The joke in our house is that we pack the same amount of stuff for a one day cross race as we do for a 2 week-long trip. It’s a lot of stuff! I pack several plastic bins with various items that I will need for easy access and transport. These bins go from the car to the house easily, although during cross season they tend to just stay in the car for 3 months of races.

Bin #1: Start Bin

The start bin contains anything I might need before the start of the race:

Embrocation for the legs, chamois cream, endurolytes, lip balm, menthol for chest or nose, and a jar of safety pins.

Bin #2: Medical Bin

You never know. We all crash, and it can get pretty messy out there. So, it’s best to have a med bin to clean up your wounds after the race. Include some sort of antibacterial cleanser, gloves (in case you need to help someone else), gauze pads, bandages of various sizes, gauze wrap or tubular gauze, antibiotic cream (Neosporin) and meds such as ibuprofen, Tums, Pepto, benadryl and any prescriptions you may have including an extra inhaler, etc.

Bin #3: Food

Pack all of your gels and food for pre- and post-race in a bin for easy access.

Packing your bag

I carry one bag with all my “extra” things in it that I may or may not need. The Spare Clothing Bag comes to every race regardless of the predicted weather:

1. Arm warmers, leg warmers, knee warmers
2. Warm gloves, regular gloves
3. Extra base layer, extra socks
4. Rain gear, rain cap
5. Booties, vest, long sleeve, wind jacket

The regular race items go in the Race Bag:

1. Skinsuits, long and short sleeve
2. Bib shorts, short sleeve jersey
3. Glasses, helmet, shoes, gloves, socks

And yes, there’s more:

1. Baby wipes and towels for clean up
2. Cooler with bottles and extra water
3. Blanket
4. Folding chair
5. Trainer
6. Spare wheels
7. Bikes
8. Tool kit, pump, lube
9. Clothing for after the race

Most pros have learned that the “off season” is really only a few weeks of rest before getting back on the bike before losing any fitness. That way, you continue to build upon each year rather than starting all over again. For most non-pros, it means trying to stay lean and not completely un-fit until the next season.

For that reason, I recommend keeping your diet and nutrition plan the same year-round. You may need to cut back on portions in the off-season, but continue to enjoy the same whole grain breakfasts and meals that will keep your metabolism and glycemic index in check.

Mo’s top 5 tips for Cross season overall wellness:

1. Get 8 hrs of sleep.
2. Hydrate. Even when it’s cold out, you need more fluids.
3. Get a massage 1-2x a month.
4. Wash your hands often, especially when traveling.
5. Keep your diet as consistent as possible. Travel with food if needed.

Mo’s top 5 training tips:

1. Take one rest day each week and one rest week each month (do active recovery like yoga, pilates or walking).
2. Plan a ‘ross specific workout 1x a week (Weds are good) for hard intervals, barrier practice and run ups.
3. Make your hard training days really hard, and your easy training days really easy.
4. Get a professional bike fit before you start the season.
5. Keep your equipment clean and well maintained.

Everyone is different when it comes to race nutrition, but all too often we get it wrong and our bodies feel terrible. Here is a basic guide to pre-race and post-race nutrition:

Start by trying out different foods on your training days to see how your body will feel. After trying out all sorts of things, I stumbled upon Bob’s Red Mill Steel Cut Oats as my pre-race breakfast, and I’ve never looked back!

Both Steel Cut and Rolled Oats are great pre-race choices due to their low glycemic index and ability to digest easily and slowly. These oats are also surprisingly high in protein, making them a well balanced pre- or post-race food.

Pre-Race Recipe: Steel Cut or Rolled Oats with fresh fruit and maple syrup. Or add seeds, nuts and cinnamon. If you eat eggs, you can also crack an egg into your cooking oats a few minutes before they are done and stir it in.

Post-Race Recipe: Try a savory version of Steel Cut Oats, Quinoa or Barley Pearl. Add diced apple, dried fruit, nuts or seeds, tofu cubes, salt, pepper and spices to cooked grains as a perfect post-race meal.

What should I eat while training? Everyone wants to know what the pros are doing! Working as a soigneur for pro road teams, I saw a mixed bag of top level pros who had very healthy, organic, preservative-free diets, and some who ate candy bars and soft drinks. Both were equally successful on the bike, but the latter begs for some lifestyle change somewhere down the road.

