It’s now rounding the middle of June, and here in my house, this is known as “Stock up on dorm food” season. My kids (both! both of them, this time!) are gearing up to head to campus at the beginning of August, and my job for the next month or so is to accumulate what they’ll need to eat in the dorm when they can’t be bothered to hit the dining hall (or it’s the wee hours and they need power for studying).
Sure, I try to buy some healthy stuff, and then I also buy candy, and I buy stupid little microwavable cups of macaroni and cheese and ramen and I remind myself that they are young and healthy and this is the phase of life where they can eat junk and be okay.
But here’s my secret weapon, and you can laugh, but I’m telling you this is primo wisdom I’m laying down here: Buy your college kid(s) some Fiber One bars. Do it. They come in a gazillion varieties and they’re basically junk, but college students will all find that their… ahhh… digestive health… suffers a little in the dorm, at some point. And you can pack probiotics and such, but they probably won’t use them. They will, however, eat the Fiber One bars. Ask me how I know!
Right now (this may be a Prime-only deal; I’m not sure) Amazon has this 36-pack of Fiber One Brownies available for $13.94, which is already pretty good, plus there’s a clippable 25% off coupon, plus you can save up to an additional 15% more with Subscribe & Save, meaning you could be getting them for $8.36 delivered (under $.24/bar), and you don’t ever have to have a conversation with your supposedly adult kid(s) about constipation. Seriously, win/win.
Thank you for the tip—I’ve ordered a box! My eldest goes to college this fall.
These are also good for stubborn, picky 8 year olds that try to refuse all vegetables and then end up constipated and in pain at 3 AM. Not that I’d know anything about that!
Heh. Just a little caveat for you: I bought those when they first came out and we liked them a lot–or, at least the flavor and texture. What we didn’t like is that they caused us MAJOR gas and cramps. Turns out it is a sensivity to inulin, so I put the large box of brownies out at work. My advice would be to try a small box first if you don’t know how your body will react to them. Your college student will not be thanking you if they have the reaction we did! 🙂
P.S. — They are $11.39 now and still have the 25% coupon!