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 ...

Also do sell coconut milk. It's 99p a tin. They also sell fine beans at 69p I think. Suggest trying home bargains for curry paste, they sell weird and wonderfuls like that quite cheaply. Chinese supermarkets are good for that sort of thing too.

Just a shame they couldn't get a whatsit of curry paste between 4-5 of them. Make sure she brings the leftover paste home!

My DDs are at two different schools and each does Home Economics rather than Food Tech. They seem to cycle through a range of traditional dishes, each of which gives the a range of food prep skills. I don't think we ever spend more than £4 per dish.

Why don't you campaign for the school to do home EC rather than food tech? Is there anyone who actually supports food tech?

Sorry but you could have got that lot much cheaper! I was in LIDL earlier and bought coconut milk for 89p,Sainsburys have green curry paste on offer @ £1.19 and packs of chillies are 2 for £1.

It is a lot to expect parents to fund though, I think there needs to be better communication from the school and some pooling of ingredients eg one bag of frozen fine green beans would be enough for the class!

The ingredients available depend on where you live. We have Coop, Morrisons or Tesco in our town and that's it. Except the town centre, but I don't always have the time to trawl for the cheap stuff.

when I were a lass we paid 30p-50p per week and the teacher provided ingredients - that way folk did not have to rely on their Dc remembering in good time,or splash out on a jar of something they would never use again

the school I taught at (not food tech) the kids would make things like crumble - using tinned stewed apple and a bag of crumble mix, or cottage pie using tinned mince - another teacher friend of mine was so cross about this "we don't eat dog food at home - he can take mince and fry it up in the same time it takes the others to open their can of mince!" - the emphasis was on marketing and packaging design, rather than healthy eating and food prep skills.

Now DD is in Y8 - they do take all their own ingreds but so far nothing expensive - pasta sauce, pizza, fairy cakes, cookies, fruit salad, dips and crudites were the Y7 sessions. They DO have fridges and enough space for all the kids to store their food both before and after cooking!

It is annoying but you could have been savvier - frozen chicken breasts would have been cheaper and could have defrosted overnight. Also you can buy large bags of frozen beans for the same price as fresh. Chillies freeze so she'll only need 1 and then you can keep the rest for other meals.

Cwtch def not green curry paste on offer at our sainburys - and no 2for £chillis (actually i fibbed shes taking the "lazy chili" from the fridge- havent told her that) Green dragon brand - that was all they had. Yes I could have gone to lidl for the coconut milk, and home bargains for the paste ....and sods law they'll have beans an onions when I go o o a proper shop tomorrow, but actually, I have a job and not huge amounts of time( or petrol) to trawl the shops !

Totally agree theas and second your suggestions of what they should be cooking. My DS made Thai chicken curry last Friday - none of us like Thai curries!

I think they should be taught the basics - boiling an egg, making pastry, sauces etc.

The only 'cheap' meal DS has on his list for this term is macaroni cheese. Other than that it's all £10 a go.

The school doesn't seem to have a store cupboard for some of the recipes where only a teaspoon or tablespoon is required meaning I either risk sending him in without it or buy it knowing that I'll never use it again.

YANBU!!!

Sniggering at the though of her taking frozen beans in- they'd be mush by the time she got to cook them!

No they wouldn't - I leave a portion out to defrost and they ding go mushy if you by the long French beans.

Tsk - don't not ding!

Cripes, I hope DD won't be cooking like that, I still rely on some of the stuff I learned in HE. Kids need to be taught cooking from the basics up, our first practical lesson was breakfast, tea, toast and cereal, and we went up from there, those that could progressed to more complex things quicker, we were allowed to adapt and complicate the recipes, but kids need basics not luxury treats!

op exactly same meal my boys had to make (twins)

also could only get coconut milk from waitrose in my nearest high street and the
corriander twas very expensive

i went blardy mad and ended up feeding the fox atleast half

next time im making a stand

that does seem a bit much.

we have curry paste and coconut milk in the house as do likes to make curries and some supermarkets sell it cheaper but its not always possible to shop around.

my ds1 is doing food tech and he made macaroni cheese this week, we had most of the ingredients so it was fine.

the school should make sure its chilled properly and kept in fridge, they have to and i kniw ds1's high school is very good at that.

make sure the curry paste comes home again!

I use coconut yoghurt with this type of paste. Its only just over a pound and you only need half of it, leaves some to scoff later

I am lucky in that DD's lesson is her last one of the day, so stuff comes home pretty edible.

OP- where in the country do you live?? I am a food tech teacher and we are making Thai green curry next week

HOWEVER we tell the pupils if they wouldnt normally have stuff like the curry paste and lime in stock we will sell them a "spice pack" for about 30p as they dont use the whole thing. Also happy for them to use chicken thighs/quorn/make smaller/bigger quantities to suit them- this is all delivered in the drivel I tell them when I give them the recipe but they need to give this information back to mum!

A meal with 4 chicken breasts served with rice should feed 5 of you though??!

op i think you are fibbing about more than the lazy chillies, coconut milk is routinely available in sainsburys for 99p not £1.99, often a choice of brands.
It is still a very expensive lesson but don't exaggerate to make your point.

Dcs school are very sensible, they ask for £10 a term.when they do cooking, then supply all the ingredients. No last minutes requests for chilli when shops are closed.

Not fibbing about the lack of choice /price of coconut milk or curry paste both blue dragon honest( we are in a really oddly non ethnic area of a bit city - we have o travl a distance to find an indian or Chinese supermarket and I think aldi/sainburys stock according to local buying patterns) - is this going to be like hot uk deals where I have to scan my reciept !

2 chicken breasts johnthepong - 330g or something daft - £12/kg. should go round 5 if she makes plenty of sauce..

sorry, that was bit rude of me, just v. surprised. didnb't realise they did local pricing to that extent in the main supermarkets

Coconut milk is 2 for a pound in Tesco, green Thai curry paste is cheaper than £1.99 too.

That said, it does seem like a strange thing to make. DS1 got anA* in Food Tech and what he learnt was bloody ridiculous IMVHO. He can adapt and change a cake recipe for a diabetic or someone with lactose intolerance, but he couldn't cook a meal! Well he can, because I have taught him, he didn't learn how to at school.

I don't get what's wrong with learning.to make a variety of dishes,such as curries etc,

I mean one jar of paste will last for a few meals so it won't really be that expensive if they were making at home.

It is a bit insulting to think kids need to be taught macaroni cheese, pizza, Bolognese, simple baking, I mean most of us teach our kids that from the time they are 3, so teaching the majority that to suit minority is going to bore majority.

nailak time and time again on mnet you see that actually plenty if people dont teach their children the basics actually!
johnthe seems to have the right idea as in they supply stuff and then children/patents pay towards it. we would have most of thosr ingredients but many families wouldnt.