I'm a bit miffed about this Food Tech ingredients list

[IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads]

Not feeling brave enough for AIBU, and I'm sure the teacher has her reasons, but this is what DS needs to take to school next week. He's 14/Y9, do not into GCSE course yet, and food tech isn't one on his options. Also, he has food tech after lunch, and has to carry his cooking around for the rest of the day, as the fridges are full of heat the morning lessons have made. OK for scones, but for chicken?

Here is the offending ingredients list:

Thai Green Curry - 1 onion, 1 clove of garlic, 80g sugar snap peas, 2 small chicken breasts, 30ml Thai green curry paste. 200ml coconut milk, ½ lime, small bunch coriander.

My concerns - there's about £8 worth of stuff there, many of which (curry paste, coconut milk, coriander) come in bigger packs than required. That doesn't seem to be considerate of the CoL crisis - it's a big standard academy comp in a not-particularly affluent area.

Also - no veggie alternative ingredients offered - so half our household wouldn't eat the results anyway.

DS is not matey enough with anyone in his FFT class to suggest sharing ingredients. Expensive ingredients!

I'm delighted that the school is teaching the kids to make something other than scones and pizza, but there are so many cheaper curries to mark in an hour! They could start by making the curry paste! Or school providing (and charging for) the ingredients the kids won't need need "all" of.

(DS's previous school/DD's school charge for all FFT and RMT ingredients and materials at the start of the year, abs supply everything. I appreciate limited kitchen space doesn't always make this possible).

I get it OP but I don't think it'll cost you £8.

I love a Thai curry and normally do one every month, I pay about 80p for a tin of coconut milk in Aldi.

I would send him with what he needs and keep the rest at home 😊

it doenst have to be sugar snap peas,
you might be able to get a handful of mange tout

I can't believe this is typical? We just send a monthly contribution payment to school, could not be bothered bottling your tiny amounts of milk and little tubs of seasonings etc. let alone carrying raw meat around half a day!

I'm curious where you are as my son did the exact same recipe. At his school you absolutely can put ingredients in the fridge.....you have to go in a bit early to do this. Are you sure he can't? Also the veg option was always on the back of the form, or somewhere. Schools are clued up to this.....I find it hard to believe there isn't a chickpea version. Finally I adapt his recipes.....so if I can only afford a chicken thigh which I would debone, then that's what he takes. Sometimes we miss a bit of the ingredients....like the lemon grass if its too expensive or hard to get hold of.....some times I would send extra and say he can share.....again like the lemon grass if i had a pack of 3 that would go to waste. Hopefully there are kids your son can do that with too.

I'm with you @IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads

It's the same at DD's school, made worse by the fact that their lessons are only 45 mins so they don't have enough time to finish the actual cooking and come home with food that is unsafe, inedible and has to be thrown away.

I'd be happy it's a modern, popular, healthy meal that is useful for them to be able to cook. I would send them in with an ice pack for the chicken. They should have suggested substitutes for the chicken, though.

We do often buy those ingredients but I agree it's expensive and would cause stress to a lot of families.

Plus it's not stuff you can pop out and buy at a local shop the night before if you've forgotten.

It would cause problems in our school for sure, not for me personally but plenty of families.

My sibling ended up speaking to her children's school about the cost. Some weeks it was £15 if they didn't have the bits and bibs and the school did take it on board and now have shared spices and herbs, they changed some recipes to be more affordable and looked at the cost of some of the other recipes.

I'd send an email or speak to teacher.

I've just had horrific flashbacks to my lot doing Food Tech. We live very rurally, with no big supermarkets within 20 miles (and the really big ones that stock all the fancy-schmancy ingredients are 35 miles +). And, of course, my kids would wait until the last minute to tell me what they needed.

Trying to find an approximate replacement for something like a mango, when the local shops had nothing more than a grapefruit or, more likely, were closed...

And I never did manage to teach a single one of them to give me the ingredients list in advance. Sigh.

It's so frustrating my dd is doing food tech gcse I had to spend about £15 to make a chicken soup there often times when she needs just one of something but has to take the whole pack. Half the family are veggie so can hardly ever eat anything she makes.

