AIBU to think this is a rediculous about for a school DT lesson to cost?

[Theas18]

Just back from sainburys. Am an aldi shopper and £70 a week easily feeds 5of us....we are on a budget of sorts.

Dd2 is making Thai green curry on Monday. There has been no cooperation re ingredients ( previously they've cooked and organised in groups), so I have had to buy the whole list :

Green curry paste £1.99
Coconut milk £1.99
Fine green beans £1.50
Spring onions 70p
Lime 30p
Chicken breasts £4
Chilies £1.50

Skip the coriander. I hate it !

That'll be a cool £11.98 . For 1 meal, that almost certainly will not serve all 5 of us even.

Not to mention if we really should be eating chicken that's been dragged to school, cooked ( possible in adequately in a fixed lesson time) then either refrigerated whist hot or not refrigerated at all, been dragged on the bus to her piano lesson and finally home!

I am almost in tears- the eldest goes back to uni soon I can't afford to chuck £12 away ...

Did she not get a choice about what to cook?

Why did you go to Sainsbury's then!

Could she have misunderstood? I agree that if this was the case then it is too much. Why not ask the teacher? or is it because your dd has chosen something expensive to cook or maybe she was only expected to bring in smaller quantities of ingredients to make single portion?

I doubt you could get all that in aldi, hence going to sainsburys?

Do the school offer any financial help? It might be worth phoning and explaining your situation to see if they do as I'm sure its something they must have faced before.

Otherwise, say you are all vegetarian and cut out the chicken. It reduces the cost by £4 and it makes it safer to eat after its been dragged around all afternoon.

Nope. That was it. If she was vegetarian she could subsitiute a " meat alike" quorn or tofu was suggested, but that'd still be at £2 or so for the protein part I think, so £10.

The school should provide somewhere to store the chicken and the teacher put it into the fridge when it suitably cooled.

Can't get any if that in aldi, at least not seasonally - they do have beans and spring onions sometimes.

I'm going to call them I think. I certainly will be pricing things up in the future well ahead if time.

I hope they have thought about what to do with the chicken re fridges etc will send in cool bag with ice pack and hope same comes home!

Definitely can get all of those things in Aldi!

What do you tHink she should be cooking in her lessons?

It is ridiculous you're right.

I never eat the food ds brings home when he's cooked at school. dog has it and that lot is expensive.

Why don't you eat what they have cooked. My DDs always take in double the ingredients so that the whole family can eat it.

I've suffered your pain with ds, who is so last minute "Oh, Mum, I need to take these in tomorrow" type thing, but with dd, who is FAR more organised and a totally different kettle of fish, she gets to gether with her friends and one person says "I'll bring the....." where it is an ingredient you have to buy a lot more of than you are going to use in the recipe. It helps a lot. Does she not have 2 or3 friends she could start to do this with ?

YANBU! that's ridiculous! and you've already bought it? I'd send a letter saying that this costs whatever percent of your usual food budget and in future you'll subsitute cheaper ingredients.
I always used to substitute anyway, there is no way my dcs are going to be buying or eating 'fruit pie filling' as was suggested for one lesson.
I'm afraid I don't have a very high opinion of food tech, a shame as there's a crying need for people to learn how to cook good food from cheap ingredients, but I don't think they see that as their aim.

Is dd in Secomdary school? Certainly in the one I work in, they can put their perishables in the fridge until the lesson and then when cooled can go back in the fridge.

Did she take food tech as an option?

And I am pretty certain with rice (and a side salad) you could make that feed 5.

It doesn't help reduce the cost, but what would happen if the chicken was "accidently" left at home rather than got out of the fridge at the last moment?

We did several substitutions in home ecc (as it was in my days - I read DT as design technology), and never got told off for it - even tho the first time I asked, and was told no, they didn't bat an eyelid when I brought different things in.

What do I think she should be cooking?

Good food, preferably from scratch that will provide her with skills to cook and budget as a uni student (selective school- they'll all go to uni )

Good vegetable/lentil soup would be a great start - lots if veg prep practice.
Bolognaise sauce/ tomato and vegetable sauce.
Stir fry - meat/chicken or veggie
Basic baking - scones, flapjack, fairy cakes pancakes.
Curries - meat/chicken maybe but also using lentils/pulses
Chilli- veg or meat

How to do a roast dinner ( ok you can't do it at school in a DT lesson!) but to know how to cook veggies and roast /mash potatoes.

Well that's what I've been teaching the eldest over the summer anyway.. The youngest actually can cook pretty well anyway - cant take credit for that- she started at the childminder chopping mushrooms with a plastic knife to "help" at tea time.

Not useful but I can get the coconut milk, curry paste, spring onions, chillies and chicken in my local Aldi.

The coconut milk a recent addition though and is 89p I think. Chillies 39p at the moment.

I'd be inclined to substitute the rest.

That is mad. I really think that you should bring it to the attention of the head of department. My dd is doing catering. Her list for this week is:
1 onion
4 CARROTS
CHILLI POWDER
ONE LB OF SAUASAGES
TOM PUREE
SMALL TIN OF BAKED BEANS
HANDFUL OF PEAS

She does lots of practical and almost always its stuff we have/can get cheaply and the teacher always tells them that they can substitute anything. Her school also has sufficient fridge space. Any meat ingredients have to be handed in before school. She will not let them cook with ingredients that have been dragged around. Everything is put back in the fridge for the end of the day.

If there is an ingredient, like a herb or such like that we dont have or use, I tell dd and most likely another girl will have brought in a jar. If dd takes a jar of say chilli powder, i am happy for her to offer some to someone who hasnt got any.

Kids have to learn that you can make make a meal for 4 for a fiver in my view

It sounds very expensive for a school cookery lesson.

This week DD cooked a cheesy pasta, grand total £2 max, from stuff I usually have in the cupboard/fridge.

We ate it when she came home, topped up with some diced ham I wanted to use up.

Most of her cookery lessons have been easy like this, which I feel they should be.

Cookery lessons in school should be about giving the child the skills to do the basics and be able to feed themselves sensibly. Not sure where Thai green curry comes into that.

I had a similar situation with one of my son's DT cookery lessons last year. They were making meatballs. DS is veggie. A week before, he was given a list of ingredients, including quorn mince. I thought, "That's odd: personally I'd use the quorn ready-made 'meat-style-balls'; but it would be good to know how to make them from mince, and how to get them to stick together. I look forward to seeing the recipe".

Then it turned out he was the only veggie making that dish in that week, so I had to buy all the ingredients: it cost about £6, and our average spend for our family of 3 is £3-4 per main meal.

DS came home with a tub full of completely inedible burnt quorn mince, mixed with flour and egg, which we had to throw away. It looked like a vomit omelette! When questioned, DS revealed that the DT teacher had admitted not to knowing how to make veggie meatballs, and had 'improvised'.

I was spitting mad... The waste of money. The waste of food. The disrespect for families and their careful budgeting. The total lack of appropriate lesson preparation... I 'phoned and complained, and got an apology. The teacher said he'd replace the quorn, but he never did...

I do think generally cookery is very badly planned at DS's school... I remember years ago refusing to buy ingredients for a 'summer fruits' berry fruit salad in November, because it would have cost about a tenner for berries at that time of year!

OP definitely agree with your list about the stuff they should be cooking/ taught.

I've started teaching DD and DS (aged 12 and 8) as they want to do Guides/Cubs badges in any case. DD cooked the dinner on Weds when I felt ill from a cold my DP gave me, and did really well.