Summer fun in the kitchen

We have had some pretty hot days here in Northern California.  Not my favorite time of year – I love it in the high 60s – low 70s during the summer and below that in the winter 🙂

At any rate, heat or not, hungry Jung Suwon warriors want to still eat, to replenish the energy they spent working out and training hard.  So, feeding them “cool” foods benefits the cook and the warrior!

Dr. Tae Yun Kim advises her Jung Suwon warriors to eat as close to nature as possible, when possible, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, organically grown, and if you eat eggs and meat, get the eggs from free ranging, organically fed chickens, and only purchase organic, grass fed beef – if possible.  You really can taste and feel the difference!

Here are some visually appealing, great tasting, totally organic and gluten free meals and snacks:

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Beauty in the Kitchen

We always have choices, as Dr. Tae Yun Kim likes to point out.

“The power is in you, it is your personal choice what you do in your life!”

It’s just that sometimes those choices aren’t quite what we want!  Yet in the end, they might be just what we need!

For example, last week we were having a fancy dinner party at Jung Suwon, and usually we have a beautiful “edible arrangement on the dessert table, the center piece.  You know edible arrangements, right?  The fruit all cut up fancy, on a stick, and some of it dipped in chocolate?  The one that looks like a beautiful bouquet?

Well, the guests were already coming in, when with a big “ugh”, it was discovered that the edible arrangement hadn’t been ordered and it was too late now!

What kind of choice was that?

Well, I could have, of course, just given up and said we just don’t have an edible arrangement today.  Or, I could make something else, to make up for it.  Or, I could try to make the arrangement myself!

Once again, my Jung Suwon training came in very handy, in giving me the confidence to try something completely new to me.   Dr. Tae Yun Kim said it so well in one of her books,

“We need to learn to take charge of what we manifest by taking charge of our thinking.  Can you see that you can be your own worst enemy?  Why?  Because you are the one who monitors what you think.  Who thinks your thoughts better than you?  Others can suggest thoughts to you, but you are the one who accepts or rejects what you entertain in your mind.

Instead, be your own best friend!  We can achieve freedom from limitation of any sort!  You don’t have to accept anything except your freedom, your gift from the universe to create whatever you desire!”

Armed with this wisdom, I dashed to the store and loaded up on all sorts of fruits and grabbed some chocolate dip, got some craft sticks (actually my first batch was BBQ skewers) and a couple of heads of lettuce.

Back in the kitchen, at first I made a huge big mess and people around me started to give me the “you poor thing!” look.  I mean, look at this!

It does look kinda hopeless, right?

But I kept thinking, I can do this!  Why not?

HE CAN DO, SHE CAN DO, WHY NOT ME! is what we hear every day at Jung Suwon, to encourage us to do what we are capable of doing.

So I kept cutting up fruit, putting it on skewers, putting the skewers into the lettuce halves, dipped fruit and then, as a final touch, put roses in between the skewers, onto the lettuce to make it extra pretty.

So, tada, here it is!

 

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Possibly the best chicken salad that I have ever made/tasted

Don’t go by the picture please and trust me on this.  Ok?  This is really really good!

I was going to insert an appropriate quote from Dr. Tae Yun Kim, something to the effect of “don’t be fooled by your 5 senses” but then I read the end of her book, “The Silent Master,” and it is simply beautiful, and I wanted to share it with you, so bear with me please.

“We live in a wonderful time called now.  In this moment, everything true about you is waiting to be recognized and expressed.  Everything in the past is gone. Tomorrow will never come.  There is always only now.  You can take charge, take action, and create freedom for yourself.

Right here and right now let’s start celebrating!  Freedom is real.  Freedom is possible.  You have power, truth, beauty, and potential within you alway waiting to be discovered, always waiting to be expressed.  Brighter and more precious than diamonds, warm as the spring sun and beautiful like spirals of galaxies sprinkled over this vast universe, your Silent Master awaits your return, so that together you will come forth as one radiant being in charge of your destiny.  What is stopping you?  What is holding you back?  You are free to be free!  Spread your wings!  Fly and be free!”

