Duke of Edinburgh expedition food ideas

[rougheredges]

DS has his 3 day silver expedition in a couple of weeks. He did the practice recently and we struggled with food. He hated all the expedition ready meals- said they smelled like dog food. He’s not wrong.
The biggest success we had was with a package of vacuum packed ambient storage hot dog sausages (don’t look at the ingredients if you do this!) some hot dog buns and a mound of ketchup sachets collected from various fast food places. For the morning I sent him with a tin of beans which he apparently didn’t have time to heat, a 6 pack of individual wrapped choc croissants and some choc pancakes which did all got eaten. He also took a massive family size spicy ramen packet from a Korean supermarket but that had no protein. Lunch he had some bagels some peanut butter sachets and some granola bars.

I suppose he could live on chocolate croissants, granola bars and hot dogs for 3 days but I’d rather he didn’t. Does anyone have any suggestions?

thanks.

A packet of pasta and a jar of sauce for evening meals? Assuming they’re carrying a stove and gas, then just needs a pot to cook the pasta in and can then add the sauce to heat through. Some did this on my son’s recent Bronze expedition. Thankfully I found out about my son trying to pack a full family sized saucepan and box of eggs to make fried eggs for his breakfast before he left 😂

My son made corned beef hash with beans in the evening with his mates. That went down well and filled them up. Remember to pack a peeler!

My DD took small packs of beef jerky for meaty protein that doesn’t need a fridge! She also liked the large blueberry American style pancakes you find in the bread aisle.

Couscous
microwave rice
tuna
wraps
Instant porridge pots
Nutella sachets
cup soups
flapjacks
trailmix
Jerky
Hot chocolate cups/sachets
breakfast bars
Wraps
Pot noodles

I’d advise against glass jars of pasta sauce (or glass anything) after a incident involving tomato sauce and sleeping bags… the pasta’n’sauce that are sachets you add water to are better (but a bit grim ingredients wise). We found they needed things they could cook communally as time was tight and they were sharing cooking equipment so meals requiring their own seperate pans were discouraged.

When I go camping without my cool box, I make up small plastic bags of porridge for breakfast which are quick cook oats mixed with powdered milk, sultanas and a bit of brown sugar. Add some hot water and let it stand for a few minutes. I take a small flask to keep it warm but a mug would do.

The powdered mashed potatoes are okay - I like Idahoan brand. Make that up and top with a tin of baked beans with sausages for lunch or dinner.

M&S do tins of stew and curry which can be mixed with a packet or rice for a quick meal. Or tinned minced beef with nachos and cheese. Grated cheddar will be fine out of the fridge for a couple of days.

DC have taken dolmio pasta that just needs heating, stir in sauces, pepperami’s for protein, nuts, and pot noodles. Yes some ingredients are a bit grim but they’re all lightweight, quick to cook, and it’s a one off!
gooutdoors have various ready meals but can imagine they may be a bit dog food like.

The stir in pasta sauces that aren’t in glass jars but small plastic tubs (dolmio do them I think)
and some pasta

or the batchelors pasta n sauce sachets can be made up with just water (not milk like it says on the packet)

tin curry or chilli with a sachet of microwave rice (can just put the rice in a saucepan with the curry at the same time!

pepperamis are actually shelf stable for a snack/protein. Can be added to noodles for a meal

You need a trip to home bargains! They have lots of pasta/rice/noodle pots that rehydratewith boiling water. They do ready to eat tuna salads with pasta etc, also breakfast pots and packaged breakfast bars. My daughter also took pots of prepackaged fruit, custard and sponge dessert things, rice pudding pots, bananas, chocolate, hot chocolate sachets. It's only a couple of days, she took high energy things that she could look forward to eating and got back to eating sensibly when she'd finished the expedition. The first day she did take some hefty sandwiches and a pasty as they were fine out of the fridge for a few hours

Pasta in a mug

crepes with or without chocolate

dried fruit

spicy sausage chorizo style

cheese crackers

hot chocolate

jelly

wraps/croissant

Is there a requirement for certain protein amounts or to share food or is this just the ideal scenario? DS is doing his bronze so only one night but planning on taking mostly carbs I think including super rice sachets

Dd Just did her silver practice last week. Breakfast for the four of them was ready brek with chopped up banana on top if you wanted it. For dinner on night one they all made and shared pesto pasta, night two they had pasta with a cheese and prechopped broccoli florets and peas sauce and rice pudding. Lunch was the wee pasta and noodle tubs with a protein bar.

