Snacks

A random listing of favorite between-meal snacks around here:

*almonds (rationed out in little bowls, because almonds are pricey!)
*clementines
*apples
*bananas
*leftover meat or salmon muffins, left carelessly on a plate on the counter (the dog likes this, too)
*hard-boiled eggs, peeled, halved, and sprinkled with paprika or curry powder
*seaweed

A note about this last. My wonderful kindergarten-teacher next-door neighbor, who has celiac, has opened the eyes of my younger children to the wonderful world of gluten-free eating. Going to play with Mrs. M. and eating gluten-free snacks is the highlight of any day in the life of my 8- and 9-year-olds.

Because she's a teacher, she doesn't just play with them and feed them -- every moment at her house is a teachable moment. So she has not only fed them seaweed snacks, but she's drawn them into the experience of making seaweed snacks. And now they've taught me. Here's what you do:

You take a sheet of that seaweed that's made for wrapping sushi, right? And you hold it in some tongs over the burner on your stovetop. Mrs. M. and I both have gas stoves, so we're holding the seaweed over actual flame, but I don't see why this wouldn't work with any other kind of burner, with the added advantage of not catching your seaweed on fire quite so easily as we have done. (Adult supervision, folks! Somebody supervise the adults with the flaming seaweed!)

So you toast your sheet of seaweed for approximately thirty seconds, until it's shriveled and crisped a little. Then you eat it. You could salt it;  my kids seem to like it as is. The seaweed is a little too fishy-tasting for me, but the kids love the whole experience, and it makes a very nutrient-dense snack with enough crisp to satisfy a craving for chips or popcorn.

More quick and easy paleo-type snack ideas?