Why not start now with a healthy balanced diet that doesn’t feel like a “diet,” but more like a well-balanced nutrition plan? Here are 5 easy tips for getting started:

1. Clean out your cupboards. Toss or donate to your local food bank any items packed with preservatives, excess sugars and/or ingredients you can’t pronounce.
2. Get a good cookbook. Learning to enjoy cooking makes preparing healthier meals much easier.
3. Begin adding new items to your cupboards. You can start with some Bob’s Red Mill products: Steel Cut Oats, Old Country Style Muesli, Corn Grits Polenta, Quinoa and soup mixes.
4. If this is a big change, start with one meal a week. Get the family involved, too–kids often love to help.
5. Allow yourself to enjoy some treats. Nothing tastes better than homemade cookies!

Sprinkle oats on top of your muffins to create a visual delight.

Making muffins every morning, your mind definitely wanders. There have been many combinations of ingredients that I have thought of before many people awake. Here are some ways to utilize all the flavors of Bob’s Red Mill.

One great thing about the Whole Grain Store is the bulk bins. You can get many ideas by just waltzing down the aisles. First of all, have you seen our three different types of coconut? Experimenting with all three  I have found that the fine macaroon coconut adds the best texture to muffins. Very little recipe adjustment is needed to add the coconut. I usually just cut back on the flour a little or add more liquid.

Another addition is cornmeal. Cornmeal also adds a great texture, not to mention an extra flavor to those berry muffins. Bob’s Red Mill carries Fine, Medium and Coarse Ground Cornmeal, but for muffins I recommend fine or medium. Just replace ½ of a cup of your flour with cornmeal and voila! Mix it up!

Lastly, make a triple berry muffin using a dried berry with two fresh ones. For example, dried cranberries with fresh blueberries and raspberries. It’s all about different textures and flavors. Try something new, you might surprise yourself.

A couple things to watch out for when playing, yes this is playing, with muffin recipes is to not over mix and don’t add too many things. Muffins bake up gummy and chewy if they are over mixed. Always, use a spatula or spoon. Also, muffins can get weighed down by all the fillers if you add too much. You’ll end up with sad heavy and dense muffins, so be careful. My last bit of advice is to allow enough flour for excess moisture from frozen fruit. Many times frozen fruit especially rhubarb, peaches and strawberries carry a lot of water that is released when they are baked into a muffin.

I hope these ideas and tips make for some fun muffin time. Happy baking!

Soup saved me on so many levels on our trip- usually it was vegetarian and homemade.

We’re halfway through October and I thought I would give you a quick update on my unprocessed challenge. To say I blew it in Scotland and the Netherlands is to put it mildly. I had no notion of how difficult eating pure, whole foods would be once I left the states.

I started off really well- we packed lots of wholesome snacks- but fell apart once we started having to eat out for every meal. Our trip over was long and grueling and after about 15 hours of travel I had a hard time turning down the perfect little brownie that had an ingredient list almost as long as the brownie itself. I was tired and there were no veggie options for dinner (my fault for not making my needs clear). So I took what I could get- which was a pretty lousy salad minus dressing, a roll and a chemical-laden brownie.

Once we reached our first destination, I was just sure that I was navigating my options really well. Later I discovered that some of the items I had been eating were straight from a box/can. What can you do when something that seems so perfectly homemade and wonderful appears on your plate? You eat it and then, when you discover it’s not, you pass it by.

I love Scotland, but I had a lot of trouble determining what was made from real foods and what just came out of a can. I suppose that can be an issue no matter where you choose to eat- unless you find the top tier restaurants that proclaim their use of whole food ingredients. Let’s just say that the movement is not as well established in Great Britain as it is here in Portland, Oregon.

It was a bit easier once we crossed over into the Netherlands, where we found endless cafes offering homemade soup and sandwiches, as well as several nice little specialty markets where we picked up loaves of bread and freshly made salads.

