packed lunch ideas for DofE

[Se7ven11]

DD needs to rltake 2 days worth of packed lunches with her on her 2 day trek.

cool bags are not allied.

day 1 - I think she can just about get away with sandwiches etc

day 2 - I'm really stumped for ideas. ham sandwiches won't be possible as great risk of food poisoning, as with anything fresh and perishable really.

any experienced d of e'ers out there who can advise.

they've worked out dinners and snacks between them so it's just DDs lunches I need to sort.

I took a couple army ration packs. Lots of easy to prepare, high energy, healthy food that is easy to store in your bag

Aldi do packs of small falafel which are perfect for lunches and should last the extra day.
Lidl do chocolate orange protein balls.
Flapjacks (with nuts and seeds as well as oats)
Raisins

I think Prince p likes venison sandwiches as well as cheese with some of his sons chutney you can get in waitrose.

Can't remember what I took on bronze DofE, silver i was with Cadets so we toom out of date/surplus Ration Packs. When I go up mountains now we always take curry and a bag of the microwave rice (since it's precooked it just needs heating up) we have reusable silicon bags that we empty the curry and rice into so we can just boil in a bag on the trangia and put any dirty cutlery in the bag at the end so there's minimal mess. We also put a home cooked dinner (normally Bolognese with white sauce and pasta) in a silicon bag too and freeze it so it defrost slowly on the first day and is ready to be heated up when we get back to camp. Works perfectly and is so much nicer than any packet food! (The curry is in a tin though so might not be dofe friendly). Snack wise I'd have some fast release "treats" that are a bit of a pick-me-up but not too many and then more slow release snacks too. The military rat-packs normally have:
3 boil in a bags, 2 types of biscuits (1 cracker called biscuit browns- "to clog you up" at the start, 1 fruit biscuit - "to let it all out" at the end - Sorry for the crudeness), some powdered soup, hot chocolate powder, instant tea/coffee, boiled sweets and the sponsored treat (was once Yorkies, now Oreos I think) and energy drink powder. The meals are kind of healthy but the snacks aren't and rat packs are not good for a sustained diet. I think the forces try to limit people to 2 weeks tops of rat packs in one go. At least that's what I was once told by some people in the RN way back when I used to work with them.
The whole pack is about 5000 calories per day.
100% recommend boil in a bag type food as it's less messy than cooking directly in a trangia and easy to whip out for lunches.
Don't take instant/super/pot noodles etc unless they're being mixed with something else with nutritional value. They are pure rubbish on their own.

ahh "biscuits brown"! also known as "alternative bread" / "anal blocker"!!

yes the 24 hrs army ration boxes are good. look in army surplus shops/ e bay. not just british army....canadian/ french army are nice.

usually a bit out of date, but it really doesnt matter. the stuff is designed to keep for many years!

for long hikes I didnt have a lunch as such just lots of nibbly bits. the nakd cereal bars , flapjack, haribo (doesnt melt), pepperami .....primula in a tube on crackers.

for actual camp meals i had those individual wrapped pain au chocolat/ croissants (not a porridge eater). bacon and beans wayfayer type thing. also rat pack/ wayfayer meals.

idaho smash! lovely weighs little, lots of yummy potato in nice flavours. well known on the hikers circuit.

look in £land for look what we found meals. many use those as boil in the bag with a micro rice done as a boil in the bag. (cheaper than others). same with dolmio sauces/ ready pasta in packets.

Reading with interest as I also have a DC on DofE this weekend. I like the idea that there will be a flashmob of disaffected and under-prepared teens wandering the byways of the UK .

I'm in the middle as to how much assistance to give DD. As far as I can see there has so far been zero planning around food (we only snagged a tent yesterdat ), although to be fair to her they have a big meeting at school today and I suspect their group will sort it out then. If not, I will be making some "strong suggestions" and taking her to the supermarket rather than leaving her be. She is not a camping type of gal and that's fair enough. We don't do it as a family, and tbh I don't really have any interest in doing so. This weekend might trigger a new found love of outdoor living but I suspect its more realistic that the hiking boots and sleeping mat won't get used again. Her camping trip is somewhere extremely benign (Surrey, I think!), the weather is looking ok so I think we'll just buy some packets of savoury rice, porridge pots and prepare a huge supper for Sunday evening.

