thank goodness.  NOT one of my favorite chores!  Not difficult, just tedious, BUT it makes a great mix for adding to ground meat/fish/eggs for the dogs' breakfast most mornings,

No veggie mixes are the same and this one included things I already had around the house and things that I purchased specifically for the mix.  Some of them have more leafy greens and less fruit, while others are based on whatever might have been on sale.

Items I had on hand included -

• an apple with a soft spot, an extra kiwi  & a bag of frozen blueberries
• half a red pepper & some elderly radishes
• parsley & oregano from my herb garden
• several tomatoes with bruises & a couple of shriveled garlic cloves
• a head of romaine, half a head of cauliflower, & 4 stalks of celery

Items I bought for the project included -

• a bunch of carrots with tops
• a Savoy cabbage
• bunches of Swiss chard, collard greens, and kale

I purchased the new items at the Mississippi Market Coop and they were all organic, but if I'd had the time I could have saved money by going to the Farmers Market or one of the warehouse supermarkets.  If I had done that I would probably also have purchased a more variety lettuces or a bunch of spinach, a cucumber, a large zucchini, green beans, broccoli and possibly some beets with tops.  If I'd planned ahead I would have picked dandelion leaves, wood sorrel, plantain, and other nutritious weeds. The nice thing about the veggie mix is that you can make it with just about anything, and it's a great way to use up leftover bits of this and that.  The trick to making a good veggie mix is a LARGE variety of food items, particularly leafy greens (NOT iceberg lettuce which has no nutritional value).  I generally don't use much fruit but last summer I froze blueberries when they were on sale, and apples sweeten up the mixture a bit.  Wish I'd had some soft bananas to add.  Sometimes I use twice this many ingredients, but two hours is enough!

All the produce gets carefully washed, and any bad spots get discarded.  Juicers do a really good job of breaking down the cell walls so the nutrition is accessible to the dogs.  I've used juicers in the past and mixed the juice back in with the pulp, but it's easier to just use a food processor and chop everything as small as possible, adding only enough water to get the job done.  I generally freeze most of the containers of mix, as freezing also helps break the foods down. One container stayed upstairs to be added to ground rabbit for the dogs' breakfast.  A cottage cheese containers of frozen veggie mix will thaw overnight and provide enough veggie mix for 2 or 3 days.  At least two days a week I'll use a single item, such as sweet potatoes, broccoli or cabbage, things I know the dogs like, but they'll willingly eat the less palatable veggies as part of the mix when combined with meat or fish, eggs and a squirt of salmon oil.