“If you fol­low a spe­cial diet, be sure to include cal­cium rich foods.  Cal­cium is an impor­tant nutri­ent, espe­cially when you or your child is on a dairy-free (casein-free) diet. Cal­cium is impor­tant for strong bones, as well as sup­port­ing mus­cle con­trac­tion, heart func­tion, and neu­ro­trans­mit­ter release,” says Julie Matthews, Cer­ti­fied Nutri­tion Con­sul­tant and Autism Diet Spe­cial­ist who is a part­ner with autism treat­ment and recov­ery group, Gen­er­a­tion Res­cue.

One of those cal­cium rich foods is olives. I remem­ber eat­ing them off each fin­ger as a child, sim­ply because it was fun. The salti­ness appealed to me, but it might not to all kids. So here enters the fun. My friend Char­maine brought these to our Hal­loween party last year and they were a hit with all the kids. This recipe is for a plate full, but you can make as many at a time as you’d like.

Prep time: 15 min­utes
Total time: 20–45 min­utes depend­ing on method used for hard­boil­ing
Yield: 1 dozen
Spe­cial equip­ment: egg cooker

6 hard­boiled eggs
1/4 c. may­on­naise (or GFCFSF alter­na­tive, like Spec­trum Canola May­on­naise)
salt and pep­per to taste
18 whole black olives

1. Cook eggs via egg cooker, or place cold eggs (directly from the fridge) into cold water that reaches an inch above the top of the eggs. Place the pot over high heat until the water comes to a full boil, then imme­di­ately remove pot from heat and cover with a tight fit­ting lid. Let the eggs sit in the hot water for 12 min­utes for medium eggs, 15 min­utes for large eggs and 18 min­utes for extra large eggs. Drain eggs and fill pot with cold water to cool (you can add ice cubes). Once eggs are com­pletely cool, they will be quite easy to peel.
2. Peel eggs and slice in half, length-wise. Remove the yolks to a bowl, set­ting whites aside.
3. Add may­on­naise to yolks and smash with the back of a fork. Add salt and pep­per to taste.
4. Spoon yolk mix­ture into egg white “cups”.
5. Slice all olives in half, length­wise. Place an olive half upon filled egg. Slice two more halves into legs for each side of the spi­der, and arrange accordingly.