What do you pack for 3 or 4 days lunches? I have no problems with evening meals and breakfasts, but what to have for lunch is always a problem.

I've gone right off squirty cheese & oatcakes. Sachets of fish pong dreadfully after three warm days in the rubbish bag, bread rolls get crushed. Even my favourite cornish pasties become a bit suspect after after a few days maturing.

Any ideas for tasty midday snacks, easily prepared and eaten in pouring rain & wind?

Well, just 'cos I'm a Snarky Gourmet I start off on the tromp with four ElvisBurgers (killer Jamie Oliver recipe Click here for the recipe) and some ciabatta rolls. Then try to pick up a couple of decent steaks for a Bookmakers' Sandwich after that ( Basically a steak sandwich, but click here for the gubbins ). If anyone can recommend a decent butcher in Ft Augustus, let me know! Next refuel this year won't be until Ballater. The Co-op there has reasonable steaks.

Last year in the Pyrenees I had a couple of pork chops with wild fennel, red onions and cream & brandy sauce. Not too shabby.

None of this is too much extra weight, and a sight better than Primula. Sure, you've got to carry some class of a fry pan, but well worth it for that cozy glow. And also ample opportunities for gloating at those poor wretches slurping up Pot Noodles or worse . . .

Extra-mature cheddar cheese and tomato sandwiches on heavy wholemeal bread.
Lots of butter, salt and pepper. They crush down quite thinly when wrapped in cling film and last quite well over a four day period.

Nothing beats them. They are good in the rain and there's virtually no packaging weight to worry about.

Another wonderful combo is extra matured cheddar, dark chocolate and marmalade
sarnies on wholemeal. Again; Lots of butter.

A few days before start i do some bread without yeast in 10x5x2cm pieces
Its edible for at least 2 weeks

For the TGO ill carry only 3 days of food at start, so when i refuel i buy something like :
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/ocado-compare-prices/bread/schneider_brot_organic_and_wheat_free_rye_bread_with_sunflower_seeds_500g.html


And more important some saucisson

Extra matured cheddar, chocolate and marmalade. Are you insane? That sounds utterly gross...
However, lunch has always been a problem for me. Either the weather is too grim to stop properly, I don't fancy what I've got, my oatcakes are crumbs, ugh, it goes on. This year I'm going for snacky stuff, oat bars, fruit flakes, fun size mar bars and the like. I take Heinz Squeeze and Stir in case we have chance to fire up the Flash, pittas and sachets of hummous. Might have some carrot sticks for the first couple of days. We'll see how it goes. Mature cheddar, chocolate and marmalade. Kidding right?

Mature cheddar, dark chocolate and marmalade, with butter thickly spread on a heavy wholemeal bread. It is absolutely gorgeous!

Try it:
You'll never go back to boring sarnies again.

Butties for the first couple of days, then butties whenever it's possible to buy the necessary bread and filling.

A boring cuppa-soup as a supplement to said butties can taste almost acceptable.

I quite like cheese but Baby Bels are tasteless and quite pricey for what they are.

I've cut some 'real' cheese up into lunch-size blocks, wrapped in tin foil. I intend having the cheese along with the more substantial cuppa-soups and supplemented with some bread - or thickened with some smash or super-noodles to increase the calorific value.

Then I'll call into the nearest pub for pie & chips washed down with a load of ale.

Fancy joining me?



JJ

Pumpernickel-bombproof brot!

you lot are just plain mad why not find the nearest mcdonalds or whimp , is that place still going?

Primula and oatcakes only acceptable these days if accompanied by cherry tomatoes (fit well into those banana shaped plastic things).

This year I am experimenting with flatbreads of various sorts plus dried dips reconstituted with water. Hummous, taramasalata, smoked mackerel pate, guacamole etc. Again I feel I need the cherry tomatoes.

I am addicted to cherry tomatoes and am going to try drying them so I do not need to take the banana case.

Vanessa - dried cherry tomatoes are very good - I slice them before drying - they're excellent in any evening meal rehydrated or munched as they come! I'm off to dehydrate some for my food bag right now........

I make my own oatcakes so they fit in my pot and don't break. One of those with cheese, I squish a bit of Bree or Cambazola into a Cliplock box, with dried tomato, I prefer the baby plum to cherry, or if I've been in a village the night before an apple. When the oatcakes run out I try to buy wraps.

Ian C.

Another wraps user here, preferably the wholemeal ones. They can survive a fair bit of abuse in the pack.

Make them up as and when I'm ready to eat with sliced cheese (low fat emmental for really hot weather as it doesn't leach cheesy oil in the heat), primula, maybe cold meat, salady things if I passed a shop, even a pot noodle once, but that was a bit messy

Wraps for me, filled with squeezy mayo and foil-packet tuna (which I've just rediscovered!), or salami, or squeezy cheese… or chunks of bread an cheese…

Except that I'll be in the Park restricted to a diet of roast swan, rod & line-caught wild salmon, roast herdwick mutton & new potatoes, Francesinha and the like… for two weeks…! Gout anyone?

Thanks to all for your help! I have now made decisions.

Wraps sound like a great solution to the bread problem. Pumpernickel JD? Mmmmm maybe. I recall some dodgy bars in Germany where trays of pumpernickel slathered in pork dripping and salt were handed round to assist with the beer consumption. Ideal challenge fare then.

I can't see myself reconstituting dried taramasalata or drying any healthy type stuff (pace Vanessa & Laura) but I might, just might try the odd oatcake again.

But two things are for sure: Knowing the contents of his sandwiches, I will stay well upwind of Alan Sloman, and next year I will try to hire HMP3 as my batman.

Have a great gourmet crossing chaps 'n chapesses!

Tickety boo, sir! A honour to serve. Your tooth-brush will be spread with paste before you even emerge in the morning. A field kitchen will be at your personal disposal, together with a camp bath, warm towels and delicious attendants.

You're not missing anything with the taramasalata, Phil, as it's starting to look revolting (too fatty, I think) but the tomatoes (thanks, Laura) and hummous are coming along nicely.

Oh dear, Phil. I'm getting flashbacks of you tabletop dancing in a grotty bierkeller in full frontal lederhosen. I must mop my fevered brow with some Hebridean schnapps.

My-oh-my, what a memory you have, sir! The place was Bad Salzuflen and the bar was indeed called the Muckefuk!

Those hedges gave a bracing health restoring air to inhale on the way back to the hotel. I don't recall having a hangover at all. Or maybe it was the pumpernickel & dripping.

Back to the subject of lunch ...

All these solutions based around things made from flour and cows' milk cause more than a little difficulty here ...

However, I have found this place: http://www.healthysupplies.co.uk/

They have a good variety of food bar / energy bar type products that I CAN safely consume ... so I stock up with those and make up 4-item 800 calorie lunch packs, different contents each day.

Their range contains LOTS of things that I can't eat but you lot can ... so if any of you are still thinking along cereal bar type lines, you might like to give them a try. There should still be time to get your orders delivered before the "off".

We never eat lunch. Go all day on our breakfast!