So, now, back to making an awesome chicken salad!  We had some very hot days last week, and cooking wasn’t on my mind.  Yet, with a summer-time Jung Suwon potluck in the backyard, something had to be done!  This was one of those dishes that came together simply using what I already had at home.  Luckily that included an organic, roasted chicken, from Whole Foods!  I quickly boiled about 6 – 7 eggs and chilled them.

I started by taking all the meat off the chicken and chopping it (several of our Jung Suwon warriors have to watch their cholesterol, so I didn’t use the skin.)  into bite size pieces.  NORMAL bite sized pieces please, not hulk, and not ant sized either!

After that, I chopped up the eggs, again, not too fine and not too huge, and add to the chicken.  Chop some celery (washed and peeled) maybe a handful, and add, and also add a handful of chopped tomatoes (firm ones, and take out the liquidy part.)  Chop some olives fine, and add, as well as a good handful of green onions, both white and green parts, chopped finely.  Add some marinated artichoke hearts, chopped into small pieces, a total of a good handful ( 😉 ), and a handful of marinated mushrooms, also cut into pieces.

Now, gently mix it all together, and add gluten-free, organic, olive oil based mayonnaise, just enough to make it moist.  Add salt (I use Himalayan salt) and garlic pepper to taste, and let sit in refrigerator for a couple of hours, to let the flavors do their thing.

Of course, there are hundreds or even thousands of ways how to make a chicken salad.  This one just happens to be my current favorite.  With  Dr. Tae Yun Kim’s own words, “it is your life, and your world!  Don’t let anyone stand in your way!”

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Old world cabbage rolls – Jung Suwon style

I feel like I haven’t posted here in a very long time – it’s been really really busy in my life as a Jung Suwon warrior, and that’s the way I like it!  Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim says that keeping busy keeps us young in body, mind, and spirit, and I do feel that!

Even during the hot summer months it gets cool at night here in the Bay area, and so I like to make summery, yet warming dishes for dinner, that are also substantial enough to feed hungry Jung suwon warriors!

My mother’s stuffed cabbage rolls come to mind, and I just made them a couple of days ago.  It’s been hard to re-create her recipes, because she only took a little bit of this and some of that, and in addition, she never even knew what gluten-free was!  And of course I am always trying to incorporate Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim’s teachings into the way I cook, with the best ingredients and only the best of thoughts in my mind.

Great teacher that she is Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim has been encouraging me to be creative, and find new ways to make tasty food, that nourishes and heals and tastes good at the same time!  So, here we go:

To make this version of stuffed cabbage, I use Nappa cabbage, and carefully separate the leaves off the head, and then quickly put them into almost boiling water just long enough to make the leaves pliable, without breaking.  I used to try to just boil the whole head and then peel off the leaves, but that never worked for me.  Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim compares the cabbage to a fist: just like each finger, each leaf in itself, is weak and cannot survive on its own, but together with all the other leaves, it makes a strong head of cabbage (or, all the fingers together, make a strong fist!) !  Have you ever tried to break a full head of cabbage?  See?  In our case, it’s good that we can peel off each leaf!

For the sauce, if I have leftover spaghetti sauce, it’s perfect.  But if not, I make a quick tomato sauce from scratch, like this:

Saute, in olive oil, a chopped up onion, and some minced garlic, I would use a couple of table spoons, and add chopped fresh tomatoes.  I only use fresh tomatoes for my sauces, but I am sure canned would work well too.

I would also add some chopped mushrooms and parsley and saute for a bit and then add a little good quality red wine (I don’t ever use cooking wine, they add a bunch of stuff to it).  If the sauce is too thick at this point, I add some good quality all natural spaghetti sauce from a jar, or if I have some broth, I add that.

For the filling, I saute mushrooms, garlic and chopped onions and add some pre-cooked ground beef, and some cooked rice, add some chopped parsley and fresh marjoram, and loosely fill the cabbage leaves with this.  Put filling on one side of leaf, then roll up and put seam side on bottom and put in roasting pan.  When finished, put your tomato sauce over it, and finish in pre-heated oven (350) for 20 minutes to half hour.  If you like, you could sprinkle some cheese on it before serving!

