School cookery, very expensive

[Toomanyblanklooks]

I’ve just checked what DD needs for cookery tomorrow. 8 chicken breasts!
AIBU to thinks it’s too expensive and too much food?

I don’t think so as that would be a little bit of chicken swimming in a sea of tomatoes!

When dc were at school, we paid a set sum a year and they provided the ingredients. It was a lot cheaper and a lot less hassle

What a waste of food! That's ridiculous. Why would they need to make a curry to feed 8 people? How are they storing it to make sure that it's actually edible?

8 chicken breasts and Double cream?? Is the teacher planning to take it home for a dinner party?? Why can't they make a nice veggie curry? Cheaper and tastier too.

At my son's school, they work in groups and pool the ingredients. The only annoying thing was that one of the other members of the group used to bring in shop bought eggs even though I kept telling DS to swap and bring in the eggs as we have our own chickens so wouldn't have cost me anything extra. 😂

There’s not enough spices there for that quantity of meat/tomatoes etc

Yes, that recipe is awful. It's not curry, it's chicken in mildly spiced tomato slop.

Who makes an Indian style chicken curry with breast meat?
Nowhere near enough spices, also they should tell each of them to buy one/two packets of the Asian branded ones if they can get them and share out. Not having the whole class supply a teaspoon of each out of a pack that half of them will need to buy new and then not use again.
Far too tomatoey.
No salt, please tell me that the school is at least allowing them to use salt and is supplying it?
No vegetarian option?

Done right, it could be a good learning opportunity in recipe critique - here is the recipe do you think it will make a nice dish? No, so what changes should they make? What is missing? How could they make it cheaper? That sort of thing.

Teaching students how to make a range of cost effective, easy, nutritious meals at school is extremely important and not complicated. Yet they seem so incapable of making a decent job of it.

I think just send in half OP, or even quarter. The ratios in that recipe are all wrong.

Sod that. I’d buy some thighs and de skin and bone them at home.

I am going to adjust the quantities so we won’t have food waste. Thankfully we have all the spices.

At the quantities given DD would spend the whole lesson chopping and not have time to cook the food!

I started at tread l earlier in the year when ds's cookery ingredients cost £7, including 2 chicken breasts! It seems like a perfect time to reintroduce the concept of home economics.

what year op?!

@idealgift yr 11

Someone has copied and pasted that recipe off something like the BBC Good Food website - its definitely a meal for 6/8! When my daughter came home with this sort of thing I cut the ingredients down to a max of 2 portions. Never had a problem. Bit of a longshot but perhaps its the teachers way of making them think for themselves rather than blindly follow instructions?

Butcher here, that is definitely a typo and is thighs not breasts. Breasts typically come skinless and boneless and wouldn’t need to be reiterated. However we do get a lot of people coming asking for us to de skin and bone the thighs.

ah so GCSE

Have you spoken with your daughter? what’s the theme?

@idealgift they are not taking a qualification, they just cook every week.

so this is year 11 but not for GCSE? is his a mainstream school?

My sons school are great for this, they ask for the money and provide the food so it’s so much better. We have paid £9.70 I think it was the other day for this years contribution. Last year was about £5 as they did easier/cheaper things in year 7. So much better than the last minute shopping we had to do every time for my daughters (usually obscure to help matters).

8 chicken breasts are ridiculous! I would definitely only send half.

Not mainstream.

That is ridiculous. Complain. Have you priced up that list. How can some families afford this. I reckon it will be over £30 If you don't already have the spices. Maybe nearer £40. Nearly a week's shopping budget for some I bet.

That's crazy. I cook for five adults each night and that amount of chicken is four meals worth for me.

I'd refuse to send DD in with ingredients or I'd question the teacher.
The recipe does not look right. Both the ingredients and proportions are wrong .

The full 8 breasts could save families cooking two or three days and uses school electricity for original cooking. Curries can be frozen too if you don't like to eat the same meal twice in a row..

I don’t think so as there would be too litter meat in proportion to the other ingredients.

I agree with previous posters, there must be a veggie option? Do that instead.