In the May 23rd issue of Time Magazine, there is an article titled “Bad-Mouthing Gluten: What’s behind the craze for gluten-free food.“  A copy of the article has been circulating around the building and soliciting varied responses from employees. Unfortunately, I can’t share the whole article with you and the website doesn’t print the entire article, so you’ll have to find a copy at the store to read it in its entirety.

More than anything, the article brings up the topic of eating gluten free for reasons beyond celiac disease and gluten intolerance. The article quotes a recent survey by Packaged Facts, a market research firm, that showed only 8 to 12% of people who purchase gluten free foods did so because of a health condition that required it. It seems to me that a perception of gluten free as healthier or better for weight loss has been gaining traction in the media. I can’t help but think that this comes from a lack of fully understanding what gluten is and why gluten free foods exist.

I feel lucky to work so closely with people who understand what gluten is and why some people cannot tolerate even the tiniest amount of it. I am grateful to all of you, our customers, who have taught me so much about living a gluten free life and what the efforts we put into our gluten free products mean to you.

What do you think about this trend of eating gluten free for reasons beyond celiac disease and gluten intolerance? We truly want to know.

May is one of my favorite times of the year at Bob’s Red Mill. Not only do the flowers let lose all over the country (at least we hope they are blooming where you are), but May is National Celiac Disease Awareness Month. That might not seem like a reason to celebrate, but May is as good a time as any to spread the word about celiac disease and gluten intolerance.

Celiac disease is a genetic condition in which the consumption of foods containing gluten (a form of protein found in some grains e.g. wheat, barley, and rye) triggers an autoimmune response that damages the small intestine. The damage to the intestine makes it hard for the body to absorb nutrients from food, especially fat, calcium, iron, and folic acid, leading to malnutrition and a variety of other problems such as diarrhea, weight loss, and weakness.

In the United States, the exact number of people who have Celiac Disease is not known. Recent screening tests have shown that 1 in every 133 people may have the condition. Many of those people are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed with other conditions that have similar symptoms. The only cure is to follow a gluten free diet.

To make life a little easier for those with Celiac Disease, Bob’s Red Mill has dedicated a special section of our company solely to the production of gluten-free flours, cereals and baking mixes. They are all produced in a facility separated from where our products that contain gluten are manufactured, and they are tested in our laboratory using the R-5 ELISA Gluten Assay Test to ensure that they are gluten-free. Watch our video tour of our gluten free facility here.

Here are some fun ideas for spreading awareness of celiac disease:

1. Bring gluten free treats to your work or your child’s classroom and prove to others just how delicious gluten free can be. Make sure to bring your A-game and practice first if you’re not sure about a recipe.
2. Host a gluten free party and serve only gluten free foods and beverages. This is a great way to talk about the less-known sources of gluten (think beer and soy sauce). A simple Google search turned up pages of great ideas for a gluten free party.
3. Take a newly diagnosed friend or family member grocery shopping or help them clean out their kitchen to prepare for the new diet.
4. Organize a meet-up for other families on the gluten free diet.
5. Challenge yourself to try a new restaurant where you’ve heard they are responsive to special diet needs.

Got others? Share them with us on Facebook or in the comments here.

To celebrate Celiac Disease Awareness Month, we have some great giveaways planned. I have cookbooks, cookies, baking utensils and more! Keep checking back to here for your chance to win.

I’ve been following Allergic Girl, Sloane Miller, on and off for the last few years. She writes a clever and wonderfully named blog, Please Don’t Pass the Nuts, that helps those with food allergies navigate all aspects of their life safely and with joy. I was really excited when she contacted me about her new book, Allergic Girl: Adventures in Living Well with Food Allergies. She’s written you a lovely guest post and to help promote this amazing resource, we’re giving away a copy of her book and a $25 Bob’s Red Mill Gift Card to two lucky winners. See below for giveaway details and how to enter. Without further ado, here is Sloane…

People ask me two questions, a lot:

First:  Why write Allergic Girl: Adventures in Living Well With Food Allergies?

My Please Don’t Pass The Nuts blog readers who have food allergies and the friends and family who love and support them are the inspiration for Allergic Girl: Adventures in Living Well With Food Allergies. There is a real need for information and support in the food allergic community.  I want Allergic Girl to fill those needs.

I became a food allergy advocate because I am committed to helping people with food allergies live safe, effective and joyous lives.  Allergic Girl talks about the intimate feelings, concerns and dreams those of us with food allergies have and shares my experience and expertise.  I write about the practical realities of understanding and living with food allergies and I offer proven strategies for living well with food allergies.

