This guest post comes from Evan at Food Makes Fun Fuel. We love his blog because he loves food just as much as we do and embraces a great attitude about being gluten free. Enjoy this insight into his favorite Bob’s Red Mill products and check out his blog at FoodMakesFunFuel.com.

Hi, Bob’s Red Mill fans. My name is Evan, a runner with a passion for cooking and a blog called FoodMakesFunFuel.com.There’s always been something fun about baking, whether it’s impressing people and making them happy, knowing that you made something special, or just licking the batter. I never thought that I’d need to follow a gluten-free diet. The day I found that out felt like a death sentence to my baking career. No more brownies from a box; no more funfetti cupcakes; not even light and fluffy pancakes on a Saturday morning.

Rather than letting this be a “death sentence”, I started looking at ways to continue on pursuing my hobby and having fun with it. Little did I know then that a company called Bob’s Red Mill made all the gluten-free delicacies I could have hoped for. By using their flours in place of traditional wheat flours, I’ve been able to recreate delicious and whole grain baked goods just as well as ever.

For anyone who might be new to gluten-free baking, here are a few of my favorite products and substitutions. With these in your pantry, making anything will be so simple you’ll swear it couldn’t be true.

In place of enriched, bleached flour use Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free all purpose flour blend.  This is the easiest switch you could make. Bob’s Red Mill’s all-purpose flour is a perfect mix of flours and starches to substitute in any recipe. I love using it in traditional brownie recipes for that same, fudgy feel.

For a quick cake fix, use Bob’s Red Mill’s gluten-free vanilla cake mix instead of any other brand. When my birthday rolled around, my family wanted to make me something but had no clue about gluten-free baking. I told them not to worry and to turn to this cake mix. Not only is this a great mix, but it also contains whole grain sorghum flour. Try making it into cupcakes for a bite-sized dessert.

One of the foods I miss most being gluten-free is a simple pizza. Of course, you can get take out pizza anywhere, but gluten-free? Not so much. Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free pizza crust is perfect for making your own. Besides being nice and chewy like a good crust should be, it’s made with whole grain rice flour; in that respect, it’s actually better than most pizza crusts!

These are just a taste of my favorite uses for Bob’s Red Mill’s gluten-free line. If you’re wondering what else there is, plenty. Just take a look and you’ll see that living gluten-free is NOT a baking death sentence. It’s just the starting point.

In July, 2010, Bob’s Red Mill welcomed Maureen Bruno-Roy, a charming vegan cyclocross rider, to our cyclocross sponsorship program. In the past three years, we have added riders and teams around the country to our program with product sponsorship and Bob’s Red Mill team kits. Maureen was the overall winner of the 2009 USA Cycling Cyclocross Calendar and the first professional athlete we have ever sponsored. We’re so excited to work with Maureen and have been watching her progress closely for several years.

Not only is she a great rider, but Maureen has been a long-time user and fan of Bob’s Red Mill. “I’m honored to have the support of Bob’s Red Mill during what I expect to be my most successful season yet,” said Maureen Bruno Roy. “Because of its energizing properties, I now start each day – whether it is going to involve training, competing in a race, or simply heading to work – with a warm bowl of Bob’s Steel Cut Oats, with a dash of maple syrup of course.”

Bruno Roy, who together with her husband races as MM Racing, also keeps a blog highlighting her vegan recipes at thevegandelicious.wordpress.com. For 10 years, she has worked as professional massage therapist specializing in deep tissue, sports, pre-natal and Thai yoga massage. She runs a full time massage practice in her hometown of Arlington, Mass., where she has worked with many of the top ranked domestic and international cycling teams. For more information about Bruno Roy, visit www.mmracing.org.

Needless to say, we were overjoyed to hear that Maureen Bruno-Roy took third this weekend at the Verge New England Championship Cyclo-Cross Series presented by Cycle-Smart on Saturday in Williston, VT. Bruno-Roy fought hard for a podium spot against Sally Annis and Crystal Anthony, finally securing a podium spot with third place. The weather was picture perfect for the first cyclocross weekend of the season. Riders were out in force across the country to kick off the wet and muddy season in style. The Portland series kicks off on October 3rd, but series may be under way in your area. For more information, check here.