Now, “dig it in!”  as Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim likes to say, after giving thanks to God for a most delicious meal!

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Beautiful sights and smells on a drab and rainy day

Don’t get me wrong – I love this 55 degree rainy and blustery weather – it’s very rare this time of year where I live!  But for other household members and many native Californian Jung Suwon warriors, this is not what they would call fun weather.

So, while I normally would post a recipe for soup on a day like this (read up on yesterday’s blog, that’s the soup I have on the stove right now) here are some bright and wonderfully sweet, yet still healthful treats.

Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim has emphasized the goodness and healthful qualities of nuts, and so today’s contribution is for peanut butter sandwich cookies!  These are gluten-free, and healthy enough for Jung Suwon warriors as a snack in between classes, or as a post Jung Suwon class pick-me-up.  There is no flour in these cookies, and you can even use less sugar than the recipe tells you to, I have tried it out with as little as 1/2 the amount and the cookies still came out great.

The recipe for these cookies and the idea to make them into sandwiches comes entirely from Shirley Braden , and you get get the recipe for them here,  from her very informative website called, “gluten free easily.”

And while you make these little gems, keep Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim’s words, from her book, “The Silent Master,” in your mind and thought:

“When you prepare your food, the energy you put into the process will affect the quality of the outcome.  Was your food prepared with love and care and the will to nourish?  Or was it prepared with feelings of anger and resentment, anxiety and hurry?  When you eat food prepared either way, it will have a nourishing quality that corresponds to the energy and intent of the preparer.”

If you have the will power to let them cool off unharmed – while they are cooling off, whip some low-fat cream cheese until very smooth, and add some nutella.  How much, is up to your taste buds.  Sometimes I just go with straight nutella, but I do like the tanginess of the cream cheese.

These are worth the wait though.  As Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim says, great things seldom come from convenience or fast food stores, but put in your energy and see the results!

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Quick, very healthy and gluten free lunch sandwich

It’s Memorial Day weekend, and we practically live outdoors now, especially since the temperatures are wonderful, around 65 degrees!  Perfect!

Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim has invited us to all kinds of great outdoor activities, including a BBQ.  But until then, hungry warriors are storming Jung Suwon, and something has got to be done about that!

It can’t take too much time to make food either, so here is a very healthy and very fast sandwich idea to keep Jung Suwon warriors going!  This can be made with regular bread, or, like I do, with your favorite gluten free bread.

Asparagus sandwich:

Pre-heat oven to 400 F.

Wash, and thinly slice lengthwise a handful of asparagus spears (about 6 or so spears per 2 sandwiches).  Sautee in one tablespoon of oil, with freshly crushed garlic, and add a tablespoon of chopped cashew nuts.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Saute until the asparagus is crip/tender.

While you saute the asparagus, toast 2 slices (per serving) of your favorite (gluten free) bread, and spread thinly with mustard.  Put on a layer of thinly slices avocadoes.  Heap the asparagus mixture on top of the avocado slices, and top with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese.  Broil for a few minutes until cheese is melty.

If you have really ravenous Jung Suwon warriors knocking at your door (or anyone else for that matter), you could also add a basted egg on top.  Either way, it’s delicious!

Happy Memorial Day to all, and please take a minute or two and think of all our service members and the great sacrifices they make to make the world a better place to live in!

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Ice cream Sandwiches, gluten free!!!

At Jung Suwon, we have many different programs for young people, and Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim has given the opportunity to some Jung Suwon warriors, if they so desire, to help build a training course.  Think Army, or Marine, training courses!   This has been very rewarding, and loads of fun!  There was a lot of heavy physical activity involved, like digging holes, making cement, hauling lumber, and things like that.  It really means a lot to these Jung Suwon warriors to help build “their” training area!  As Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim puts it, they are putting their energy into it, and it will be truly “theirs.”

