Kenya has a lot of favorite recipes. The truth is, I think everything he does is brilliant and he thinks everything I cook is delicious. That is the quid pro quo of our relationship (wink, wink). One of Kenya’s all time favorite recipes that I make for our family is Red Beet & White Bean Hummus. It has a super creamy taste, a smooth texture and is delicious to eat. Parents magazine even wrote an article about weelicious featuring this recipe and we got tons of emails from parents saying how much their kids loved it too.

Kenya and I had so much fun shooting this video that I wanted to share it with you again. It’s a really fun and easy recipe to prepare with your kids (which will hopefully make them want to eat it even more!).

I can’t even begin to tell you how gorgeous this dish came out — well, I don’t have to tell you. Just watch last Friday’s video and see for yourself!

When I first made this recipe for Kenya he was as fascinated by the taste as he was by the color. He kept saying “pink food!” as he ate bowl after bowl. The ingredients are almost identical to a true hummus, minus the tahini, and the addition of the beets make it a nutrient-rich dish that also provides a healthy amount of protein.

The flavor and smooth and creamy texture of this puree is so delicious I think you’ll find it to be a hit with kids of any age in your house. Kenya loves eating things he can dip, so when I put this on his plate he likes to use the hummus as a dip and everything from vegetables to chicken gets put into it. Now that I have a little girl, I can’t wait until I can make this for her birthday party. Pink food — every little girls dream!

Red Beet & White Bean Hummus (Makes 3 Cups)

1 Medium Beet
1 15 Oz Can White Beans, rinsed and drained
1 Large Garlic Clove, unpeeled
Juice of 1/2 Lemon (about 1/2 Tbsp)
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
1 Tsp Salt

1. Preheat over to 400 degrees.
2. Wash beet well and place with garlic clove on a sheet of foil. Bring up sides of foil and fold to make a packet leaving room for heat to circulate inside the packet containing the beet and garlic.
3. Bake for 45 minutes or until beet is tender when poked with a knife.
4. Remove skin off of the garlic and the beet (I use a zip lock bag on my hand and slip the skin off so my hand doesn’t turn red).
5. Place all the ingredients in a food processor and puree until smooth.
6. Serve.

We used these to make this recipe:

Cuisinart DLC-2 Mini Prep Plus Food Processor

I can’t tell you how many parents say to me that hummus is a staple dish for their families. A friend of mine’s baby has been eating hummus puree from a spoon since he was a year old, loving every bite. All she had to do was say the word “hummus” and he would start grunting in need of his fix.

Even when Kenya isn’t in the mood for vegetables, I can always get him to eat a few if I put out some of this delicious Mediterranean spread for him to dip them in. His love of hummus must be an inherited trait in our family. My father-in-law eats a container of it everyday!

These hummus pinwheels are the perfect protein-packed lunch for kids to take to school. Yes, you can buy pre-made hummus, but after you try homemade hummus, you’ll never go back. It’s super easy to make. I love making a big batch of it and keeping it in the fridge for a week or more so that any time we need a snack it’s right there.

Hummus Pinwheels (makes 2 cups of hummus)

1 15 Oz Can Garbanzo Beans
1 Garlic Clove
2 Tbsp Tahini (can be found next to peanut butter at your grocery)
3 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1 Tsp Salt
1/3 Cup Olive Oil
Lavash, preferably whole wheat (can be found in the bread section at your grocery)

1. Place all the ingredients except the olive oil in a food processor and puree.
2. Add the olive oil and continue to puree until creamy.
3. Cut one large piece of the lavash into 3 equal pieces (cutting the lavash with scissors in a good trick).
4. Spread 3 tablespoons of the hummus on a piece of lavash.
5. Roll into a pinwheel and slice into bite size wheels.
6. Serve.

We used these to make this recipe:

Cuisinart DLC-2 Mini Prep Plus Food Processor

Every time we go to a Mexican or Middle Eastern restaurant with Kenya, the first thing he grabs for are the chips. He loves them but I don’t want his taste buds to get too used to the super salty and fried flavor of them. So, I decided to come up with a recipe for pita chips that are healthy, delicious, really easy to make and Kenya can snack on them all week.
I used just a sprinkle of parmesan for a nutty salty flavor and some garlic powder to kick them up a bit. He devoured these like you can’t imagine. I made “Baby Ghanoosh” at the same time and he had a blast trying to dip the pita chips in the eggplant spread and licking it off before taking bites of the chips. I love a fun culinary activity for kids that’s also actually healthy for them.

