As you know, I am now on a gluten free diet.  My Martial Arts teacher, Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim has been very supportive and encouraging, and has asked me to dive into this fully, to learn all I can, and see how I can best benefit.

Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim has a very healthy diet herself, and is eating only the best quality foods – notice I said best quality, not most expensive.  The two terms are not necessarily the same.  Sometimes, you can get the best, organic, and healthiest items at local farmers markets, or from friends that grow their own.  Maybe you even have a garden yourself!

Yesterday, I got a really nice surprise.  A co-worker, who also trains under Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim, gave me a box of Arrowhead gluten free all purpose flour mix.  How sweet of her!  (I meanwhile found out that not all Arrowhead flours are truly gluten free, as my friend Shirley from “gluten free, easily” pointed out, so be careful and check.)

I wanted to surprise Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim and some of her students with a nice treat, that was also healthy.  I didn’t have much time, and when I looked at the back of the box, there was a nice recipe for banana bread.  I mixed up double the amount, and added chopped walnuts and some coconut, along with a sprinkle of lemon juice, but only used a cup and a half of sugar – non bleached, organic sugar that is.  I also used my proven, but totally renegade style of mixing cakes:  I put the bananas in the mixer, with the sugar and eggs.  Blended it until no more chunks were left, and then added the melted butter, still in the mixer and turning on high for a couple of minutes.  I added the flour mixture to that, in a bowl and only gently foling in, also the nuts and coconut.   I had some very cute star-shaped disposable cupcake liners and filled in the batter.

I knew it was a winner when Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim bit into one and smiled – and when everyone commented how light and delightfully tasting they were.  As a nice bonus, nobody knew the cupcakes were gluten free and before the last crumb disappeared I already got requests for more!