Hellobee

Last week I had gotten a wisdom tooth pulled and that made me even less motivated to cook. And when I am not motivated to spend much time in the kitchen, there is one thing I always resort to feeding the kids.  It’s the same when I go to visit some of my friends. If I go to a Korean friend’s house and there are kids that don’t seem interested in the meal, the host will often say, “Do your kids want rice and gim?”. It’s almost fail-proof and I always make sure I have a stock of them in my pantry at all times.

“Gim” (also seen written as keem or kim) is the Korean word for edible seaweed and just like sushi rolls, Koreans have a similar version called “gimbap” which is often filled with vegetables.  My kids love gimbap but it is a bit more involved to make.  The kind of rolls that I am mentioning in this post is incredibly easy to make and fun to eat for the kids.  I wouldn’t call it sushi rolls or gimbap rolls myself (I just say “rice and gim”), but for the sake of this post, I’ll  call it “easy kid-friendly sushi rolls”.

The kind of gim that I use for this meal can be found at all Korean stores, but I like to get mine at Costco because I like the taste and the amount of seaweed pieces that are in the packaged seaweed. I have also seen it sold at Trader Joe’s and Amazon. At Costco, it is called “Organic Roasted Seaweed Snack”. I’m not exactly sure how to describe the taste; kids and adults generally like the light, salty and slightly oily, paper-thin crunchy taste. It’s addicting to just grab one at a time and just eat it without anything. People usually eat it with a little rice inside and rolled up, but to make it a meal for the kids, I like to add some vegetables or protein to it. The most frequent way I have the kids eat it is with rice, avocado and cucumber but the add-on’s are endless. Sometimes, I give the kids a lot of options and tell them they have to always at least choose one vegetable. The gim in these packages are cut fairly small, so I would stick to one or two add-on’s. Some add-on suggestions include: carrot, egg, pepper, cucumber, avocado, cheese, imitation crab meat, chicken, salmon, canned tuna. Just make sure it is all thinly sliced. This is a good way for the kids to eat some veggies. My kids will often finish the leftover veggies because they like to eat the thin pieces.  My 5 year old can scoop her own rice and choice of add-on’s on her own, but my 3 year old needs a little help at times making it. The rolls are best when you make it as you go, because the rice will soften up the gim quickly. It is also important to know that the seaweed gets soft over time and the taste will change. If we don’t finish it, I usually put the leftover pieces in a ziplock bag or container and try to finish it by the next day. One of my favorite ways to eat it is to roll up rice and kimchi with the gim. Mmmm….it’s so simple, yet so tasty! I guess it helps that in my house, we almost always have easy access to this type of sticky rice.  Amazon sells individualized portioned rice that you can stick in the microwave if you want this type of rice and don’t want to make it yourself.  I hope that if you are unfamiliar with gim, you will give it a try!

Choose your add-on’s…

And roll!