For the 2010 Golden Spurtle World Porridge Championship in Carrbridge, Scotland, we wanted to share some behind-the-scenes of our prep work before we head over for the competition on 10.10.10. Our team made this wonderful video to show you what we’ve been up to and get everyone pumped up for the competition.

I can hardly believe that we’ll be crossing spurtles in3-1/2 weeks! Our time as reigning champs went too quickly and we’re working hard to see if we can’t keep it this year. Just in case we can’t nail down the title as World Porridge Champions, we’ve been busy crafting a specialty dish that we think will garner favorable attention from the judges and is just plain scrumptious! I’ll have the official recipe to share with you soon, but for now, you’ll have to be satisfied with this visual treat.

It is sad, but finally true. Our beloved baker, Kyrie Juchemich is leaving Bob’s Red Mill bakery this month. We have known about Kyrie’s departure  since the middle of the summer, considering she is not just leaving Bob’s, but the country. Yes, the country; she is relocating to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany where she will be working on a vacation military resort. Kyrie will be offering her best hospitality to the U.S. military, while they are on vacation. Her journey will bring many great adventures.

While at Bob’s Red Mill, Kyrie has contributed many ideas and much energy to the bakery. More precisely, she has developed recipes and helped to organize our much loved Wheat-Free and Vegan pastry cases. One of her popular recipes that many of you enjoy is the Dairy-Free Granola Bars. They are served fresh every Monday and keep well through the week for a filling snack anytime. Another “Kyrie” favorite in the vegan case every Friday is the Pumpkin Seed, Chocolate and Cashew Muffin. Following, you will find the recipe for you to make in your own kitchen. We hope you enjoy the recipe and thank you for all the support! Also, a special thanks to Kyrie for all your hard work and fun you brought to the Bob’s Red Mill Bakery.

Vegan Pumpkin Seed, Cashew and Chocolate Muffin

Mix 3 tbsp. flax meal and 9 tbsp, of water together in a measuring cup.

Mix the following in a bowl:

½ cup safflower oil
3/4 cup evaporated cane juice

Add flax mixture to bowl, as well as:

2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt

Scrape bowl.

Then add:

¾-1 cup soymilk or ricemilk
1/3 cup of each: cashews, pumpkin seeds and chocolate chips

1. Use a spatula to mix in remaining ingredients until smooth, but be careful not to over mix.
2. Use desired muffin scoop to scoop into lined muffin pans.
3. Bake at 350º for approximately 18-23 minutes.

Yields approximately 9  2- inch muffins.

In our hearts, we will always be World Porridge Champions. It’s a title few can claim as their own and we are lucky to have won it. While we’re busy preparing for our journey to the Highlands of Scotland in three and a half short weeks (yikes!), I wanted to urge you to come by our store and look at the trophy before it’s gone. We may be lucky enough to win it again, but winning two years in a row is a rare feat done only once in the history of the competition.

If you’re in the area, come by and bless our trophy before we take it back to the Scots where it may just find a new home in Scotland, Canada, England or possibly in the United States again. If you can’t get down to bless the trophy, we’d love if you would leave us some well-wishes for our champion, Matt Cox as he prepares to battle it out against the world’s top porridge makers.

We’ve got some great things in store for you as the time ticks down to October 10th. We’ll share a wonderful video of the progress we’re making on our specialty dish- now known as Bob’s Savory Oat Fritters- and we’ve got a recipe to give you and some tips for making your own savory oat fritters. We’ll have some guest posts from bloggers of every sort and we cannot wait to share what they’ve written for you! October will be filled with some wonderful giveaways in honor of Celiac Disease Awareness Month. We’ve got a lot of great things planned, so be sure to check back often!

What do you do with that old bicycle that is still in decent shape, but that you just don’t ride anymore? Why, use it to eat breakfast with us, of course!

Last Saturday about 100 Portlanders traded in their old bikes for breakfast at the Bob’s Red Mill Whole Grains Store and Visitors Center during our Second Annual Bike Drive. In the spirit of sharing and recycling we even accepted useable bicycle parts in exchange for breakfast. Each year we donate all the bikes we collect to the Portland Community Cycling Center. This great organization turns unloved bikes into road-worthy cycles for riders of all ages, abilities and incomes.

