Holiday Carepackage Foods

[Only]

With the holidays coming up and my bro overseas I need to think of some great homemade treats that will last the trek to Afghanistan.

I know I could dump a package of Christmas Oreos with the center dyed red in his box and send it off but it's the holidays and I know he really appreciates homemade stuff.

Any fun recipes for holiday treats?

[Leiiki]

Most rum/whiskey cake recipes are very travel-friendly. My aunt mails rum cakes from Hawaii all over the mainland at Christmas.

Homemade Chocolate Bark, Chocolate-Dipped Pretzel or Dried Fruit.

A spice kit you put together and decorate filled with "American" spices like pumpkin pie, bbq dry rub, gumbo filé, Old Bay, etc. Just smelling those when I was living abroad made me happy!

[CMamma]

I can post recipes of a few things I've done when I have more time, but for now I can suggest things I sent my brother & a few others while overseas in the ME or deployed at sea. Beef jerky seemed to be one of the best treats. Also, I made a homemade trail mix & my brother couldn't get enough of it. Packaging things well plays a big roll in how well it travels/will last. If vacuum seeling is an option, I would do that. I didn't have one so I usually put in baggies & rolled the air out/sealed, then another baggy & for baked goods, I went a step further & put into a toss away plastic container - these things get beat up in shipping & I found that when I didn't send in a container, my recipients got homemade crumbs, but the container got them their cookies/brownies/etc in one piece.

Also, if you're cool with it, I'd suggest sending him enough to share with a friend or two. LOTS of active duty men & women do not have anyone to send them goodies, much less homemade ones. And I know that is a FANTASTIC way to keep morale up, especially over the holidays. I was never in a war zone when on AD, but I was overseas most of my enlistment & it was like getting gold in the mail when I got a care package with REAL homemade baked goods.

[DottieHarley]

My BIL really missed chips and salsa while he was deployed and it took a while before we hit on a shipping method that didnt deliver him a pile of crumbs :-). If you are shipping to ppl stationed in Afghanistan, etc I would think about the weather in transit there - hot weather = melted chocolate (and gummy bears).
My mom would make cookies for my uncle and cut them out with very very small cutters (she was like 7 lol) and he said they were the only ones that werent all broken up.

[kaia.aline]

When dh was deployed we never had broken cookies bc I would wrap each individually with glad press n seal!

Do a cookie box with holiday flavored cookies-

Egg nog
Pumpkin pie
Pecan pie
Hot chocolate

[Only]

Originally Posted by kaia.aline When dh was deployed we never had broken cookies bc I would wrap each individually with glad press n seal! Do a cookie box with holiday flavored cookies- Egg nog Pumpkin pie Pecan pie Hot chocolate

This is a great idea.

My husband has been deployed more times than I can count on one hand all squeezed into the past 9 or so years and my bro has deployed previously as well so I'm no stranger to care packages but duh never thought of individually wrapping!

[kaia.aline]

Originally Posted by Only This is a great idea. My husband has been deployed more times than I can count on one hand all squeezed into the past 9 or so years and my bro has deployed previously as well so I'm no stranger to care packages but duh never thought of individually wrapping!

I sent 15 dozen cookies every other week so that everyone got some and then for holidays I did brownies and other goodies in addition to the cookies so it gets tedious but what I found was the quickest was to lay out a long sheet of press n seal and space the cookies then place another sheet on top and trace it with my fingers, then just cut them apart and bag em up! Pain in the butt but so effective!

[armywife2002]

i used to make big batches of brownies in the foil pans, completely over wrap them in foil, and pack them tight into boxes... we were in germany, so shipping was free, and the guy's in my ex's platoon loved it when i sent like 8 pans of brownies, lol

[EmilytheStrange]

Pringles cans are good for sending cookies.

I don't know about Afghanistan, but Iraq gets very very cold in the winter. So, chocolates could be fine this time of year I think wintertime in Afghanistan is similar.