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 would complain about that - well not complain as such but point out that it's very expensive and that not everyone can afford to buy 8 chicken breasts. Also the spices are ridiculous. For those who don't have those spices at home it means having to buy several jars of spices which are expensive which might be used once and never again if the family don't like those spices/don't cook meals with them.
The spices should be provided by the school with a small termly charge for each child to cover the costs.

I would not trust teenagers with raw chicken ! Perhaps they meant 800 grams of chicken, but still. Seems more of a tomato and chicken stew than a curry.

I’d agree with PPs and think breasts should be thighs. It seems unusual to mention skinned and boneless breasts. The rest of the proportions look normal, possibly a lot of garlic and way too much onion, depending on their size though.

That definitely doesn't sound like enough flour

I'm laughing at the image of students hauling and slopping their industrial sized buckets of curry for 20 around everywhere tomorrow. The poor teacher who made a mistake

It should say THIGHS. That would be a reasonable request. Breasts are always boneless!

Realise this post is a little old now but this might help for future reference for others.
It depends if you want your child to bring home the finished product or not. If you don’t , then legally the school CANNOT ask you to pay. This is in direct breach of the law as laid out on the government website. They can ask for a voluntary contribution - but it should be made clear this is voluntary. If you do want your child to bring home the finished product however, then you do need to pay.
I’ve attached some screenshots from
the government website as well as the link with all the legal information too. Hope this helps -
OP I know the feeling, we are on a strict budget too, me and DH both work and don’t claim any benefits etc, and we carefully plan out our meals each week on a budget - there is no way I’d be able to afford to pay for food tech on top of that. Don’t let anyone make you feel bad about that! We are in a cost of living crisis after all. And any compulsory education - including the materials needed for that - the school cannot legally charge for. Government link (this is advice I was given by the CAB btw - and you can show the school the link too if they try to argue. Fully appreciate many parents can afford to source the ingredients etc themselves, but not being able to afford to (when it’s in the case of compulsory education) is nothing to be ashamed of. 🩷 - I would politely ask that nobody attack me for this comment! All I’m doing is simply providing OP with the legal information as regards this. I fully appreciate many people are in the financial position to pay & want their child to bring home
the finished product and that’s totally fair enough :-) - this is just for information for those that can’t afford to & don’t want their child to bring home the end product x Link

Sorry - just realised it’s NOT an old post 🙈 -
sorry, I read the date wrong (forgive me, I’m heavily pregnant and v tired 😴) - but in which case,
hopefully this will help x

If you click the link the whole recipe is there including flour and sugar. I have to say it looks far too sweet and the amount of chocolate chips is way too much.

I'd use boneless thighs anyway, 4 large ones for 4 people

And that's not enough spice for all those tomatoes!

I was reading an article about economical family meals and it had something that needed simmering for 1.5 hours. Needless to say, I won't be trying it.

I hope they don't get to rats! DD is doing A level biology and I'm pleased to say we've had no requests for dissection materials... which since they recently did some kind of brain is a huge relief.

@Toomanyblanklooks You absolutely are not being unreasonable. that's a massive quantity of food and not cheap food either.I donwinder if schoolbare simply sending copies of recipes with no thought for quantity

@HelloMist

The website says serves 10, not 20.

On an aside, I don't think using a recipe that's possibly found on the back of a tikka masala jar is proper cookery! Especially not at Year 11, but each to their own I guess!

I don't think it would actually cost much in a heavy pot with the lid on and the gas turned right down just enough to keep it simmering. I use the pressure cooker now so once pressurised it's never more than 30 minutes with a medium burner to the minimum. My gas usage has always been very low even before I got the pressure cooker though.

This needs flour. And possibly sugar

@AvengedQuince , the pressure cooker takes quite a while to heat up.
The recipe was for four portions but I could double it but I wouldn't want to pay for simmering something for that long. It's not my idea of economical.

@Toomanyblanklooks You absolutely are not being unreasonable. that's a massive quantity of food and not cheap food either. I do wonder if school are simply sending copies of recipes with no thought for quantity
I wondered if the teacher had just copied the recipe without scaling it down.

This made me laugh.

That ingredients list is bonkers, why are they making enough curry to feed a full family?? Some pretty pricey ingredients there too tbh. My DD usually just has to take fairly cheap things in like flour, butter, an egg.

I'm just imaging the potential messy orange carnage of someone taking home a massive curry on a rough school bus.

That is one of THE most ridiculous recipes ever in the history of food tech.

Hundreds of families all buying a whole pot of all of those spices just for a tsp.

Insane.

Our school charges £9 a year then they buy all that shit for them. Very sensible

That’s way too much

This makes me glad our school just asks for a fiver donation at the beginning of term.

@AvengedQuince , it would cost something though and it was in an article on economical recipes.

I would definitely be messaging the school to check those ingredients. That’s a crazy and expensive amount of food to be expected to send in !
My DC school only has them make quite small portions, last week was just one individual pizza that he ate for his lunch.