G Free Dorm Room Essentials

I should start out by saying that the title of this post is false. Certain items like Cocoa Pebbles and Ben and Jerry's are not in any way essentials, but they certainly make life that much better. That aside, I'm going to give you a small tour of what I keep in my dorm room.

Starting out with my freezer, you will see that I keep the majority of my dessert supply in there. Plenty of ice cream (mint chocolate cookie for my roommate-- not GFree! Phish Food for me- GFree!), and some Kinnickinnick chocolate covered donuts. There is also a large container of Target brand coffee ice cream in there that my roommate got, but I can't confirm it as gluten free, so I decided to leave it out. Almost all of Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavors are gluten free of course apart from the obvious flavors with brownie, cookie, dough, etc, in the title. Kinnickinnick makes really great donuts that are perfect for those times when you are just wanting something really unhealthy and gluten-y tasting.



Here you can see what I store in the door of the mini-fridge. Some Yoplait vanilla flavored yogurt (confirmed gluten free on the label!), almond milk (vanilla flavor), my roommate's egg whites and milk, then some stolen vegetables from the dining hall.




The bottom shelf of the fridge is not terribly exciting. Just some more yogurt, raspberry jam (for Udi's pb&j sandwiches), a jar of pickles (???... they are my roommates. Don't ask), and some string cheese.




The middle shelf hosts some salsa, refried beans (???.. again my roommate), some whole grain Udi's bread, and some pink lady apples. It's important to remember that you need to keep on eating fruits and vegetables despite the fact that the amount of gluten free goodies are increasing constantly. Fruits and veggies still need to be part of the daily food intake. (Says the girl who has yet to eat one of these apples...)



To top off the fridge, we have some cheese from the dining hall, some eggs, and some cutie oranges. If you are wondering why we have the cheese and eggs, look at the previous post. I promise there is a reasonable explanation for this.




If you have been saying to yourself, "okay, where is the REAL college food"... well, here it is. This is an extra drawer that I have that I fill with the typical college foods (the majority of which are actually mainstream brands- something a g free eater doesn't see much of!). I go to this drawer when I need my chocolate fix- as if the Snack Packs and Cocoa Pebbles didn't already give that away! I also keep my life supply of Peanut Butter Cookie Larabars in here (from my mom for Christmas- thanks, Mom!), as well as some Enjoy Life Chocolate Chewy Bars that I bought only because they were being sold at one of the dining halls here. They really aren't very good. I also have some Puffin cereal in Honey Rice flavor. Beware that not all of Barbara's cereals are gluten free. I accidentally bought the peanut butter flavor and ended up having to give them away because they contained wheat flour. Buried underneath the Cocoa Pebbles ( you can see where my priorities lie), there is some Food Should Taste Good Cheddar chips that taste like healthy doritos, and some Enjoy Life cinnamon crunch granola which tastes great with yogurt.


This is just what I happen to have in my room at the moment, so on occasion I will stray from this particular list of foods, but these are snacks that I would definitely recommend for any gluten free college student who needs a basic idea of what they should get when they are at the grocery store!