Celebrate Every Day!

With Christmas, New Year, Birthdays, Lunar New Year and Valentines, there have been lots of celebrations!  I love how Dr. Tae Yun Kim is passionate about celebrations:

“Celebrate every living breath as if it was your last breath,” she says.  I like that!

So in the spirit of celebrating every moment, I was excited to try out a suggestion that Dr. Tae Yun Kim had mentioned a while ago.  “Why not make the traditional Jim Bang healthier, by making the dough gluten-free and making the filling less sugary and add healthy nutrients.

I did one version of these buns last year, and they were good.  But they still needed to improve in the “health department.”

Steaming buns – don’t you peek!  Wait 15 minutes!

So this time, (actual recipe will be coming, promise!) I based the dough on almond flour, chestnut flour, amaranth flour, certified oat flour, sorghum flour and chia seed flour.  I know this sounds complicated, but when you need to live gluten-free AND are a diabetic, and want to live healthy, you start to do your research and learn from other bloggers, too.

To make the dough pliable and hold together, I added psyllium husks and xantham gum (I will have to measure things out next time, this time was purely experimental) and it was actually a nice workable dough.

For the filling, you start by cooking the tiny red adzuki beans until soft, which is approximately an hour or so.  Keep some of the cooking liquid, and mash the beans, not too finely and not too moist.  Add organic pure cacao powder (definitely not Hershey’s cocoa mix), a little bit of honey or maple syrup, and cinnamon to taste.

Now take a bit of the dough, put some gluten-free flour on your hand and gently flatten the dough, so you can put some of the filling and wrap it all up into a nice bun.

As usual, Dr. Kim was right – these buns were divine!  Be brave and try to re-create right away, or wait for the recipe – the choice is yours!  (I would recommend you try anyway!  They are THAT good!)

 

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There is a season for everything! Blackberry pie

Dr. Tae Yun Kim, has been encouraging all her students to eat organically, eat good foods, balanced diet.  Part of that is eating mostly whatever is in season!

It is definitely berry season here in Northern California, and right at the moment, black berries are prime time!  They are delicious right as they are, but if your family got a ton of them – what’s the best option?  For us, that would be pie!

Now, I had in mind, to show you each step how I make the pie, but somehow the pie ended up in the oven and had completely forgotten to take pictures.  Sigh.  Maybe I needed to make another pie?

As so often happens, a quote right out of Dr. Tae Yun Kim‘s book “Seven Steps to Inner Power” came to mind:

“The key to creating harmony in all your life is to live only in the present moment.  Do you do that?  don’t be surprised if you find that an examination of your thought habits reveals that you never or hardly ever live in the present moment.  When it is now, how often are you mentally somewhere else, thinking or worrying about what just happened or what’s going to happen?  Is your mental video recorder constantly playing pictures of the past and concerns for the future?  If so, you are giving up your creative power in the present moment.” (Seven Steps to Inner Power, page 53,54)

Yes, guilty as charged!  As I was putting together the pie, my mind was elsewhere, and it was obvious.  I was far away from the present moment, and I forgot to take pictures of what I was making.  Luckily, I did measure out everything right, and the pie was smashing success!

Normally, I use this pie crust recipe from Shirley.  It is very simple, and easy, and most importantly, it tastes like pie crust is meant to taste – good!  Not some cardboard imitations of a pie crust!  Some pies, I love crustless.  But some pies must have a good, old-fashioned crust, and this is one of them.

For the filling, I do a standard 5-6 cups of blackberries mixed with a little cinnamon and approximately 3 -4 TSP of either arrowroot, or tapioca starch, or corn starch if I don’t have anything else.  I use coconut sugar to taste, it depends on how sweet the berries are.  I have also found that honey works very well!

Sometimes I mix in cinnamon, sometimes vanilla, sometimes even almond extract.  Once in a while I sprinkle some lemon juice – I don’t really measure too much for the filling other than perhaps the amount of starch.  Oh, confession time – sometimes I let the berries soak in some brandy – also very very good!

As you can see from the pictures, this time I did something I normally don’t do – I used a ready-made gluten-free pie crust. This came from Whole Foods Store. I had just gotten my cast removed and can move now, but at the same time – this moving is also a lot more painful – therefore the shortcut on the crust.

For the topping, I used this recipe  – delicious and gluten free!

So, here is the finished beauty – I did not forget to take pictures of the baked pie!

Additional note:  This pie was made with all gluten free ingredients.  The oatmeal/oat flour was certified gluten free, and the rest of the items were naturally gluten free.

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Beauty and the lemon

Since lemons are fruits, and as such, food, I feel justified in blogging about other benefits of the wonderful lemon here.

Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim has taught me a long time ago, that lemons have incredible powers, aside from being health powerhouses, loaded with vitamin C and all other sorts of wonderful things.

But what Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim also points out, is that lemons are wonderful in helping your skin stay young and supple and healthy looking.  Before each meal, including at restaurants, Great Grandmaster Kim asks for some cut up lemon, then takes a wedge, and squeezes the juice into her palms and then gently massages it into her hands.  This not only thoroughly cleans your hands, it will also make the skin so smooth!

After you rub in the lemon juice, let your hands dry naturally in the air.  Don’t rush this step.  Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim advises to let the lemon juice and all its goodness soak in well.  Do not dry off your hands.  Let them dry naturally.

If you want to get the full “lemon benefit” in your life, have some cut up lemons and kosher salt in your shower, Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim says, ” just before you get into the shower, squeeze some lemon juice into a handful of Kosher Salt, and make a paste – use that instead of soap.”

“Here look at my hands, at my skin,” Great Grandmaster Kim offers, “See how smooth they are, just like baby skin.”

During lectures and seminars, Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim sometimes has her staff pass out out freshly cut lemon wedges, for everyone in attendance to try this.

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Anorexia on a food blog? What on earth??

One more thing before I am going to blog my heart out:  I used to be anorexic from age 14 on ….until about age 28 or somewhere there.

Because most of the very popular girls in school were either very thin, or trying to be thin, and since I wasn’t popular at all – it figures that I wanted to be like them to fit in more.  Not that I was fat – I was quite normal for my age.  But I did’t see it that way.  I thought I was sooo fat, and started to eat less and less, and when I did eat, I started taking overdoses of laxatives – and I mean just that.  We are talking serious overdoses here. 

That’s also something I saw the popular girls do, or talk about, and I so desperately wanted to fit in, even I didn’t want to admit it. 

But, this is a blog about food, and not about ways to avoid it.  This is about enjoying the food you purchase, prepare, and eat, without any regrets. 

So, how did I get from anorexic to food blogger? 

After I started training in the Martial Arts, at Jung SuWon to be exact.  My teacher, Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim, of course noticed that I was way thin, and also way weak.  She kindly explained that I was destroying not only my body, but also my mind, and that she would help me get back on track to a more normal eating pattern.

She walked her talk.  Within a couple of months I was able to actually enjoy food again.  I wasn’t indulging or anything….but no more laxatives, and long term not eating.  Little by little I was able to realize that food is not the enemy!

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