I have always been an allergic girl.  I have had food allergies since birth and I developed environmental allergies in early childhood.  I am also a social worker and writer.  My work as a food allergy advocate—“Allergic Girl”—combines my commitment to helping people with my personal experience as someone with food allergies and my professional expertise as a social worker and writer.

Second:  What’s my one piece of advice to people with food allergies and the people who love and want to support them: Take your food allergies seriously.

Living with food allergies can be challenging—even scary.  It can and should also be joyful.  Reliable, clear information and support make the difference.  Allergic Girl offers my experience and my best therapeutic strategies for living safely, effectively and joyfully with food allergies.  And remember:  Be patient.  Living well with food allergies doesn’t happen overnight.  But, if you take your food allergies seriously and follow some basic rules, it can happen.

Giveaway:

First of all, we’re not discouraging anyone from entering, but I must say this resource is invaluable for those with food allergies. I hope that anyone who wins will enjoy it and share this with someone who has food allergies and could use Sloane’s wonderful guidance. Even though celiac disease is not an allergy to food, Sloane’s book is a great resource for anyone with celiac disease as many of the same principles still apply.

To Enter:

All you need to do to enter is leave a comment here or on our Facebook page and tell us about your most positive food allergy experience, whether it was your own or a loved one. We’ll pick two lucky winners at random from all of your entries. You have until midnight on March 13th to enter. We’ll pick our two winners using random.org on March 14th.

Hi, I’m Sarena from The Non-Dairy Queen. I’m so excited to have the opportunity to share a little bit of my thoughts on the struggles of living with food restrictions due to allergies and intolerances here…

It’s kind of funny how my thoughts have changed over time since I was first asked about how I cope with the challenges of a dairy free diet. In our household, we don’t just deal with dairy allergies, but soy and gluten are all problems here too. I have lived dairy free for 9 years, soy free for 2 and my husband was diagnosed with celiac disease 2 years ago. Out of everything we can’t have, the one thing we miss the most, is convenience. We just don’t have that when it comes to food any more.

Since when did getting around the grocery store become so difficult or how about how complicated it is to grab a quick healthy bite to eat while you are out running errands or on a trip? I’ve been grocery shopping for my family since I was 15 years old.  I grew up in the kitchen. Cooking and baking were an every day event for me. I even went to culinary school because of my love of food and cooking. Now, after all of these years, I have had to teach myself how to cook all over again.

My allergies are mild, but my intolerance to dairy is extremely high. I get rashes, shortness of breath, anxiety and the usual stomach issues that go along with having food allergies. I have gotten used to shopping and cooking for myself. I rely on soy free vegan products and have learned how to bake things from scratch using these new to me alternatives. I have actually fallen in love with vegan baking. Most people cringe at the term vegan when it comes to baked goods, but really, unless you tell them, they would never know there’s no dairy in what they are eating.

My husband’s issues, however, are far more serious than mine. Not only do his problems affect him physically now, but they cause damage for him later on as well. When we found this out, I had a whole other side of baking and cooking that I had to educate myself on. This was not completely new territory for me since my grandmother has celiac as well, but I never really worked with gluten free flours until my husband was diagnosed. For me, living without was something that I learned to deal with and I just worked around it. For my husband though, living without all of his family favorites was just not an option. My heart broke for him and I just wasn’t willing to let that happen.

With his diagnosis is where grocery shopping became even more fun.

Luckily, I love the grocery store. I spend a lot more time there looking at labels for crazy ingredients. We never really bought a bunch of processed food to begin with, but when you are told you can’t have something, that’s when you start to crave them. Where things get harder, is when you are looking for any of your favorite quick snacks. We have started going to the store together (which I really like). We tag team reading and looking up what is in everything. By the end of looking up all these crazy ingredients, we have forgotten who is intolerant or allergic to what. I have always been more of a whole food person, so when we pick up a bag or box of something and it has only three ingredients, all of which you can identify, we feel like we have hit the jackpot!