Of course, Jung Suwon warriors get hungry and deserve treats!  It was hot, and ice cream was in order.  But just plain ice cream?  That’s difficult to serve “out there.”  Ice cream sandwiches are neat and easy to transport little packages!

I had just bought a bunch of coconut flour because Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim had asked me to check it out, since it seems to be a very healthy type of flour.  But I had no clue yet as to how to use it.  I had learned from Shirley at Gluten Free Easily that it absorbs a lot more liquids than other flours.

The recipe on the back of the package seemed ideal.  “Allison’s wheat Free Brownies.”

Here is the recipe, straight from the bag:

Here is the front of the bag, if you would like to get the same brand, but I am sure any brand will work:

I made them almost exactly as per recipe, except instead of butter I used coconut oil, and for sugar I used coconut palm sugar, and I left out the chocolate chips.

Here is how they looked as just plain brownies (for those that couldn’t tolerate dairy):

They tasted really really good already, even without the ice cream!

I cut the remaining pieces horizontally….

and filled them with Ben and Jerry’s vanilla ice cream:

put a generous layer of ice cream on the bottom brownie half, and top with the other, wrap and freeze.  It only took about an hour to freeze these beauties.

Needless to say, all this goodness was gobbled up in no time at all!

For those of us that aren’t familiar with coconut flour yet, one word of caution:

mix the brownie batter together just before you put it in the oven – if you have to let it sit (like I did on my first batch) – the batter turned to cement!  Appearently the coconut flour is a moisture hog and will absorb every last drop, unless you can get it in the oven and bake it before it has a chance to do that!

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Healthy all natural detox soup

Dandelion

I have always been intrigued by natural foods, and living off the land.  But I didn’t know just how much you can literally live off that land!  Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim has opened up my eyes as to what you can eat, and what is better left to the cows!

When Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim was just a little girl, she was abandoned by her parents during the Korean War, because she was considered “just an extra mouth to feed.”  During that time, she learned to fend for herself, and quickly learned how to pick “weeds” and make food from it.  At the time, it was just for survival, but now Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim teaches that these “weeds” are very healthy and cleansing and work as a wonderful body detox, especially after the winter months.

The following “recipe” is just a guideline, a lot will depend on what you can find, and your taste buds.  But here I will share how Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim showed me to prepare this.  Incidentally, this soup is wonderful after a strenuous Jung Suwon class, when you crave food, but need something light and healthy.

First, go outside and see what plants you can find.  If you don’t know plants very well, you could go to a local health food store and buy some dandelions, it will work well.

Otherwise, here are some plants you could use:

Stinging nettle

stingless nettle

Sorrell

Pick a bunch of very young leaves only.  No flowers or old leaves – just the very young sprouts and tips of leaves.  Wash very well in water with Kosher salt, several times.  Chop into bite sized pieces (they are probably the right size if you picked them at their ideal “age.”)

Saute some onions and ground garlic in olive oil (if you prefer butter, that works too), until onion and garlic turn beige to light brown.  Add half of the wild herbs and briefly saute.  Add some flour (I use Shirley’s gluten free mix (see bottom of page), but you could use any gluten free combination you like, except, perhaps, coconut flour and almond flour.)

Brown the flour and then add either chicken broth, or water.  I prefer water, as it lets the fine flavor of the wild veggis come through, but chicken broth is also very good.

Put this in a blender and blend until smooth.  It should be nice and creamy.  Add salt and pepper to taste, but don’t overpower it.  The main flavor should be the wild herbs.  Finely chop the  rest of the herbs and add into the soup, just slightly heating it.

And that’s it, it’s that simple!  You could of course, get fancy and add a dollop of sour cream.  Or, if you want it more “Korean” flavored, mix in some goju chang.  (spicy red pepper paste.)  Or you could add some croutons and even some chicken.

But, as Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim points out, sometimes the simple things are the best!  I happen to like this soup the simplest way possible!

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Culture Clash in the kitchen

Since I train at Jung Suwon, and work at Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim’s company Lighthouse Worldwide Solutions, I work with a lot of Koreans.  Wonderful people and I have a great time interacting with them and often times get some recipes for old time Korean goodies, although, the recipes are more like my grandmothers’ : take a handful of this, and a smidgen of that…..and add enough spices to make it taste right….

