Julio's Rice

Julio was our dog of 17 years.  He was always kind of picky with what he ate, so we used to try to get creative with his food.  Julio got to the point where he would only pick at his dog food and he wasn't eating full meals.  He had been to the vet a couple of times and we knew that at 17, he was definitely getting pretty old for a dog.

I went home one night and decided to make Julio dinner.  I would make him chicken and rice.  I mixed the chicken and rice and added some vegetables.  I took it over to Julio the next day and he loved it.  He had two big helpings - keep in mind, Julio was a Maltese and weighed less than 10 pounds.  So, I continued to make him food.  One day I noticed that Julio's food was starting to disappear at an alarming rate.  I then found out that my father was taking some of Julio's food for lunch.  It was then brought to my attention that my wife was taking some of the food also.  To this day, I still don't know how much of the food actually went to Julio.  When I found out that Julio wasn't the only one eating this food, I decided to make some for my family as well.

This is a very versatile recipe and can be converted to vegetarian or vegan very easily.  I try to use a lean meat - For Julio, I was using hamburger or ground chicken, but for the family I used buffalo meat or ground turkey.  You can also substitute the chicken stock with vegetable stock and leave out the meat to make this a vegan/vegetarian dish.  Just an FYI - the Maggi Seasoning used it suitable for vegan diets!!

Let the vegetables cook until soft in the water

 (you can also use stock, but it's not necessary).

 I used ground buffalo for this recipe, but you can 

use chicken, turkey, hamburger, or nothing at all.

Add the Maggi Seasoning when the buffalo is finished cooking.

The mixture may be a little loose, but don't worry - once 

the rice is added it will come together nicely. 

The Final Plating

Julio's Rice

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Cup Rice
• 2 Cups Chicken Stock
• 1 Cup Water
• 1lb Ground Buffalo Meat
• 1 Cup Frozen Peas
• 2 Medium Carrots (diced)
• 2 Small Potatoes (diced)
• 1 Onion (Diced)
• 1 Tbs. Garlic (minced)
• 3 TBS. Maggi Seasoning (add more if needed)

DIRECTIONS

• 1
  Make the rice - use 1 cup of rice and 2 cups of chicken stock instead of water. Cook as directed.
• 2
  Saute onions and garlic for about 5 minutes.
• 3
  Add peas, carrots, potatoes, and about a cup of water. Cook until potatoes and carrots start to soften up.
• 4
  Add ground buffalo meat and cook until meat is browned. You will still notice some water in the pan when you add the buffalo meat, this is fine. Even if the mixture is a little loose, it will tighten up when you add the rice.  Add the 3 TBS of Maggi Seasoning.  You can add more if you want - adjust it to your taste.
• 5
  Once the mixture is finished, fold in the cooked rice.