Maybe you should overshoot with more things that won’t perish for lack of refrigeration—bring apples and bananas and oranges and avocados, bring rice bread or some other gluten-free baked goods, bring popcorn and chips and jerky, etc. Also bring your mom’s cooking to eat earlier in the day, but pack it with one of those freezeable cold things (they won’t last 16 hours, but they might last half that) - or freeze the servings of food themselves, and they may well take many hours to thaw depending on the weather, especially if there are several of them together in the bag. Bring sealed bottles of juice and tea. If you don’t consume these things, put the half-defrosted food in the fridge (refreezing is unwise, but you can let it thaw and someone can eat it at home) and leave the nonperishables in your bag for the next day.
Thanks! That sounds like a good suggestion. Fruit is my go-to now, but compared to wheat products it isn’t as calorie-dense, so to get the same amount of food value takes up a lot of space. In the past I’ve brought almonds and homemade gluten-free granola bars. I do bring a thermos of tea almost every day, but in general 1 thermos = 1 three-hour class. If I have 3 classes in a day, I will drink all of my tea during the first one. (Temporary solutions: many of the cafeteria ladies will let me use hot water for free if I bring my own teabag from home. I probably can’t sustain this if I never actually buy anything at the cafeteria, but if I restrain my purchases to gluten-free things like coffee or soup, I can stay on my diet and have unlimited hot water.)
Maybe you should overshoot with more things that won’t perish for lack of refrigeration—bring apples and bananas and oranges and avocados, bring rice bread or some other gluten-free baked goods, bring popcorn and chips and jerky, etc. Also bring your mom’s cooking to eat earlier in the day, but pack it with one of those freezeable cold things (they won’t last 16 hours, but they might last half that) - or freeze the servings of food themselves, and they may well take many hours to thaw depending on the weather, especially if there are several of them together in the bag. Bring sealed bottles of juice and tea. If you don’t consume these things, put the half-defrosted food in the fridge (refreezing is unwise, but you can let it thaw and someone can eat it at home) and leave the nonperishables in your bag for the next day.
Thanks! That sounds like a good suggestion. Fruit is my go-to now, but compared to wheat products it isn’t as calorie-dense, so to get the same amount of food value takes up a lot of space. In the past I’ve brought almonds and homemade gluten-free granola bars. I do bring a thermos of tea almost every day, but in general 1 thermos = 1 three-hour class. If I have 3 classes in a day, I will drink all of my tea during the first one. (Temporary solutions: many of the cafeteria ladies will let me use hot water for free if I bring my own teabag from home. I probably can’t sustain this if I never actually buy anything at the cafeteria, but if I restrain my purchases to gluten-free things like coffee or soup, I can stay on my diet and have unlimited hot water.)