To ask for inspiration for my son's food tec practical?

[budgiegirl]

My son is doing GSCE food tec, and needs to make 6 dishes that are low in fat, appeal to kids, and show a high technical ability.

So far he has made pizza (making his own bread, sauce,etc), paste bolognaise (making his own pasta, putting in hidden veg etc), and fruit tarts (homemade low fat pastry, creme pat filling).

He's now struggling for ideas. Low fat, appealing to kids is fairly easy, it's trying to think of something that has a high technical method that he hasn't used before.

Does anyone have an ideas that might help him out please?

Vegan brownies?
Maybe he could do a whole vegan meal? Bean burgers, spicy wedges with homemade ketchup followed by chocolate brownies!

Stuffed meatballs
Swedish meatballs could make own cranberry sauce as well as creamy gravy.
Fresh fruit brûlée (if allowed sugar)
Schnitzel with homemade coleslaw and hassleback potatoes
Jambalaya/paella

macarons though he'll need to sandwich them without the cream.

Naan bread and mild spicy chicken or fish with veg?

A variation on Elton mess using fruit ice cream?

Or wholewheat pancakes, maybe with griddled bananas and a fruit compote?

Falafels with hummus, roast veg and pita breads.

Maybe a variation in the Jamie Oliver sweet potato muffins?

Rye bread and soup?

Obviously everything would have to be made from scratch - including soaking dried beans etc

Sorry not much help with suggesting recipes but am really surprised a food tech course is advocating low fat - the biggest con in food history. Fat is much better for you than carb/sugar and lots of so called low fat products have more carb/sugar than full fat ones!

tomato soup?

Lightly spiced (cumin, tiny bit of chilli) cubes of lamb sautéed with garlic/onion and passata. Serve with couscous tossed with raisins or sultanas and olive oil, and roasted vegetables (chopped red peppers and courgette as a base, add whole cloves of garlic and chunks of red onion for more adventurous palates, season with salt, black pepper, and some herbs such as fresh thyme and rosemary).

Fed this to a seven year old between Christmas and New Year and now I'm in trouble with her mother for raising child's expectations!

Mild chicken spinach curry

Fish pie

Banana bread loaf

Paella

Does the dish need to be a complete meal or a part of a meal? Can it be a side dish which still meets the criteria?

The low fat / child friendly part is easy. Proving his technical ability is what he should be concentrating on. Chicken nuggets etc certainly don't do that.

• A rolled loin of pork with a veg stuffing (could make a smiley face with the stuffing running throughout the roll of meat). Technically impressive but achievable.

• Mushroom ravioli (too similar to one of his previous dishes?)

• Butterflied chicken thighs, marinated and baked. A skill in the spicing as well as butchery.

• Similar to above, peri-peri (low chilli) spatchcock chicken.

• sushi

Tacos... could make own soft shell wheat tortillas and make carnitas (I have a brilliant pressure cooker recipe if he has access to one)

Stir fry with noodles

DD did eggs florentine

Poached eggs done the old fashioned way swirled in water - different skill
hollandaise sauce - high skill
spinach for health
muffin
I think she specified she would use a low fat fat but she actually used butter and was very yummy.

Oh and she got an A*

carrot cake?

something with choux pastry?

Spicy lentil soup with fried cauliflower croutons?

Falafel (with homemade sauces), some sushi/dim sum (Disney dim sum in Google should give ideas). Mini lentil bakes?

My kids love couscous salad. It's mainly a lot of chopping (knife skills) but very healthy and looks great if you pick a variety of colours.

On Bake Off I find the breads impressive. My kids love a tear and share bread and garlic dough balls. Instead of garlic butter, you could go for other vegetable dip? Otherwise a pie, pasty, sausage roll might be good? My kids didn't realise that Pasties contained veggies like turnip. On a similar theme I don't know if samosas and spring rolls can be baked to keep them low fat?