Anyway, one time, one of Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim’s Korean friends, after a lovely dinner, looked me straight into the eyes and said, “white bitch!”

Gasp!  My jaw dropped.

You can imagine what I felt.  I had known this wonderful gentleman for many years, and had absolutely no ideas why he would call me bitch.  I had no idea what was going on.  And to my biggest surprise, all the other Koreans in the room started to laugh, no, roar uncontrollably.

I was lost.  Not only was I being called a white bitch and now they were laughing!  Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim stepped in, and between laughs, explained that what he meant to say, was “white peach,” but because of pronunciation difficulties, it turned into “bitch.”

Whew!

Good thing I didn’t take him seriously when he asked me to go to the crapp house and pick up some food (He had meant a restaurant called the “Crab House.”

So last week a charming Korean lady, visiting Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim, and wanted to cook a traditional Korean meal.  This was great, and as she was serving all kinds of wonderful food, when she served a particular marinated vegetable, she shook her head and said, “I haven’t killed it enough, I think I have to go kill it some more!”

This was an entirely plant based dish!  Nothing even remotely needing to be killed, and besides, I typically don’t have anything alive sitting in the fridge!   Again, Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim was laughing – she understood completely!

She explained that what this lady meant was that she needed to marinate the Korean greens longer to make them more tender!

Hope you had a good laugh today!

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Midnight miracle muffins

We had some unexpected guests over, and it was late.  Very wonderful people, but I had nothing to offer, and I was about to get stressed about this situation.  But just in time I remembered something Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim shared with us in  Jung Suwon class, (thankfully it’s also written down in her book, “Seven Steps to Inner Power:”

“Ideally, your awareness should be like a pool of water.  Light travels easily into still water, and you can see right into it.  It becomes very clear.  But when the wind blows and the water is agitated, or when the water is polluted, you can’t see what’s in it clearly.  So how can you make your mind like a pool of still, clean water, undisturbed by turbulent surface thoughts, free from polluting feelings and emotions, so that the light of your consciousness travels easily into your awareness?”

I calmed down and went to work.  The guests, even though not Jung Suwon warriors themselves, would appreciate something reasonably healthy, so my initial thought was to make my “go to” pound cake recipe, but as muffins for shorter baking time, and add fruit and nuts.  But, halfway through mixing it up, I realized that I didn’t have some of the key ingredients, such as buttermilk or even milk.  Oh, and it was a gluten containing recipe too!  Stress returning – I had already creamed the butter and sugar (half of the original recipe) and eggs!  Now what?

“You are creative energy,” these words from Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim rang through my head.

I gathered all the different kinds of flours I had at home, and meanwhile turned on the oven to a safe, all purpose 350 degrees.  Lined muffin pans with cute butterfly liners and went back to the mixing.

Want to see the result?

Want to try re-create them?

Here is what I did – and feel free to substitute to your heart’s content, as long as you know what you are doing!

Recipe for gluten-free, Midnight miracle muffins:

2 1/2 sticks butter (I imagine coconut oil would work, 1 stick butter = 1/2 cup) and 2 sticks would work well too I imagine

1 1/2 cups brown or palm sugar

4 eggs

3 1/2 cups flour total, I used 1 cup almond flour, 1/2 cup Teff flour, and 2 cups of Shirley’s gluten free flour

1/2 tsp Xanthum gum,

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup yoghurt, strawberry banana yoghurt (you can, of course, use any flavor you like!)

cream together the butter, sugar and add eggs one at a time.  Slowly mix in yoghurt and rest of ingredients, but make sure all the flours you use are blended together well before incorporating into the batter.

Bake for about 15 – 25 minutes, then share these wonderful morsels with those you love!

If you train at Jung Suwon, remember to bake up a batch and share with your fellow Jung Suwon warriors (hint 😉 )

Credit where credit is due: the very original recipe I started to work from was from here.

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