A typical Scottish breakfast (minus the haggis for me) contains canned beans, canned mushrooms and a potato scone (delicious, but definitely processed). Courtesy of Tripadvisor.com

Our last day of travel back to the states was a total nightmare and eating was a ‘take what you can get’ situation. Admittedly, I could have planned better. I could have gone out the day before and bought some snacks that were wholesome, but as it was we’d spent almost every last Euro and were so exhausted that we had to force ourselves out of our room for dinner. Our layovers were eaten up by long customs and security lines, so there wasn’t a chance to grab a bite at any restaurants- this was the first time I had to actually buy food on the plane just so we weren’t starving.

So I blew it all over the board, but I did it consciously, knowing that sometimes you have to sacrifice your ideals to keep your blood sugar in check. Now that we’re back, though, we’re determined to make the rest of the month unprocessed with zeal. I hope everyone else is having better luck than I am. Each day is a new day to start fresh.

These gluten free Oatmeal Pancakes use both oat flour and quick oats.

Earlier this year, we introduced Gluten Free Quick Rolled Oats and Gluten Free Oat Flour to our gluten free product line. At that time, many of our recipes were labeled as wheat free, because they called for conventional oat flour (which is in contact with gluten and other allergens). Now that we have a gluten free option, these recipes have switched to the gluten free category of our recipe database.

We are so proud to offer a wide assortment of gluten free oat products and recipes using these products for your convenience. Here are some of our favorites, which we hope you will enjoy! Check out the recipes section of our website for even more!

Coconut Almond Oatmeal Cookies uses various flours and oats to make a real treat.

Coconut Almond Oatmeal Cookies

Oatmeal Pancakes

Wheat Free Oatmeal Cake

Whole Grain Waffles

Almond Cookies

Diagnosed with Celiac Disease two and a half years ago, Sarah of Celiac in the City, has set out to continue living life, without missing out. She blogs all about her gluten free adventures in Milwaukee and out and about while traveling. Also hosts monthly dinner events in the Milwaukee area for gluten free friends. Sarah has been counting on Bob’s Red Mill products from the beginning. They haven’t let her down yet.

My mom used to keep bananas in the freezer. After they had reached their prime ripeness, she would toss them in a baggie and into the freezer they would go. There they would blacken. Numerous times I would open the door wide, in search of ice cream. And end up with a frozen banana dropped on my foot. I never understood why she saved them.

And then I had her banana bread.

Now I know that those black bananas in the freezer are the key ingredient to a family favorite. The banana bread my grandma used to make. And then my mom made. And now I am making.

Except my grandma didn’t have to make her banana bread gluten free. My mom didn’t either.

Until now.

After finding out that my sister and I have Celiac Disease, some of our family favorites needed modifying.

And that’s why I’m here. When the friendly folks at Bob’s Red Mill were in search of some readers to contribute a guest post, it seemed like the perfect time to convert my grandma’s recipe to a gluten free version.

My mom, being the supportive and wonderful woman that she is, has made this gluten free over the past couple of years. And it was perfect.

But as she puts it, “I really can’t remember what gluten free flours I used, I just used a little of this and a little of that from the freezer.”

It was time to make some notes. Jot down what flours were used.

And share it with all of you.

Grandma EdithAnn’s Banana Bread

• 3 mashed bananas
• 1/2 cup oil  (I used canola)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 beaten eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon zanthan gum
• 10 oz gluten free flour:
• 2 oz white rice flour  (1/2 cup)
• 2 oz brown rice flour (1/2 cup)
• 3 oz sweet rice flour (1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon)
• 3 oz millet flour  (1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon)

optional:

• 1/2 cup nuts
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine oil, sugar, and eggs. Mix well. Add bananas.

Combine dry ingredients, then mix into the wet ingredients. You cannot over mix this batter.

Put into greased bread pan. Bake 50 minutes, or until knife comes out clean when inserting. This batter is also perfect for muffins or mini loaves, but be sure to adjust the time.

I started weighing my flours for gluten free baking. Well worth the investment of the scale. Not all flours weigh the same. No worries though, you have the measurements by weight and by cups here. And you can experiment with different gluten free flours to find the ones you love. Just substitute 5 oz of gluten free flour for each cup of all purpose flour called for in recipes.

