With all my talk last week about how Hayden is almost 9 months old—a big milestone in the world of food exploration—I got myself excited and decided to dip my toe into the big-girl waters. Well, Hayden's toe anyway. Before going through the effort of making big batches of these so-called "mini-meals", I first decided to test out the chunkier Happy Baby offerings, like spinach/mango/pear, banana/black bean/quinoa, and lentil/carrot/potato.

Since mini-meals combine multiple ingredients—fruits, veggies, and some kind of protein—making them entails a lot more work than just steaming and pureeing a single ingredient. Call me lazy, or chicken, but I wanted to see how Hayden took to some sample combos before I wasted a lot of time and food. All of those green bean cubes still languishing in the freezer have taught me well!

As it turned out, Hayden loved the spinach and black bean meals, inhaling them as quickly as she does her beloved soy yogurt. The lentil meal, on the other hand, required the addition of two pear cubes before I could coax her to eat any. But I still felt sufficently inspired to whip up something relatively quick and low-maintenance that I knew David or I would eat in the event that Hayden rejected it: A big batch of "baby hummus". She loved that so much, too, that I rewarded her with her very first taste of Cheerios. And I thought the yogurt was baby crack!

Baby Hummus Recipe

Since Hayden's palate hasn't yet been introduced to some of the stronger flavors traditionally found in hummus, like garlic, I mixed chickpeas with kidney beans to work in a little more flavor. And since lemons are still off-limits due to potential allergies, a tart apple sauce substituted well as the perfect pick-me-up. As an added bonus, the vitamin C in the apples aids in the absorption of the iron that legumes are so rich in.

Ingredients
One 15-ounce can organic chickpeas, drained and rinsed well
One 15-ounce can organic kidney beans, drained and rinsed well
Two tablespoons organic sesame tahini
Two medium-sized Braeburn apples, cored, cubed, steamed and pureed

Directions
Puree all of the ingredients together until reaching the desired consistency, adding either water or some of the steaming liquid from the apples for an even smoother puree.