Food & Agriculture

Dupont PHB71 Hybrid Rice in Viet Nam Ad

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Recently, DuPont posted the advertisement below for its PHB71 Hybrid Rice grown in Viet Nam. Hybrid rice is cross-breeding of rice strains, not genetically modified as in artificially modifying them. Think of cross-breeding dogs and genetically created dogs, if you want to better understand the difference. We do the former all the time. The latter is a bit more expensive and sketchy… and probably illegal in many countries.

What I found amazing was how these Vietnamese farmers grew rice in the paddies in one season, then harvested shrimp in the same paddies in another! Talk about making use of the land!

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Try Hara Hachi Bu to Help with Your Weight Loss Resolution

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Lots of people resolve to lose weight throughout a given year, and they try all sorts of diet to do so. I’m not going to debate the merits of losing weight here, but if that’s your thing, I have a very practical suggestion to help. It is a lifestyle called hara hachi bu, from the Japanese island of Okinawa, home of the largest populations of people aged over 100 (centenarians).

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Quinoa Jell-O, Great for Post Run or Exercise Protein!

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Getting some protein within 15 minutes of finishing your exercising or running is a fast start to recovering for your next session if you exercise or run regularly (not a week later). It helps you feel better to be able to go harder, or feel easier, on the next session. It’s good nutrition, too. However, downing dry and hot toasts with honey, a cold meat sandwich, pasta and meat sauce, and so on, so soon after my workout and shower isn’t my idea of a pleasant experience, I usually want to drink, drink and drink cold fluids.

Well, applying my life philosophy #3 – AND not OR – I have now found my post exercise source of cold protein and fluids.

My answer is Quinoa Jell-O!

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Video of Willie Nelson (Responsibly?) Covering ColdPlay’s The Scientist for Chipotle

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Willie Nelson just covered Coldplay‘s The Scientist song for the Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurant chain that supposedly “buys more naturally raised meat than any other restaurant company in the country” (Fast Company).

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Healthy and Nutritious Quinoa and Rice Stir Fry Recipes

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Most people make stir fry with rice as a base. It’s great and it’s filling. However, I make mine with  quinoa (KIN-wa) for a whole load of extra protein to make stir fries that are healthy and nutritious. It hardly tastes any different from stir fry with general white steamed rice that I normally used before I learned about quinoa. The texture is finer because quinoa is finer than rice in texture, and that makes it easier to stir fry mixed in with the rice as well.

The recipes below are just generic recipes on which you could make quite a few variation substituting certain ingredients, and customize for your own preferences. Just by using different stir fry pastes alone, I could get Thai, Indian, Vietnamese, Singaporean, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indonesian and Malaysian stir fry from the Asian Home Gourmet series that has no artificial additives! I just then customize the rest of it as I like it to go with the flavour or whatever I want to have in my stir fry for that meal. You vary accordingly to your tastes.

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