So basically, I’ve decided that when you’ve got to get out of your safety zone, and fast, this note is what you should have pinned to your chest. It’s nice, no? Add a few almonds and gluten-free crackers and you could probably survive the apocalypse.
It’s been a cuckoo time here at GIMB, and as I was packing up to leave the gluten-free comfort of my own home, I realized my emergency bag needed to be restocked. Just in case you’re reading this because you’re simply cool, you should know that gluten-free peeps have to travel with their own food. I know, it totally sucks. Especially when you’ve grown up on rest stops and drive-throughs. But then I had an Oprah A-Ha moment and thought, hey, wouldn’t people love to know what one should have in a gluten-free go bag? Of course you would. Ding, ding, ding! There’s a post, right there!
So here are what I believe to be the essentials of snack travel when you’re going into potentially unfriendly territory. Which is to say, anywhere outside your own home that does not include Austin, Texas or the Bay area.
To answer your first question, yes, there are a lot of sweets in that photo. But just in case you think those fonuts are superfluous since you’ve got your big ol’ stash of M&Ms, let me assure you that breakfast foods are a necessity. If you think I’m kidding, just try to find a gluten-free breakfast on the go. The only way you’re getting a plate of scrambled eggs that aren’t wrapped up in a flour tortilla is if you hit a diner. Not an airport diner, not a Starbucks, not a refrigerated “Express” section at the Hudson News. You cannot drive through and order gluten-free breakfast. That’s a fact. So you had better bring your own. Why not donuts? I mean, why not?
A word about the crackers. So you think you could live without crackers. Maybe. But what are you going to do if a piece of luscious cheese presents itself to you? Eat it straight up? I think not, my friends. In fact I would recommend carrying gluten-free crackers in your purse at all times. Because when cheese shows up, you want to be ready to receive it in the most delicious way possible.
Whether you fear an earthquake, and clearly you should — WTF, Oklahoma? — or you just have a journey to an unknown land, you can’t leave home without your gluten-free go bag. And it should probably (definitely!) look just like this.
Or you could tell me what you pack in your go bag. How ’bout it?
Gluten is my Bitch 
Well didn’t have one – ha ha but some good points here – and you made me laugh, that line “Just in case you’re reading this because you’re simply cool, you should know that gluten-free peeps have to travel with their own food.” – priceless haha. I do know when we travel we definitely pack our own snacks – chips, crackers, nuts, cereal bars ect. – so we don’t have to worry about searching for the one acceptable place that carries something “maybe” gf ~ but that was a good point about the crackers in the purse, not for cheese (lactose/dairy intolerant) but for snack attacks when nothing available. Thanks 🙂
Sherri, I am horribly sorry about your lactose intolerance on top of all this. GAH!!!
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Just found, and am working my way through your blog with laughter, empathy and the odd tear. I was diagnosed coeliac in July 2011, and it’s like reading so many things about my own life here. I’ve just packed my snackage for a 3 day business conference in Amsterdam. Apparently we won’t get to leave the venue, which sucks as I was hoping to stock up on Schar GF products we can’t get here in the UK. So I am taking peppermint tea (elixir for the grumbletum), almonds, GF crackers, Schar bread toasts (a bit like French toast), GF lemon shortbcake, some GF brownies and some Nakd bars (mainly nut & date) in case lunch/breakfast prove elusive. I’ve packed crackers, lactose-free cheese and fruit for the journey there.
SO getting what you say, and thanks for making me smile.
Wait a minute. You’re going to Amsterdam but you don’t get to go to Amsterdam? That sucks. Good luck!
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I’m a few years late in finding this… But I love it! I always pack GF snacks for travel. No-Gii chocolate peanut butter protein bars are my hot jam for breakfast. Went to Germany over the summer and the hotels we stayed at were surprisingly good at providing GF bread/toast if we asked ahead. But restaurants throughout Bavaria were challenging…. Everything is breaded… In gravy… With beer and pretzels. Got a lot of mileage out of my protein bars 🙂
Well, at least there’s Germany…….and protein bars.
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