Another trick we have learned is that you should focus on the things you can have and not what you can’t have. On our first trip together to the store after we learned about my husband’s diagnosis, he decided to buy better cheeses from the deli department. He felt like it would be more of a treat to have something really great than to buy something else that was trying to mimic something that he loved. There is a balance you have to achieve when you have to give up things that you love. You can find alternatives that will make you just as happy even if they aren’t exactly the same. We have decided to make things simple for now since baking gluten free can be a bit confusing when you don’t know where to start. Everything has a different flavor or texture than what you are used to. There are great products out there, as well as, great resources to get more information. Don’t get overwhelmed by the “giving up” aspect of food restrictions. I have started researching one product or ingredient at a time. I use it in different ways so I know what works and what doesn’t work. It will come together…it just takes some time. There will be failures, but there will also be successes. I work with smaller batches so I know that I won’t be wasting too much if something doesn’t turn out the way I had expected. There have been numerous batches of muffins that have been fed to the birds, but there have also been cakes and loaves of bread that turned out better than our gluten filled favorites. Bob’s Red Mill products have been a lifesaver. I love the information they have on their website about the different products, as well as the recipes to guide you through using these ingredients.

As for traveling or meals when you are out, we have learned that you have to be prepared. I have a list of foods that I always prepare for trips. If it is a longer drive where meals need to be eaten on the road, I will take my gluten free dairy free oatmeal cookies, gluten free sausage balls (my husband’s favorite easy meal at hand), cinnamon bread (a family favorite), fresh cut vegetables and fresh fruit. If we know we will be going out somewhere, we try to look at the restaurant’s website to see what they offer and what we can eat. Most restaurants, even fancier places, will happily accommodate those with food allergies.

This has been a long road for us and I have a feeling that our children are going to be on this journey with us at some point, but I find comfort knowing that we have the support of companies, like Bob’s Red Mill. I like to think of baking and cooking for restrictive diets as an adventure and try to learn from it as opposed to thinking of it as a curse.

We’ll have more posts about food allergies and gluten intolerance in the coming months. I hope you enjoyed Sarena’s post as much as I did. I encourage you to visit her lovely blog, The Non-Dairy Queen to read more about her experiences and experiments with gluten free, dairy-free cooking.

Bob’s Red Mill has been nominated in four categories for the Best of Gluten Free Awards run by Triumph Dining. We’ve been nominated in these categories: Best Gluten-Free Cake Mixes, Best Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix, Best Gluten-Free Hot Cereal (Gluten Free Mighty Tasty Cereal), and Best Gluten-Free Pancake (& Waffle) Mix.

It is quite an honor to be nominated and we would be thrilled to win an award. There are a lot of great companies nominated in 42 different categories, so even if you don’t think we’re the best in all of four of the categories we were nominated in, you should still head over and cast your vote at http://www.triumphdining.com/blog/best-of-gluten-free/

The survey is up until January 14th, 2011.

In case you’re not familiar with Triumph Dining, they’re the folks who put out the lovely Gluten Free Restaurant and Grocery Guides each year. These guides help people following the gluten free diet find restaurants in their area with gluten free choices and safe products in the supermarket. Both of these guides would be an excellent gift for a person who has been recently diagnosed with celiac disease or put on a gluten free diet.

One of our quietly versatile favorites for the holidays at Bob’s Red Mill is our Gluten Free Biscuit and Baking Mix. If you’ve never picked up a package before, you might not know how useful this simple mix of gluten free flours and leaveners is to have on hand. It is really as much of a light, all-purpose flour for many different cookies, shortcakes, and muffins you can create with it.

For instance, if you have just carved the last of the leftover turkey today, and are wondering what to do with all those leftover bits, think about making some GF Turkey and dumpling soup. Just make some simple Turkey Stock as usual and add in some simple GF Biscuit Mix dumplings for the last 15 minutes of simmering and you’ll have comfort food for days!

You may not even realize that on the back of the package our biscuit mix has a recipe for the easiest gluten free pie crust around, making it the perfect solution for the first time gluten free baker. No need to buy another bag of Xanthan Gum, it’s already in there.

If you’re the type of gluten free chef that already has a few of our gluten free flours in the pantry, the biscuit mix can be made into an excellent rollable pie crust, that holds it’s shape as it bakes up light and flaky.

Rollable Pie Crust

Contributed by Nan Goodman, Food Scientist

This recipe uses the Gluten Free Biscuit & Baking Mix as a base to make a rollable 9-inch pie crust.

Ingredients

•1/2 cup GF Biscuit Mix
•1/2 cup White Rice Flour
•1/4 cup Potato Starch
•1 Tb Sugar
•1/3 cup Shortening
•1/4 tsp Vanilla
•1 Egg, slightly beaten
•2 Tb Ice Water

Directions
Combine baking mix, flour, starch and sugar. Cut in shortening with a pastry cutter until pieces are the size of small peas.