Breesa Culver said it best, “The bike collection hosted by Bob’s Red Mill last weekend was a resounding success! We collected more than 100 bikes in four hours. These bikes will support all of our bike safety programs, from after school Bike Clubs to Holiday Bike Drive to ‘Create-a-Commuter’ workshops.”

About 20 bicycles were collected during last year’s drive, but by this year’s event word had sure spread around town! We’re hoping that next year we can collect even more bikes for the community so that everyone has the option to share our passion for biking!

We’re teaming up with our friends at the Community Cycling Center this Saturday, August 28th for our second annual bike drive. Come on out between 9 am and 1 pm to donate a new or used bike in good condition and receive a coupon for a free breakfast at our Whole Grain Store. The Community Cycling Center uses the donated bikes to teach children about bike safety and maintenance. The program helps kids in need get bikes and fosters a lifelong love of biking. What more could you ask for?

Our goal this year is to collect 100 bikes. All bike donations are tax deductible and a voluntary donation of $5 will help the Cycling Center get the bikes into good working order for the Bikes for Kids program. So bring those bikes sadly collecting dust or those that are just too small for your tikes on down to the Bob’s Red Mill Whole Grain Store on Saturday. Those bikes will make some kid very happy and get all the love they deserve!

Bob’s Red Mill Whole Grain Store
5000 SE International Way
Milwaukie, OR 97222
503-607-6455
Click here for directions.

Bob would like to share this article he wrote for our employee newsletter with you, our valued customers. Here is the article in his own words.

Like the solid old earth itself, whole grains have been here a long time.  Grains have supplied a wholesome diet since creation.  Years ago when, through my wife Charlee, I discovered the profound need for whole grains in everyone’s diet including my own, I have had a strong desire to produce those healthy grains.  That desire has been fulfilled in Bob’s Red Mill, of which you are all a part.  Having a dream about something is one thing – fulfilling a dream with reality is another.  As our company has developed over many decades and I take stock of how far we’ve come, it has certainly occurred to me that I have made real progress on those early dreams.

Now, in my 8^th decade, all that’s left is to insure the continuation of it all.  So here is what I’ve done recently.  We have a 35 year lease with an option to buy this property effective just three years ago.  Our unique and wonderful stone mills are the heart of our production and we are currently running 10 stone mills around the clock.  This past month we received from the manufacturer in Denmark our order of additional and replacement milling equipment.  We now have 10 new, complete stone mills and 12 sets of new replacement millstones.  We are not going to run out of mills to make our products or the place we make it in for a long time!

With our Employee Stock Ownership Plan in place, there is every reason to feel confident that Bob’s Red Mill will continue to supply whole grains to the world for a long, long time and keep our wonderful employees busy doing it!

To your good health,

I was all set to write you  a long post about the proposed USDA guidelines for 2010 when we got a visit from our friends Tim and Judy Cebulla. You may remember Tim as our Myrtle spurtle maker from Wood I Kid You? Well, what they brought by for Matt is far more fun for a Friday than the USDA guidelines (we’ll get to those next week).

Tim and his wife, Judy, stopped by our mill today to drop off a surprise for Matt (our world champion)—a beautiful, hand-crafted doll. Judy sells her dolls, along with other hand-crafted items through her store front Threads of Magique on Etsy.com.

We can’t get over how much the doll resembles Matt, chef coat and all! It kind of reminds us of the dolls from Coraline, but we’re going to put that out of mind and focus on the awesomeness of this little guy. Good luck charm for the 2010 competition? Check!

May 27th was a big day for the students in the Clackamas County Education School District Life Enrichment Education Program as they got together for their annual Spring Track Meet. This track meet brings together all of the special education students of Clackamas County Schools to celebrate the spirit of competition and personal achievement together through track and field events.

When Bob and Dennis first heard about this amazing local event from Steve Amon’s OPB Field Guide, they knew right away that Bob’s Red Mill would love to be able to help out in some way with this amazing event. This year we were excited to be able to compliment all the volunteer work done by the amazing teachers, parents and local community that really make this event possible.

As these athletes competed around the track, you could feel the excitement in the air in every event from the opening parade to the closing ceremony. We were proud to be able to be a part of making sure that every athlete was able to earn a medal for their hard work and weeks of training and preparation.

We hope to be there again in 2011 to cheer as each of these amazing kids crosses the finish line!