Dd is vegetarian and it was actually quite tough to find stuff that is quick and easy for her to make. Luckily the 4 girls are all friends so everyone was happy to just cook the same meals.

I took dried savoury rice when I did my silver many many moons ago.

I also remember coffee bags and that dried orange juice stuff making an appearance.

Jars and tins will be heavy to carry.
Dc were fussy eaters so we found it hard. Pasta and cous cous were easy heat options, pesto decanted into a little container to mix in tuna or other fish sachets, olive sachets, Caribbean rice sachets, loads of trail mix or protein bars for snacks. First day a big packed lunch to fill up as there isn’t quite as much walking. Croissants/bagels for the next day with peanut butter. Baked bean pots really good if they like beans.

cheese slices (the burger ones) and crackers

Dried carbs - rice, pasta, noodles etc. as they weigh less. Sauces in pouches for weight and unbeakability, I've also seen casseroles and meatballs in pouches in the supermarkets. Instant oats with a bit of dried fruit for breakfast. Energy bars, belvita type biscuits, rolls with wrapped cheese portions and some unsquashable fruit for for lunches. It all has to survive being stuffed into a warm rucksack for hours. It may not be haute cuisine but fresh air and a long walk will make it taste like the food of the Gods.

You can get Wayfayree branded food pouches on Amazon which are good quality, things like a cooked breakfast or spaghetti bol. He could also take pepperami and I reckon babybels would survive out of the fridge for the first two days.

Those tuna salad things that come in an aluminium tray.
Boil in the bag rice
Pouches of chili con carne/ bolognaise
Oats in sachets

Chocolate Swiss roll and some instant custard powder for pudding, hot chocolate

Apples, bananas, satsumas

DD is just back from her Gold practice expedition.

They had pasta with stir in sauces in the little plastic pots that others have mentioned with a variety of store cupboard hotdogs/ pepperoni slices for evening meals.

She took a packet of pitta breads and then these tuna sachet packets which worked really well for lunch.

For breakfast she decanted the tubs of porridge that you add boiling water to into plastic bags and then worked out how much water to add by how far it came up her mug- that took up a lot less space.

Snacks- she made up a trail mix of sultanas, raisins, chocolate chips and nuts. Then also took pain au choc, cereal bars, individually wrapped biscuit packs, dried fruit and the obligatory sweets to share!

Oh and those individual hot chocolate sachets for the evening and morning although they were away in that heatwave so she didn’t have them in the end. They’ve been good on previous cold evenings and mornings though.

My DC took firepot meals. Only veggie ones but she was very impressed and wanted to eat them at home, they are expensive, but do taste good.

I went up to gold, and when I did it, the requirement was that we had to eat three meals a day (no skipping lunch - you'd fail) and make a three course meal for dinner on the trangea stove. For Bronze that meant one dinner, one breakfast, for Silver two dinners etc.

Breakfast was porridge, lunch was rye bread, hardboiled egg day 1 then pepperami and tube cheese, all of which got less appetising after a few days but was still eatable. Dinner was usually cup soup, then pasta with stir-in sauce, and then dried banana chips and custard for pudding. One time, can't remember if it was silver or gold, I took couscous and put dried apricots and raisins in it and everyone else called me a ponce 😂

What's wrong with living on hot dogs for three days?

Cold pizza wrapped in foil

Thank you all. There are some interesting ideas here. They have a limited number of stoves and pans and have to have protein and can’t have pot noodles.
I’ll look into pouches of pasta sauce.

I think the problem is that he eats an insane amount of food! He’s a 6 foot sporty lad so he’s easily packing away 3500-4000 cals a day when he’s not camping. He was pretty hungry when he came home last time that that was after a 4 hotdog dinner! It’s also a question of space- he’s got a standard size rucksack and a non standard appetite….!

On DC’s , they had to carry the waste home that couldn’t be buried so another reason why tins and jars were not a good idea.