Combine vanilla, egg and water. Add all at once to flour-shortening mix, and stir only until combined. Dough should form a soft ball. Place in gallon-size plastic ziploc storage bag and flatten to a small disc. Refrigerate for one hour.

Remove dough from refrigerator. Leaving dough in bag, roll out to approx. 10-inch circle. Cut open seams of bag. Remove one side of bag, and place dough side down in pie plate. Fit dough to pan and remove the plastic bag. Flute edges.

For pastry shell, prick lightly with fork if desired. Bake 400°F for 12-14 minutes, cool, and fill with pie filling.

For filled pie, such as pumpkin or pecan, do not prick crust. Fill with filling and bake according to recipe. Makes 10 servings.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Serving Size: 1 Serving – Crust only (37g)

Calories 150, Calories from Fat 70, Total Fat 8g, Saturated Fat 1.5g, Cholesterol 20mg, Sodium 75mg, Total Carbohydrate 17g, Dietary Fiber less than 1g, Sugars 2g, Protein 2g.

October is Celiac Disease Awareness Month, and we’ve decided that the best way to celebrate all the delicious ways to eat gluten free is to partner with Carol Fenster to bring you another amazing giveaway!

As many of you already know, Carol is a huge advocate for healthy gluten-free baking at home and author of several amazing cookbooks. We’re delighted to be giving away 3 copies of Carol’s brand new book, 100 Best Gluten-Free Recipes. This book uses beautiful photography to highlight the top requested recipes from her earlier impressive encyclopedia of gluten free cooking, 1,000 Gluten-Free Recipes.

If you’re looking for a great way to get started cooking and baking gluten free, 100 Best Gluten-Free Recipes is a comprehensive, yet condensed guide to label reading, shopping guidelines, and cooking advice. One of the great things about Carol’s new book is how it seamlessly blends classics and trendy recipes alike with handy icons that denote quick, vegetarian, and kids’ favorites.

Just to make this gluten free giveaway a little more fabulous we will also add in a gift pack of some of Carol’s favorite gluten free products. Many of Carol’s recipes call for a special blend of Sorghum Flour and other gluten free ingredients that you can make ahead of time and store for use up to 3 months. You’ll be ready to dive right into making everything from Chicken Noodle Soup with Dumplings to Devil’s Food Layer Cake with Fudge Frosting if you’re one of our lucky winners.

Each of the three winners will receive a package containing The autographed book, and one package each of Sorghum Flour, Potato Starch, and Tapioca Flour so they will be ready to get started using Carol’s special sorghum blend for baking.

How to enter:

Please read this carefully or you may not be counted in the giveaway. You must complete number one to be entered, but you have more chances to win by completing the additional entry tasks.

1. To be entered you MUST do this: Leave a comment on this blog post and tell us what your favorite gluten free Bob’s Red Mill Product is. This must be done at www.bobsredmill.com/blog.

Additional Entries:

1 Entry: Visit Carol Fenster’s site, Savory Palate, and locate Carol’s Culinary Cues and sign up for her newsletter. THEN, report back to the blog and tell us that you subscribed.

1 Entry: Become a friend of Carol Fenster on Facebook. THEN, report back to the blog and tell us that you did.

1 Entry: Become a friend of Bob’s Red Mill on Facebook. THEN, report back to the blog and tell us that you did.

If you have already done any of these things for any of our previous giveaways, simply post about each in a separate comment here to be counted as an individual entry.

1 Entry: As a friend of Bob’s Red Mill on Facebook, post a message on our wall and tell us why you want to win.

1 Entry: Follow us on Twitter (@bobs_red_mill). THEN report back to the blog and tell us that you did.

1 Entry: If you have a blog or website, post about this contest and link back to our blog. THEN report back to our blog and tell us that you did.

Again, since so many of you are already friends of ours on Facebook or following us on Twitter, just leave a comment that you’re already doing this and we’ll still count it as an entry.

Don’t forget to return to the blog to tell us what you did to earn extra entries. The contest ends on 11/01/10 at midnight. Winners will be announced on 11/05/10.

Today we are spotlighting a neat little gluten free cookbook that Quest Center for Integrative Health has created to raise money for their ongoing work here in Portland Oregon. This local non profit healthcare clinic has created “Gluten Free? Eat Good and Feel Great!” as a fundraiser to continue their work providing multidisciplinary and integrative health care in a community based setting to all people regardless of income. The sale of each of these cookbooks will help provide healthcare and nutrition advice to their patients, 75% of which are low-income, and under- or uninsured.

