We weren’t sure how this meal would go over. It was one of our first “Paleo meals”, we made 2 1/2 lbs of mussels for 3 adults and 2 children. My oldest son had 5 bowls before we cut him off. Another pound probably would’ve been the right amount, but since it was our first time feeding the boys seafood still in the shell (although they used to LOVE linguine with clams) I was worried how much we’d eat and didn’t want to waste food since seafood doesn’t reheat well. It was requested the next day by both children. 
Ingredients
- 2.5 lbs of cleaned mussels
- 1 14 oz. can coconut milk
- 2 onions (not red), diced
- 1 C water
- 2 14 oz. cans diced tomatoes
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 Tbsp garlic powder
- 2 Tbsp curry powder
Instructions
- * Heat oil, soften onions, add tomatoes, garlic and curry powder
- * Add water and coconut milk, bring to a soft boil on medium heat
- * Add mussels, stir and cover for 8 minutes
*steps your children can help you with!
Most important component of the meal: spend all of those 8 minutes discussing with your child how mussels are spelled differently than muscles and that they are creatures who live in the water. They make their own shells and the beard we pulled off is what allows them to cling onto the side of whales or boats, which is where they live. Brace yourself for an extended discussion on how they were still alive when they were washed (hence why they were opening and closing their shells in the water) but that when they hit the steam and hot sauce their shells will open and they will cook and die. Children will then want to consume massive quantities, evidently. After examining the dead mussels, we ate them with the the tomatoes, onions and broth with a spoon like a soup. A salad is a nice side, too.
