Duke of Edinburgh gold expedition food

[Loveheartsandlockets]

So far the food I’ve provided for the practice sessions hasn’t been adequate and/or DS didn’t read the cooking instructions properly.

The real trek is in July. What breakfasts/lunch/dinner meals did you DCs take along with snacks and drinks? This trek is too arduous to survive on chocolate biscuits.

TIA

It was about 10 years ago but my ds used things like this with a pouch of rice.

https://www.ocado.com/products/smokey-veg-chilli-ready-to-eat-jamie-oliver-420786011?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw0ruyBhDuARIsANSZ3wp5KrAQfgXqjrgxsWy8miY613lqpm8tik7lX2_8i5ErSwFd-Q8PVasaAnjVEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

I would say that your DS needs to choose his own supplies for cooking - with your help if needed. If he's doing gold he must be mid teens at least so plenty old enough to do his own meal planning. Are they not doing as a team?

My child planned meals in their group with each teen carrying different components of meals.
Couscous in flavoured packs
Pasta and stir in sauce
Small ready prepared tin tuna with pitta breads for lunch
Grated cheese bag for protein wjth the pasta
nuts
porridge sachets
ready made pack of lentil dahl - there are lots of rices and grains like this

You’d think, wouldn’t you?

Lunches seem the worst option. A friend of his takes wraps but what do you put in them?

Falafel mix www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/alfez-lebanese-style-falafel-150g (just add water and fry) with a packet of pre-flavoured couscous (just soak in boiled water)

Tuna in a packet www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/john-west-tuna-with-a-twist--lime---black-pepper-85g (tins and cans are discouraged) with pasta

Mexican refried beans www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/capsicana-the-ultimate-refried-beans-200g in wraps with squeezy sour cream www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/old-el-paso-squeezy-sour-cream-230g

Breakfast - instant flavoured porridge sachets (with added dried fruit), hot chocolate sachets, pancake mix (with milk powder)

I packed some beef jerky packs for DD when she did a similar expedition. They don't need to be kept cold, are lightweight and are protein so more filling than other stuff.

Primula cheese in the toothpaste type tubes, sachets of cous cous/pasta, cup a soup sachets, hot chocolate sachets, porridge pots that you just add hot water to and crisps are all generally OK in a rucksack.

DS needs to be sorting the food - with minimal input from you.

A half decent set of meals, plus copious sugar is DS's usual. We have a 3 ingredient requirement for evening meals. Not sure if that's his centre's rules or general DoE.
Quick cook rice or pasta, jar or (ideally) sachet/plastic tub of sauce and a tin of tuna, block of cheese is his typical evening. Think they've had tinnedhotdogs on the first evening before now.
Lunch - sandwich thins and some form of low fridge requirement protein - pepperoni, tuna, tube of cheese.
Breakfast - instant porridge and dried fruit.
Plus mountains of biscuits, crisps for early days, chocolate bars, cereal bars, dried fruit, nuts (check group for allergies), maltloaf, hard boiled sweets

I tried the squirty cheese and he is begging me, never again. He doesn’t like porridge. Beef jerky was a great hit though.

Things like potted sandwich paste would be ideal but we don’t eat stuff like that at all so I’m not sure what he’ll make of them. I want his food to be as nutritionally dense as possible so that he’s in top form.

DD has done a lot of those sort of thing is hoping to do her gold next year and as she does a lot of exercise is always trying to add extra calories into stuff.

Snacks, need to be things like nuts, gelly babies (was recommended by her leader) kendal mint cake with chocolate 🍫. Lunch wraps, she loves peanut butter with banana and chocolate spread (Yes I know she eats the oddest mix of anything) protein shakes (you can actually make some with water). You can get gell packs as well. The dried food dinners are best to reduce weight carried, are they sharing cooking equipment or will he have his own small cooker? Because he could then cook breakfast as well.

Squirty cheese is vial but cheese slices are OK and work well. You don't need to keep it cool. Flat bread is good as well as wraps. I would actually avoid fish especially if its warm (gets very smelly). If you don't normally have sandwich paste just get some in to try, the jars aren't that big and you could try a couple of flavours beforehand.

Lunches: Warburton's thins. DD took hers ready made with nutella and peanut butter in. When I was helping DS shop for his expedition, I discovered John West do individual pouches of 'Jacket Toppers' in case putting something like tuna in a sandwich appeals. (https://www.john-west.co.uk/products/range/jacket-toppers/)

Breakfast: DD took instant porridge (the sort that you just add boiled water to and eat after 2 minutes). We could only find it in individual plastic pots so we decanted them into small ziplock bags to save space and she just used her mug to mix it in.

Evening meal: You really need to take those expedition meal pouches for the Gold expedition. Sharing meals amongst a team might just work for the Bronze expedition but not really for the longer ones. Plus the pans they cook in aren't big enough to do shared meals.

Other than that, mine took plenty of snacks - flapjack/cereal bars, beef jerky, chocolate bars, dried fruit, home-made trail mix (raisins, nuts, etc.), cheese savouries. Plus hot chocolate sachets for evening.

Breakfast: instant portage for breakfast, Just remind me I buy the tesco own flavour portage, comes in a box but are in individual pouches. So you could just take the pouches out of the box. If you look around there are often lots of products like this which you can use for things like lunch and breakfast. Often the leaders mat have ideas.

DD did this last year. Wayfarer sachets (just add boiling water) were a hit. Edible, and you could eat straight out of the packet, thus no washing up. We also sent shortbread, nut free trail mix, dried apricots and biltong (the Saffer equivalent of jerky). That was great as it was an excellent source of protein but easy to carry. Flat bread / wraps. Not the healthiest week of her life, but I fed her lots of veggies on her return. Good luck to him!

P.S. You can make your own trail mix - break up biscuits, mix with dried fruit and a selection of nuts. Way cheaper than buying it, and that way you can choose all the ingredients you like.

Thank you - and this is going to sound like a monumental drip feed so I’d better get it out in the open.

He doesn’t like porridge.
He can’t take any form of nut as his tent buddy is allergic and may go into anaphylactic shock. They are sharing the cooking tins.

i think the wayfarer ones are the things to aim for. As long as he reads the instructions on how to cook them. For the record, he launched straight into gold level without doing bronze and silver so even though he sounds experienced, he isn’t.

@Loveheartsandlockets - DD also went straight to Gold, and is allergic to nuts (thus us making our own trail mix - in her case chocolate digestives broken up, dried fruit and jelly babies all mixed together). A nutritional nightmare, I know, but an excellent sugar boost when hiking! The Wayfarer pouches really are just a matter of adding boiling water and mixing! Have just checked with DD if there is anything she wished she had taken that she didn't have - she said, "Bring more wraps or flat bread than you think you need!"

Thank you! Much appreciated. The jelly babies trail mix sounds good so I’ll give that a try. We can go shopping in half term and start to think about the trip a bit more.

DD has just done Bronze and she said the beef jerky was the best thing ever. I got various dried meals from the supermarket as they were higher in calories than the stuff advertised by DofE. I looked out for anything with a decent amount of protein. We decanted everything into little plastic freezer bags to save space. DD doesn't like sandwiches or wraps so she made up a flask of noodles or pasta every morning. I also got dried fruit - pieces of mango and blueberries. It's a shame he can't take nuts as they are a brilliant way of getting calorie dense food.

DS is back after a successful Gold expedition. I’m not sure what he ate as he said he gave away most of his beef jerky. I think he lived off cereal bars and packet pasta.