To be fair to DD, she has hugely enjoyed her volunteering, her skill and her physical to the extent that she is keeping all three up, so I can live with the flipside of a mardy and reluctant camper.

DS sorted his own, he took Army ration packs, mars bars and biscuits.

savoury rice takes a long time to cook and will eat into the fuel. gas or meths!

Www.bewellexpeditionfoods.com

My DS3 is a competitive hiker. These are what he takes on weekend events. They are lightweight, filling, balanced and easy to prepare. They won't use a lot of the fuel supply, either.

You need to remind DD that she needs to make sure that she gets some salt as well, to avoid cramps. So maybe a bag of salted peanuts, although ds and his peers just swallow the contents of McDonald's salt sachets! She should have a couple of Mars bars or similar in a pocket of her rucksack set aside as emergency rations and a wee supply of things like clif bars and energy balls to munch on during the day.

Kendal mint cake. lots of it.

Do they have access to boiling water?
If so you can get food from camping shops that you just immerse in the packets in the boiling water.
My DD had to take some with her on a trip and they are really nice apparently - the ones with spices / curries are good and the chocolate cake ones are meant to be amazing.

If not, individually wrapped brioche rolls and breakfast type bars are good.

My girl eats Xtreme Adventure food. Chilli and rice is her favourite

She also has a jet boil stove- light and has your water boiled in 100 seconds

Another one who sorted all this out with my fellow campers, zero input from mum and dad except cash (& in your case driving to the shops would be ok)

DD is going on her practice expedition tomorrow. It's longer than the actual one (but they stay in the same campsite the whole time). We've done 2 sandwich thins with those cheese slices like you use in a burger as they seem like they will be ok out of the fridge for a day or so. For dinners she has aldi tortellini which isn't refrigerated with dolmio sauce sachets. Lots of snacks - flapjacks, mini packets of cashew nuts, individually wrapped chocolate crepes, oat bars.

You should get her to check with whoever is in charge of d of e at her school, as to what the assessor will accept as their cooked food. When I trained as an assessor it was made clear that they needed to cook - not simply heat up a ration pack or add boiling water to noodles etc. Now, some assessors stick to the rules and some don't, but it's worth finding out!

@anotherbadavatar
helpful

Thanks everyone.
DD has informed me that it's all in hand and she knows what she's doing, so I will leave her to it.

I did grated cheese mixed with mayonnaise in a wrap or baguette for my son when he did Ten Tors/DofE. Squished up nicely and survived a day and night in a pack. He chose boil in the bag camping meals (from Go Outdoors with your DofE discount) in the evenings, they're light, easy to fit in your bag, tasty, high calorie and you can also get things like sticky toffee pudding. Snacks were usually things like peanuts, flapjacks, shortbread, Kendal mint cake, sesame snaps, chocolates or sweets to share.

My ds is coeliac so we've been and got done 'look what I've found ' sachets of curry and rice and some gf couscous

I'm glad they have to plan it themselves, was beginning t feel like a bad parent
Mine went to the local shop and stocked up with healthy stuff and goodies.

By Day2, they probably won't want to stop and start boiling water, so I wouldn't advise taking the things that need the stoves to come out, etc. Good breakfast then powering through with things they can eat on the go or sitting for 5 mins.
Things like pasties / sos rolls are fine in cool weather. If it is going to be hot then freeze them first and they will be fine. My dc like to take a pack of wraps - dd likes the 'toothpaste cheese' which is fine out of the fridge for a couple of days if peanut butter isn't liked or isn't allowed. Pepparami or other type 'ready to eat' sausage / processed meat also fine out of a fridge.

Nuts if they are allowed youngest liked the marmite cashews, wraps, one of my ds swore by malt loaf; filling , takes a long time to eat, oddly comforting and sweet, the ready made porridge in squashy packs , flapjack snd cereal bars . Slow release carbs are the thing .

I know my comment wasn’t helpful. The whole point of DofE is to foster independence, forward thinking, teamwork etc. That includes planning what you’re going to eat and pack. I did all the DofE awards through to gold, but never got my mum to sort my packed lunches out.