This cookbook features lots of healthy gluten free options, as well as a number of pages devoted to helpful hints and popular substitutions. We are definitely going to enjoy testing out their recipe for “Ultimate Oatmeal Cookies” on one of these rainy fall days

If you are interested in picking up this neat little cookbook, and supporting a great cause you can call 503-238-5203 or email them at info@quest-center.org .

Ultimate Oatmeal Cookies

3 Large Eggs
¾ cup canola oil
¾ cup warmed honey
4 ½ cups Gluten Free Quick Rolled Oats
1 ¼ Gluten Free Oat Flour
¾ cup Flaxseed Meal
¾ cup Unsweetened Coconut Flakes
2/3 cup nuts of your choice
2/3 cup raisins (or dried fruit of your choice)

Preheat the oven to 325 F
In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs with an electric mixer.
Add the oil and honey and continue to beat for 1 minute.
In separate extra large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients thoroughly.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and knead well with clean hands until evenly mixed.
Let rest for 20 minutes.
Spoon the dough onto greased cookie sheets.
Press and shape to be ¼ inch thick and about 2” in diameter.
Bake for 15 minutes until golden browned.

You know for certain that awareness of Celiac Disease and gluten intolerance is growing when you get the chance to attend an amazing event like the Suffolk County Celiacs Gluten Free Vendor Fair & Fundraiser in Hauppage, NY. This show is one of the oldest and best attended in the country, and continues to grow in popularity year after year. Bob’s Red Mill was there for our third show, and we brought a wide variety of our gluten free products to display. We also brought along an entire palette of Gluten Free Vanilla Cake Mix and Gluten Free Pizza Crust Mix so that we could hand out free full sized samples to every visitor to our booth.

Many people who stopped by during the weekend wanted to know where they could find our newest oat products and other hard to find ingredients. Luckily Peter Kochanowski, one of our east coast sales representatives, was on hand all weekend to answer all lots of questions about which stores in the area usually sell which types of products. It’s not often that you get the chance to talk to someone with an encyclopedic knowledge of most of the stores and products in your area.

Through out both days, Cassidy and I answered questions about everything from how we make and source our products, to how to use some popular ingredient substitutions. We made sure to let everyone who talked to us know that one of the things that really sets us apart as a company is our amazing Customer Support Team. Many visitors were astounded to discover they had someone they could call with questions about how to use our products. It’s hard to overstate how relieved the newly diagnosed, and the parents of newly diagnosed children, were to know that they had someone that they could call when they got stuck trying to prepare a recipe.

Of course, as the knowledge of how to eat with dietary restrictions grows, so do the number of new products to try. We were particularly amazed by how many prepared foods makers stopped by to ask us about buying in bulk because they have developed tasty new products based on our wide variety of products. As the world of gluten free ready to eat foods and restaurant options continues to grow, it’s nice to be able to let food service entrepreneurs know that we have an amazing specialist like Tim Steiner on hand that they can contact to get the ingredients that they need to keep their businesses growing.

We are always happy when people stopped by to tell us that our products are the very best they’ve tried. It’s always great to see people point us out to their friends while they’re walking towards our booth and say “They’re the best!” or “This is my favorite stuff!” It was even better to be able to send everyone off with some free products to try out in the comfort of their own kitchens.

You may have already heard by now that Sorghum is the Whole Grain Council’s Grain of the Month for June. Sorghum was already on our minds all through May’s Celiac Disease Awareness Month, as sorghum is often mentioned as the most “wheat-like” of all the gluten free flours. One of our favorite recipes using sorghum (other than the great recipe for scones on the package) is this fabulous recipe for Whole Grain Waffles which sound just perfect for a leisurely Sunday breakfast!

If you’ve been baking gluten free for a while you have probably noticed the wealth of recipes calling for sorghum. But despite its remarkable nutritional properties, this humble grain is rarely the center of attention. This is surprising because sorghum is an excellent source of protein and fiber for anyone, and there are even some surprising new studies about other possible health benefits that sorghum might have for diseases as varied as diabetes and cancer.

One fun thing that you may not realize even if you are already familiar with using sorghum is that although the flavor most resembles wheat in baking, the plant itself looks an awful lot like corn in the field. So much so, that there are seasonal “corn” mazes in some parts of the country made entirely from Sorghum! In fact, you’ve probably seen sorghum growing in the field without even noticing that it wasn’t corn.