In the 1980s at my school we had to bring in ingredients, which was a right pain in the arse, but not so much of a pain as getting what you'd cooked through the rest of the day and home again. Very unsavoury memories of what remained of a chicken casserole by the time I got it home.

Also my mum's frustration when it was something no one in our house would want to eat - banana custard, for instance - ended up in the bin (in fairness mine was like rubber so even a fan of the stuff wouldn't have wanted it).

Why is everyone suggesting alternative supermarkets as a compromise? The OP may manage that but it's not actually about the OP but the effect on other students as well. I used to have to get the bus to the supermarket. There was only one bus and it went to one supermarket. Saying "Go to Lidl" is not a solution. For others, the extra petrol spent on going to a shop further out may negate the money saved. Saying "Go to Lidl" is not a solution.

Nor is "Can you get a block of coconut instead?" No! The school asked for coconut milk. they're not going to be supporting a child who doesn't know what they're doing with an ingredient they weren't asked to bring in.

"Raise your concerns with the school" is likely to result in more favourable results for all children.

That is quite an annoying list.

I would give 2 chicken breasts from the freezer. I actually buy in M&S, individually wrapped, they’re not as ££ as you might think. If you can’t find the half tins of coconut milk, it freezes so I would freeze the other half & with that and the jar of paste, he can cook it again (or veggie version) next week, getting your money’s worth. I would also just provide whatever green veg we were eating that week, not a fan of snaps being shipped from wherever.

I've had to send my kids with a note saying we can't afford the ingredients on more than one occasion. The school just pal them up with someone

At my dd’a school we pay £12.00 at the start of the food tech term and everything is provided for all of the lessons they are cooking in, just have to take in a tub!

The school I used to work at the tech department would do the shopping and the kids would pay towards it, it would work out a lot cheaper for the kids and there wouldn't be any waste. Why more schools don't do this I do not understand.

Exactly. A nice bit of humiliation there.

Home bargains or b&m do coconut milk and curry paste cheaper if they helps.

Our school is the same, and they are also very strict but at the same time vague and confusing in their instructions which is awful for children who are anxious to get things right and not be told off. So it is always really unclear whether onion needs to have been already diced, non-standard amounts of, say coconut milk already measured out etc. DS will be insisting that he must have “a spoonful of tomato purée” rather than taking a tube and measuring it out there, because the instructions say everything must be measured out before hand, for example.

I suggest telling the school you are sending vegan alternative ingredients (I recommend firm tofu or chickpeas plus a red chilli pepper would work) cheapest coconut milk is lidl, send half a can in use the rest at home.

I had the same as a student in the mid 2000s. My mum was a single parent and doing her best but with two teens she couldn't always afford what they wanted. Agree with the cost of 2 chicken breasts nowadays will probably bump your list to around £7/£8.

In terms of being vegetarian I'd send them in with a sweet potato, some tofu or a tin of chickpeas. The teacher won't complain and if anyone says anything your DC just has to say my parents don't buy, cook or eat meat. That will bring the amount down a lot and negate the fridge issue too.

Oh and sub green beans if you want, works the same

I feel your pain, my daughters’ school is the same. They may lots of old fashioned things too which are quite costly and which my daughters will never want to make themselves - crème brûlée, lemon meringue pie, treacle tart. They’re also not particularly healthy. Each week it costs me between £5-8, which is disappointing in a cost of living crisis, particularly when we don’t really eat what has been cooked.

It's not just the financial cost is it? It's the hassle of having to go out specifically for ingredients you don't have at home (and you have to decide whether to suck up the cost and get it all at your local supermarket or shop around). This is assuming you aren't rural and have a local supermarket.

There is also the waste as not everyone will be able to use those specific ingredients. And I'd assume the end result won't be very nice 🫢

I'd do it this time but I'd be emailing the school to see if there is a more economical way if doing this going forwards.

DD was the same - always pulling a list out of her bag the night - or even the morning before! 😖

Carrying the food around all day seems particularly ridiculous.
A freezer bag with freezer blocks is ok up to a point but I wouldn't be keen on raw chicken out if the refrigerator for an extended time. Shouldn't food tech teach food safety and handling and storage as well?

Because we don't have a person to do the shopping for six groups a day. Or the storage space for the ingredients. Or the money to do it