Katie's Cooking Tips: for vegetarians and individuals seeking a meat-free life.

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As you may or may not know, I am obsessed with cats. I own 5, and I love them all dearly. Salem is 12 years old, he’s a black domestic long hair. Lucky, we saved from outside. I heard her meowing on our doorstep. She’s 8 and a tabby. Baby is an orange and white domestic short hair. Taken in, someone was giving him away at Sam’s Club. Boogie is a maine coon, I adopted him And Squishy is my brothers cat and he came to us when my brother moved back in.

Lately, cat food has been so-so-so expensive. And it is NOT something that we can skimp on. It’s not like we can go shopping and put back the cat food like we put back candy or chips and say, “Well we don’t need this, we just want it.” I love my cats, and I spoil them.  While watching Jeopardy last night, I kept the channel on ABC7 after seeing a preview for this video on the Best Pet Food Deals.

I found it absolutely helpful, but I noticed that all of the “Cheap deals” weren’t necessarily the best brands to feed my cat. My cats tend to get hairballs a lot, so we usually buy food that helps with that issue. My cats are also picky, and they do like what they like.

So what do I do? Do I save money and give my cats crappy food? Or so I spend a little more on premium brands that promise higher quality food for your special friend. I honestly do NOT know the difference. I look at the ingredients for all of these cat foods and everything looks the same. Why is one bag of cat food $6 and another $15 if they just have the same damn things in them?

I did some research and came upon this blog post about making your own cat food. It gave tons of helpful information about preparing your own cat food recipes. I had my questions about how natural or organic cat food would be better for my cats. This blog answered all of my inquiries. I found out a lot of helpful things about what ingredients are good for cats and which ones aren’t. I don’t want to do the wrong thing with this and get my cats sick.

One thing I absolutely will try are the Cat Nip Treats. My cats (as all do) love cat nip and they know what it means when they see that cat nip container.

Moist Catnip Treats

½ pound ground meat
1/4 cup grated carrot
1 tablespoon shredded cheese
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon dried catnip
½ cup bread crumbs
1 large egg, beaten
1 tablespoon tomato paste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and lightly grease a cookie sheet. In a large bowl, mix together the first six ingredients. Lastly, blend in the tomato paste and beaten egg. Roll the meat mixture into small balls, and bake them for approximately 15 minutes or until they are firm and lightly browned. Allow the cat treats to cool completely on a wire rack, and store them in the refrigerator. These cat treats may also be frozen.

Awesome, absolutely awesome! This blog is definitely in my bookmarks now. I love it!