Cooking with Klara: Goldfish Dips

When I come up with recipes to try with Abby I try to stick to one solid theme – what would a two year old like? More specifically, what would Abby like? And the best way to figure out what she would like is to figure out what she already likes. Let’s see, carbs, carbs, and more carbs. Whether it be pancakes, goldfish, or graham crackers, this little girl LOVES her carbs. So why don’t we make them at least a little bit healthier by adding some protien? And thus, I decided to try out various homemade dips on Abby, making sure there was some type of protein in them. Below I share her favorites.

Homemade Hummus Dip

 

Ingredients

• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 teaspoons salt
• juice of 2 lemons
• 3 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
• 1/2 cup tahini
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• about 1 cup olive oil

Directions

Start by letting the little ones put the garlic and 1 teaspoon of salt in a food processor. If your little one wants to, let them press the button to process until the garlic is pureed. Abby simply ran to another room. After the garlic is pureed, add the lemon juice and pulse again.

Add 3 1/2 cups of cooked chickpeas and 1/4 cup of their cooking liquid to the garlic mix. After pulsing it a bit, let the little ones add the tahini, the cumin, and 1/2 cup olive oil, and pulse to create a dip. If you need to, add more cooking liquid as needed to make a smooth dip. Next add in the rest of the olive oil and the rest of the salt. Make sure you taste as you go along – everyone’s tastes are different.

Once it is all mixed together you should have a delicious, creamy hummus for your child’s goldfish to go swimming in!

Peanut Butter Honey Dip

Ingredients

• Peanut Butter
• Honey

Directions

Just mix the two and let the fishies swim swim swim! if you’re ambitious enough, make your own peanut butter. But I’ll be honest, I was beat after the homemade hummus. Store-bought Jiffy was my life saver for this one. :)

To be honest, Abby liked the peanut butter one the most (of course, the one we spent the least amount of time on), but in the end she still ate them without the dip. I guess when something is good, why taint it? Looks like I’ll have to find another way to pump protein into this carb loving girl.