To not send in cooking ingredients to school tomorrow with DS2

[AFingerofFudge]

So DS2 has just announced he's cooking at school tomorrow. (He likes to spring these kind of surprises on me, in fact he's given me more notice than usual)
It's pea and ham risotto. I don't have the risotto rice, the bacon, the peas or the onion.
As a dutiful parent I'd normally whinge a bit, tell him off and send him to the shops for the ingredients.
However tomorrow I'm working until 9.15pm, so I've already prepared dinner. DH doesn't get home until late, DS1 will be looking after DS2&3 and serving up the meal to them. So the risotto thing will not get eaten, and also erm, the chances of it being edible anyway are minimal as his talents lie elsewhere
So AIBU to send a note with some sort of excuse?
I'm not normally a slack parent but I'm reluctant to part with money to pay for food that will go to waste.

Supermoon - he isn't cooking until the last lesson of the day, which doesn't leave very long at all to quickly chill the rice and keep it cold enough while he travels home from school.

When I was at school my mum would send me with notes all the time - not because I didn't tell her in time or because we couldn't afford it, but because no one in the house ate the foods they were asking us to cook and my mum said it was a waste when it all went in the bin. If and when we would have eaten what we were making she bought the ingredients for me, but fuck that. YANBU.

Just bin it.
Yes it's a waste but it's just one portion.

What kind of foods were they KingPrawn? Were they silly impractical dishes or were your family just fussy?

Iamastonished both, sometimes dishes thst blatantly took more than the hour we had, sometimes it'd be curries and chillies which we don't didn't eat

I don't think you are doing the right thing. He has to take responsibility, at his age, and should have told you weeks ago. I think you should be dealing with that, as the real issue.

Something has sunk in, which is good.

(Why exactly didn't he buy a cauliflower??? 😀!)

I'm of Asian origin. Where does this 'don't reheat rice' advice come from? My family's been doing it for years & we will even eat rice prepared up to 3 days in advice if kept in the fridge. Never had any food poisoning or adverse affects. Seems such a monumental waste of food. Rice is well expensive.

Risotto doesn't work when reheated. Neither does cauliflower cheese.

Regardless of your son's organisational skills, these are bloody stupid ideas.

Cookery lessons are invaluable but they have to be things that can be eaten cold or reheated. And cheap in case of accidents.

Speaking as a former food teacher, you absolutely must send him to buy the ingredients...As for potential waste, the only thing he's likely to bugger up is not cooking it well enough. As long as you store it in the fridge you can reheat it and add more stock on Tuesday to finish off the cooking.

Speaking as someone who likes to cook and eat risotto, you are wrong
SuperMoonIsKeepingMeUpToo. It's going to end up a claggy mess and I'd bin it or break it up for the birds.

I do agree that cooking lessons involving making reasonably priced and easily available things that everyone likes to eat cold or reheated are invaluable.

but the problem with that is not everyone likes everything so basically you are saying no cooking class in valuable since not everyone likes food.

eg I know people that hate all potato products others hate cheese (+ allygies) others hating rice etc oh i also know people that hate all bread as well so sandwhichs are out under your defination of whats valuable

I hated domestic science because that was what the girls did while the boys did metal and woodwork.

I now realise that inadvertently, I got the better deal because people need to budget and cook every day whereas there are so many times you have to make a three-legged stool.

My lessons were brilliant. We learned about food groups, vitamins, hygiene and storage and how long it took to cook various things.

We made stuff every week but it was always practical. So instead of making a cottage pie, we would make the beef mince filling and our teacher would judge that and tell us to go home and reheat and eat it or put some mashed potatoes on top and bake.

Mash, like risotto, is another thing that doesn't reheat well.

Risotto rice can be fried into risotto balls, or be used as a filling for various Indian and Asian dumplings/breads etc. It can even be put in to thicken soup - that's what I use it for generally.

I hated domestic science because there was always someone who wouldn't have the ingredients and then would decide that they would "help" me instead. I have no idea whether it was because they were disorganised or because they couldn't afford the ingredients but it made the lesson much more stressful.

Leftover risotto is fairly versatile even when dried.

The OP's son was being asked to cook a risotto that couldn't be eaten immediately. Therefore it was a waste.

It's possible to make arancini from leftover risotto but he wasn't shown how to make it. Therefore it was also a waste.

Maybe you should look on the ingredients as the raw material for a project, rather than a "waste" because you can't actually eat the finished product? Like paint, modelling clay, textiles, etc?
The objective of the lesson is to learn how to cook, not provide the family's evening meal...

An important component of the lesson should be that whatever you make should be consumable.

Paint, modelling clay, textiles etc. When you make stuff, you shouldn't throw bits away unless it is absolutely necessary. And then you should dispose of them responsibly.

That's not being all huggy-feely. It's having mind to cold, hard cash. There is brass in muck.

Therefore you should keep things, pass them on or put them back into recycling. If you want to do it for nothing or for profit, that's up to you.

So if you make food it should be with the idea that you or someone else will eat it. If you make a mistake and then, of course should throw it away because no one should eat horrible food unless they are desperate.

That's why the school should have taught the OP's son to make something that could be eaten cold, reheated or turned into leftovers.