Foods Long Life

A simple way to get more veggies into your family's diet! It's also a great gluten free side dish for the holidays. Follow Foods For Long Life on Facebook and Pinterest . Did you know the Instant Pot has a Rice Button? For the first year I owned my Instant Pot, I didn't use the Rice button a single time. I cooked just about everything using the Manual button. One day I thought I'd give that poor neglected button a try.  Here's a simple recipe for a rice side dish that provides the added benefit of dietary fiber, vitamin A, C, potassium and manganese as well as magnesium, vitamin E and B6. For the rice, I prefer Tamaki Haiga , the short grain white rice that retains the germ. I call it "white rice without the guilt." (Please note that the Rice button is only timed for white or parboiled rice.)                  *                           *       ...

Learning to cook vegetables in an Instant Pot can take patience. Follow Foods For Long Life on Facebook and Pinterest . A Quick Status of the Fires In my last post , we were in the middle of the worst fires California has ever experienced. We are safe now and the fire danger is pretty much over. The air, once filled with ash and smoke, is clearing. And although we are now returning to our normal lives, there are thousands of people in the area whose homes burned to the ground. The community is rallying in many ways, as communities do when tragedies happen.  First responders have been elevated to gods here in Sonoma county. We ran into three fire fighters in a restaurant last night who finally got a chance to have a meal. We tried to pay for their meals but the waitress smiled and said that someone had beaten us to it. I would guess that wine country firefighters will never have to pay for another meal in their lives! So thanks for all of your concern, notes, and wel...

The view from our back porch Monday morning. Thanks for your concern Monday morning I was lazily resting in bed when our neighbor called to warn us about the fire. One might have walked past the window thinking it was a beautiful red sunrise but instead the mountains behind our vineyard were ablaze from one end of the horizon to the other. Santa Rosa, a mere 7 miles away, was burning and 50 to 60 mile per hour gusts of wind were blowing in our direction. It turns out this was only one of the many fires across Sonoma county that simultaneously erupted in the early hours.  This could be the worst disaster in California's history when all is said and done and it's not the least bit done. Fires remain uncontrolled in many places. As of Wednesday morning, 90,000 acres had burned. And these weren't just acres of trees and wooded areas. These were acres full of homes and businesses - in fact 28,000 people live in these affected areas - most of whom are now in evacuation centers. T...

You can make homemade sushi with just about anything! A great dairy and gluten free meal. Follow Foods For Long Life on Facebook and Pinterest . What a month! It's been a crazy busy month here on our farm. First we harvested 5 tons of Pinot Noir, then a little Sauvignon blanc for my private stash. We've also been harvesting lots of veggies, putting in a Zen garden, getting ready to paint the outside of our house, and enjoying visits from our son and daughter-in-law (Vaughn and Karina), as well as our daughter and her fiancé (Linda and Jim), and our nephew Cody. Later today, we look forward to a visit from my cousin Lisa and her husband Rob. On top of it all, I broke my toe last Thursday so I guess I'm going to slow down a bit whether I want to or not! Part of our Pinot Noir harvest Poblano Peppers With the end of summer come lots of peppers. One of our most delicious and prolific is the poblano pepper so today we're going to mix two of our favorite cuisines - Mexican a...

Butternut Squash Soup with extra protein and fiber. Follow us on Foods For Long Life on Facebook and Pinterest . What to do with all my Butternut Squash You may have seen last week's post where I shared our magic dirt formula that contributed to us getting 60 butternut squash from a single seed! The obvious next thing to think about is what am I going to do with all this butternut squash? Part of my harvest. Today's recipe is a very simple soup that I make in my Instant Pot. Most of the time, I make a very light and brothy butternut squash soup - the kind you sip from a mug. But for a heartier meal, I like to thicken the soup with split peas. The split peas not only make the soup thicker, but they add a significant amount of protein and fiber. While the soup is fat free and very low in calories (less than 200 calories per bowl), it provides a healthy 10 grams of protein and 11 grams of fiber.                       *   ...

I got 60 butternut squash from ONE seed! Follow Foods For Long Life on Facebook and Pinterest . My Husband, the Amazing Farmer Our friends always laugh when they see the size and yield of the vegetables from our garden. It's simply unbelievable how much our garden produces from a single seed. This year the winning vegetable was our butternut squash. One seed yielded a plant that produced 60 butternut squash, each weighing between 2 and 4 pounds - about 200 pounds of squash in all. A few even weighed as much as 5 pounds! I used a year-old seed from a packet of Johnny's JWS 6823 PMR Organic Squash Seed.   Their website says the average yield for this seed is 4 to 5 squash per plant. I can't wait to write to them to tell them that we got 60! I believe the secret is Doug's magic dirt formula. Since everyone always asks us, "what's in your soil", I thought I'd write this blog post. It's kind of tough to create a recipe for this since he "adds a lit...