DofE Bronze

This month, I have a practice DofE expedition, and I have the actual thing in June, but the thing I'm really worried about is the diet, because I'm a really picky eater and I eat a lot, so I need some advice. For those who have done DofE bronze, could you give me some advice on a menu for the 2 days?

Hello! I did my DofE Bronze a few years ago. We had to tailor our diet too because one of our group members was (still is) a vegetarian. Honestly most of it was similar to what we usually ate. You'll want to bring plenty of snacks that you like, preferably ones that are dryish and not gonna get everywhere e.g trail mix, biscuits, crisps, pepperamis etc (NO BANANAS- really bad idea!!) for lunch we prepared it in the morning just before we put our tent away, we made salad (packet) and bean (tinned) wraps and used sample sized philadelphia packets to "glue" them. Dinner we bought like fresh pasta tortellini things and a pot of tomato pasta sauce. We didn't eat a proper breakfast, just had biscuits To summarise, for breakfast and lunch and snacks, bring something that you like that is easy to prepare and for dinner you'll want something that can just be basically heated and shoved in a bowl. Let me know if you've got anymore questions, good luck!

DofE Bronze food is easy.
Bring any kind of regular packed lunch you'd normally have for lunch
I just brought a pot noodle for dinner and some snacks (jaffa cakes etc) (Other people in my group brought some pasta and a jar of sauce)
Breakfast was just some random packaged snacks from the cupboard
Didn't have a second lunch.

The expedition is really short and you could eat just about anything. There doesn't need to be any fresh food. It's short enough (Lunch, Dinner, Breakfast) that you don't really have nutritional requirements. Just that you eat enough for dinner that you aren't hungry. Nobody wants to walk on an empty stomach

I was looking up menus and stuff, and it said eating like 5 crepes for breakfast was fine, but I don't know if that's too much. Would you say that that's a normal amount or not?
Thanks for the advice, it's really useful!

No problem! Do you mean like the pre-packaged crepes? I would say that it depends entirely on you and how much you would usually eat. I would maybe recommend eating about one and a half times the amount you usually would while on DofE, but always better to have too much and not need it all than to not have enough!

This month, I have a practice DofE expedition, and I have the actual thing in June, but the thing I'm really worried about is the diet, because I'm a really picky eater and I eat a lot, so I need some advice. For those who have done DofE bronze, could you give me some advice on a menu for the 2 days?

Here’s what my group did:
Day 1 breakfast (home)
Day 1 lunch - packed lunch from home
Day 1 Dinner - pasta (with a jar sauce or plain for those who didn’t like the sauce)
Day 2 breakfast - porridge, breakfast bars or dry cereal
Day 2 lunch - leftover plain pasta
Day 2 dinner (home)

Yes, this is very similar to what my group have planned. We have a practise expedition where I have to bring my own stuff, but for the actual thing, we're staying the night, and our group have decided to make tomato pasta for dinner, and have the leftovers the next day. We decided on toast for breakfast though. Just wondering, how much sauce did u bring?
Thanks so much!

My group was only 4 people so we had one jar

Good luck OP, hope you have dry weather.

how big was it, as in how many grams?

It’s a jar of sauce, they only come in one size…

Pasta is a great bet, nice and easy and can be mixed with different sauces.

Gnocchi is great (dried not fresh), as it cooks really quickly and is filling. Mix it with a jar of pasta sauce, and even some sliced peppers and you have a nice fresh meal. I'd avoid pot noodles, instant cook stuff... at the end of a day of walking you'll appreciate something 'fresher'...

For breakfast, the cooked element can be a hot drink. So, a cup of tea and hot chocolate plus maybe some fruit or those pre-packaged crepes is nice. Ideally, porridge is best as you'll get the most energy.

Snack-wise try and avoid really sugary and 'junk food', it's nice but not ideal. Dried fruit is best, but maybe a keep a mars bar if you need a pick me up!

One thing I've found over my past few years leading DofE expeditions are that having good food goes a long way - no matter how picky you may be, plan a good menu and you'll thank yourself! Good luck!

do you think passata would be an ok alternative for pasta sauce?
thanks!

It would work, but why not pasta sauce? One thing to keep in mind is passata is normally in those cardboard tubs, which may break if it's at the bottom of your bag!

because i bought the cardboard tube this morning.
and im really worried if it doesnt work out.
i could maybe pour it into a different container?