@ossobuco,
Quote:What is your take on garlic?
Quote:Onions, Garlic, Chives
These vegetables and herbs can cause gastrointestinal irritation and could lead to red blood cell damage. Although cats are more susceptible, dogs are also at risk if a large enough amount is consumed. Toxicity is normally diagnosed through history, clinical signs and microscopic confirmation of Heinz bodies. An occasional low dose, such as what might be found in pet foods or treats, likely will not cause a problem, but we recommend that you do NOT give your pets large quantities of these foods.
http://www.aspca.org/Pet-care/ask-the-expert/ask-the-expert-pet-nutrition/is-garlic-toxic-to-pets
I generally do not add garlic or onions when I cook for my dog.
I sometimes make my dog a meatloaf with ground chuck or sirloin, an egg, low sodium V-8 juice, and oat bran.
My dog will eat cooked carrots if they are finely chopped and mixed with meat or chicken, but she won't touch them if they are raw. When she was younger, she really, really liked cooked sugar snap peas, but not so much any more. She absolutely loves freshly steamed broccoli and oven roasted asparagus cooked with olive oil and a slight sprinkling of salt--she really devours those things--and she likes steamed string beans as well. She seems to prefer all her veggies on the softer rather than crunchy side.
I really began cooking for her more regularly after the pet food scare a few years ago and I've just continued doing that. For breakfast, I generally give her Beneful wet food, which doesn't look, or smell, anything like dog food--it's a fairly good-looking stew of either beef, lamb, or chicken, with lots of visible vegetables and grains. And for dinner, I'll cook some meat or chicken for her and mix it with some oat bran or brown rice (often cooked in low salt V-8 juice rather than water), and add in whatever vegetables we're having with dinner if they are something she likes. She only weighs about 15 or 16 pounds, so she doesn't eat all that much, and cooking for her is really not a big deal. And, when I steam some shrimp for us, I always put aside a small portion for her as a special treat--she loves them, almost as much as she loves chicken livers and gizzards. I get great pleasure out of watching her really enjoying her food.
She doen't like or eat kibbled food, but I have tried giving her some broth in a bowl when I've made some--she passed on it.