I’m a huge fan of nuts in my baked goods. And chocolate. Grandma didn’t use chocolate chips, but they were a welcomed addition.

If the bread gets dark during baking, just place some foil on top to prevent  it from getting too dark.

You really should wait for it to cool before eating. But I couldn’t wait.

I think my mom will love it.

And Grandma would be proud.

After the first day of racing at Gloucester I was already thinking about all of the things I could put into a race report. It wasn’t pleasant. So I thought it best to wait it out until after Sunday’s race before giving the weekend report.

Gran Prix of Gloucester – Day 1

I’ve made several jokes in the past about the races at Gloucester having some sort of bad mojo for me but I thought that I had won the battle when I made it on the podium last year. Well, Gloucester wasn’t done with me yet. After a good start on a newly designed super fun and technical course, I was working hard to stay in the top five and feeling pretty strong. With two laps to go I was in 4th place hoping to stick with the leaders and try for a podium spot when my front tire was punctured on a rock and I crashed onto a metal drainage grate. I hopped up quickly but had to ride really, really slowly to the pits in order to avoid skidding the flat front tire. After swapping bikes there were only 1-½ laps to go in the race and I was digging deep to catch all of the riders that had passed me. I was a bit too frantic in my attempt to chase back my position and skidded out in a corner, crashed, dropped my chain, had to take some time to get it back on and then chase back through a few riders finishing 11th, super annoyed with the day and just wanting it to go away. Sorry to all the nice friends and family that came out that day, I was pretty bummed out and not very social after the race.

Cyclocross Magazine and Cyclingnews coverage can be found here and here.

Gran Prix of Gloucester – Day 2

I’ve tried to love Gloucester. I’ve kinda hated Gloucester and I’ve tried to dismiss all the bad luck as early season glitches. I decided to approach Sunday with as much indifference as possible, maybe that would work. The course was changed to the “classic” format and it was faster, less technical and windy. I had another good start and stuck with the lead group of seven or so riders. It seemed that we were all taking turns trying to get ahead of each other without any luck until one rider crashed and the leader got away. The chase group began to pull apart a little and I kept trying to get a gap on the other riders at a long dirt run-up without much luck. No one really wanted to be out in the headwind in the lead so the race came down to the final lap and I ended up 5th. It was a much better race than the day before but I was feeling quite sore in my right hip from the fall the day before and perhaps a little flat in the legs. I’m still not convinced that Gloucester and I are done with one another yet.

Cyclocross Magazine and Cyclingnews coverage can be found here and here. Check out a post-race interview with Colt from Cyclindirt.org here.

A few weeks ago at work, I was feeling hungry for a treat. Someone had brought cookies to share (it’s a rare occurrence that someone isn’t bringing in some kind of baked good around here), but being a vegan, I wasn’t able to have one. I work mostly in customer service, but I get to work in the kitchen sometimes—which I absolutely love, because I find great joy in playing around with recipes. It was the end of the week, and the phones were relatively quiet, so I decided to take advantage and head into the kitchen to satisfy my craving.

I knew that I wanted to make some sort of quick bread and that I wanted to play around with Chia Seeds, since they’re a newer item on our product list and we don’t have many recipes calling for these nutritious little seeds. I didn’t have much time, so I quickly scribbled down a recipe based on other quick breads I’ve made, whipped up the dough and baked it in the oven. The results were surprisingly divine. Our customer service department devoured it in just a few hours.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Lemon Chia Bread

2 Tb Chia Seeds
¼ cup Lemon Juice
½ cup Rice Milk
½ cup Margarine
½ cup Sugar
1 ½ cups Unbleached White Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
¼ tsp Baking Soda
¼ tsp Salt 

Glaze:
2 Tb Sugar
1 Tb Lemon Juice

Combine the chia seeds, lemon juice and rice milk.  Let stand for 15 minutes. 

Cream together the margarine and sugar until smooth.  Slowly add the chia seed mixture and blend well.  Add the dry ingredients and blend until just combined.  Scoop into a greased 8 inch loaf pan and bake at 350°F for 45-50 minutes.  When taken out of the oven, combine the sugar and lemon juice for the glaze and pour evenly over the top.  Slice and serve when cooled slightly.  Makes 10 servings.