Simply delicious brunch

This is Easter weekend, and there are so many recipes out there for wonderful and filling foods, desserts, candy and such.  So I am offering you something really tasty and healthy from Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim’s “tool box.”  Sometimes you need to get ready in a hurry for a Jung Suwon class, even during Easter weekend, and you don’t want to feel stuffed and heavy !

So here is what teacher Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim recommends: a light and healthy version of quiche.  If you are on a gluten free diet, like I am, you can use any recipe gluten free pie crust, or, like I do, leave out the crust altogether.

You will need:

Pie crust, either store bought or home made, or none at all

fresh spinach, a couple of bunches, well washed

fresh kale (or if you don’t like the taste, just use more spinach)

half a yellow onion, finely chopped

handful of sliced mushrooms

one cup organic, low fat cottage cheese (make sure it’s made from certified organic milk)

2 eggs

salt, pepper,

Pre-heat oven to 400, line small ramekins, or any small dish that withstands the heat in the oven, with the crust, and bake for about 10 minutes or until light brown.  Lower heat to 375 or 350, depending on your oven.

To make the filling, heat some olive oil in a pan, sautee a couple tablespoons chopped garlic.  Add the onions, sautee until see through, then add spinach, kale and mushrooms.  Lightly sautee, add salt and pepper, lemon juice if you like it more tangy.

In a blender, mix together the eggs and cottage cheese.  Squeeze out the sauteed veggies (you can save the juices to add to some soup later) and add the veggies to the egg/cottage cheese mixture.  Adjust seasoning, fill the baking dishes, and bake until set, around 15 minutes.

Let it set for another 10 or so minutes, then decorate with parsley and cherry tomatoes, or any garnish to your liking!

Now, sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor, and know that Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim’s recipe will contribute to your health and well being.

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Jung SuWon style cake pops

 

I know.  I said this wouldn’t turn into a cookie/cake/cupcake type  blog, and I promise again, it won’t.  But just see here what Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim has to say about being flexible in mind and spirit:

“I have to plan, “you may say.  “I have to think about what I am going to do ten minutes from now, or tomorrow, or it own’t happen.”  Yes, you should make plans in the present moment.  You don’t ever stop thinking, but be watchful to keep yourself open to new incoming ideas that may change what you plan.  Th epoint is to be aware every moment of what you are thinking, because whatever is going on now is on the way to manifesting.  How important it is, then to keep everything you don’t want out of your moment to moment consciousness.  how can you do that if you are not focused here, now?”

See?  So this is perfectly all right to blog about cake pops even if you never planned on doing so.

Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim teaches about healthty foods, and also states that healthy can include, once in a while, healthy sweet treats.  And these little goodies, are as healthy as sweet treats can be!  First offf, they are gluten free.  Secondly, they were made with lots of love, one of the most important things to consider when prepareing food, Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim says.

If you feel like making these, start with a home made gluten free pound cake, I prefer this one from Shirley.  Once cooled off, break it apart into little pieces.  Now comes the fun part.  You can either use any type of frosting/filling for the next step, my favorite is to take a block of cream cheese, and blend in a generous amount of nutella.  Or, blend in some strawberry jam into cream cheese until it’s perfect.  Use a little frosting at first and add until you can roll cake pops of the size you prefer.

For the chocolate ones, I used a glutenfree brownie mix and as the “cement” I used the above mentioned cream cheese with nutella.  But go ahead, try your own creations!
You are creative energy!  As Grandmaster Kim always says!

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Jung SuWon Style Bread recipe

Ok.  Last time I promised you a bread recipe.  Oh oh! 

The thing is, I don’t use any recipes for bread.  I throw things in a bowl, mix it all up, let it rise, and bake it!  But, I am a woman of honor and I keep my word.  So here is my most basic bread recipe:
One piece of advice: don’t bother with fast rising yeast.  If you can get it, use fresh yeast, you know, the cake kind that crumbles…but any regular dried yeast will do.  The problem with fast rising yeast is that the dough might get too dry, or the fast rising will make it smell like booze. 

Like my Jung SuWon Grandmaster always, says, anything worthwhile in life, you have to work for and you have to be patient with.  One of Dr. Tae Yun Kim’s favorite sayings is “a pregnant woman – no matter how morning sick – can’t have a baby after just 3 months.  She has to wait for 9 months, until the baby is ready.”

You need to apply the same principle with bread.  Back to the recipe.  Here is my very basic recipe:

• 1 cake fresh yeast, or 1 envelope dried yeast
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 or so cups of lukewarm water (depending on how much bread you want to make)
• as much flour as it takes to make a plieable, smooth dough

Dissolve the honey in the water.  Crumble in or sprinkle on the yeast, depending on what kind you are using.  Wait a couple of minutes.  Most cook books tell you that you must put this mixture in a draft free, warm place, and that is right.  Just don’t fret if you don’t find such a place.  Yeast dough is pretty indestructible, so relax and enjoy the process. 

Once there are bubbles in the mixture, and you smell an intense yeast smell, add the flour and some salt.  Keep adding flour as you are kneading the dough – when the dough hold together and forms a smooth, pliable ball, knead some more.  Then cover it with saran wrap and let it rise.  You could cover it with anything that prevents it from drying out, I prefer the saran since then I can watch the progress.  The dough needs to rise until you have twice as much dough as when you started.  (cook books will tell you “until double in bulk, but to me that sounds just too boring)

Now punch the dough down – and yes, you really want to punch it at this point.  Knead it a little bit more – add a bit of flour if the dough is too soft, and then shape the dough into whatever you want – loaves, rolls, you can braid it….or put it in pans.   Cover again with the saran wrap, and let rise again, about an hour or until almost doubled. 

Of course you thought about pre-heating the oven, so now that it’s at about 350 degrees F, you put in your little miracles, and sit back and wait.  Depending on how big the loaves are or the rolls, you’ll bake your creations from 10 minutes (small rolls) to an hour (loaves), but do test frequently.

From here on, it only gets more fun.  The above was only a very basic homey recipe.  You can use whole wheat flour, either all whole wheat, or partially, and you can mix in nuts, seeds, other flour, cooked oatmeal, and so forth.  Instead of water, you can use milk, soy milk, water in which you have cooked potatoes, and…and….

If you are new at this, I would recommend sticking to the very basic at first, then go from there.

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