Crisp-wee Pita Chips (Makes 72 Chips)

3 6 inch Whole Wheat Pita
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 Tsp Garlic Powder
1/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cut the pitas in half and then into pie shaped pieces or strips
(you can cut them into any shape you want).
3. Place the pita pieces on a cookie sheet and brush with olive oil.
4. Sprinkle with garlic powder and parmesan cheese.
5. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until they start to turn a golden color.
6. Cool and serve.

Eggplants are all over the farmer’s market right now. Purple, black, white, lilac, white….the list goes on. I’m not sure why they get such a tough rap, but eggplants are one of those vegetables that seem too daunting to cook with at first glance. They’re beautiful, but what do you do with these big orbs?
Well, I could eat eggplant until I’m blue in the face. I love it in any form. Grilled, sauteed, roasted and, especially, pureed in baba ghanoosh, a dip popular in middle eastern cuisine. By modifying the traditional recipe slightly for a little one’s palate it’s a perfect choice to serve as a puree on its own for babies or as a dip with vegetables or baked pita chips for toddlers.
Eggplant can block the formation of free radicals, help control cholesterol levels and is also a wonderful source of folic acid and potassium.
This isn’t a typical baby/toddler food, but I think you’ll be shocked to see how much your little one will love it!

Baba Ghanoosh (Makes 4-6 Toddler Servings)

1 Eggplant
1 Tbsp Tahini (available at most groceries)
1/2 Tsp Lemon Juice
1 Small Garlic Clove
2 Tbsp Plain Yogurt

1. Place the eggplant directly on a burner of your stove top. Turn the flame of the burner to medium and place the whole eggplant on the burner.
2. Cook the eggplant turning every few minutes for 20 minutes or until the eggplant skin is blistered and slightly charred.
3. Place the eggplant in a zip lock bag, seal and let steam for 10 minutes.
4. Cool and peel all the charred skin off the eggplant.
5. Cut the pulp into chunks and place in a food processor with remaining ingredients.
6. Puree and serve.

We used these to make this recipe:

Cuisinart DLC-2 Mini Prep Plus Food Processor

In my ongoing quest to find foods that are both healthy and easy for toddlers 
to hold themselves, I decided to make falafels for Kenya. The only 
trick to this dish is to make them suitable for his little taste-buds without having to fry them in gallons of oil like most falafel recipes call for.
Falafels are made with a base of garbanzo beans, a legume also known as 
chickpeas. Have you ever looked closely at a chickpea? Some say they 
look like a chick’s beak, hence the name. Beak or no beak, they’re a powerhouse of 
fiber. Fiber is an important part of a little one’s diet because it tends to fill them up longer then other foods, giving them energy to run around and 
play. Garbanzo beans are an excellent vegetarian source of protein and are 
high in calcium, magnesium and folate.
I also added a little yogurt dipping sauce alongside this recipe which boosts the nutritional content of the meal even more and adds a little fun for the kids. Now, if I can only 
get my husband out of Kenya’s food, which is slowly becoming “their” food. My husband figures that if what Kenya’s eating is super healthy, he wants to eat it too. Like father, like son. Or should I say, like son, like father?!

Falafel (Make 14 Mini Falafel)

1 1/2 Cup Chick Peas, cooked
1 Garlic Clove
1/4 Cup Onion, chopped
1/4 Cup Cilantro, chopped
3 Tbsp Flour (I used whole wheat, but you could also use white flour)
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Cumin
Olive Oil

1. Place the first 7 ingredients in a food processor and puree. Make sure the mixture is throughly combined. Scrape down the sides of the mixture as needed.
2. With moist hands (so the mixture doesn’t stick to your hands) form patties with about 1 tablespoon of the mixture and place on a plate while you form the remaining patties.
3. In a medium saute pan, heat around 2 tablespoons of oil over medium heat. You want the pan to have a thin coating of oil.
4. Add half of the patties to the pan and saute for 4 minutes on each side or until golden (you may have to add a little more oil if your pan get too dry).
5. Remove the patties from the pan and place on a paper towel lined plate (to absorb any extra oil).
6. Cook the remaining patties.
7. Cool and serve with yogurt sauce.

Yogurt Tahini Sauce (Makes a little over 1/2 Cup)

1/2 Yogurt
1 Tbsp Lemon
1 Tbsp Tahini (if your little one has a nut allergy, you could leave this out)

1. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine.

We used these to make this recipe:

Cuisinart DLC-2 Mini Prep Plus Food Processor