Tyler Florence’s kids are lucky.

Not just because they live in sunny Mill Valley, Calif., with their celebrity-chef dad and his wife and business partner, Tolan, whose good-for-you-foods empire has grown to include a 14-year stint on the Food Network (including the shows “Tyler’s Ultimate” and “The Great Food Truck Race”), four restaurants, several retail gourmet-cooking stores, six cookbooks and a line of organic baby foods.

All that is very nice. But it’s their lasagna I envy.

That cheesy one-pan dish is part of Florence’s latest book, “Start Fresh” (Rodale), which sprouted from his experience developing his Sprout baby foods and, as the cover says, aims to give infants, babies and toddlers a “jump start to lifelong healthy eating.” I expected it to offer the usual advice about pureeing fresh vegetables and avoiding added salt and sugar. What I didn’t expect was that I’d be marking recipes to make for my kids — who, at 14 and 17, are toddlers no more.

Florence honed his cooking-for-kids skills with his children, starting 14 years ago with his older son, Miles. More recently, he’s fed his culinary concoctions to son Hayden, 4, and daughter, Dorothy, who’s almost 3. “Everything in the book is tested on my own kids,” Florence says.
(more…)

Put down the dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets, parents — real food (even veggies!) can be enjoyable for little ones to eat, too. In his new cookbook, “Start Fresh: Your Child’s Jump Start to Lifelong Healthy Eating,” father and chef Tyler Florence hopes to empower mom and dad in the kitchen, providing them with tips and recipes to “put their kids on the path to making good food choices throughout their lives.”

“There is a lot to be said for making food for your child from fresh, whole foods and having them be aware of that from an early age,” Florence says. “And it’s much simpler than most people think — no fancy equipment, minimal time … so it’s not like you’re chained to a stove.”

Some recipes, like Florence’s One-Pan Lasagna, are even designed for the whole family to share. “This recipe requires just one pan and takes 25 minutes, start to finish. Adults love it and so do kids. For the youngest ones, just blend it to smooth out the texture, and they are sure to eat it up along with everyone else.”

Tyler’s One-Pan Lasagna

Q&A: Talking with Tyler Florence
(more…)

Give your freezer a rest and start cooking fresh! Tyler Florence, the Food Network veteran, restaurateur (he’s opened four restaurants in the past year), and founder of the Sprout line of baby foods, is making it his mission to introduce tots to the wonders of vegetables as early as their first bite of solid food.

The father of three’s new cookbook, Start Fresh: Your Child’s Jump Start to Lifelong Healthy Eating, is more than just a baby food cookbook packed with beautiful photos and accompanying recipes, it’s a guide to introduce families to a healthier way of eating. The bulk of the recipes are designed to feed the whole family, with instructions for making the meal appropriate for infants and toddlers. I broke bread with the chef yesterday and asked him about his veggie-fueled philosophy. See what he had to say (and learn the secret to his one-pan lasagna) in this slideshow!
(more…)

Celebrity chef, author and father of three, Tyler Florence, shares a few recipes from his new cookbook “Start Fresh.”

Food Network chef Tyler Florence never overlooks the little things in life.

In 2009, he whipped up Sprout, a successful organic baby food line (available at select Wegmans and Whole Foods), and just this month, he released a kid-focused cookbook, Start Fresh: Your Child’s Jump Start to Lifelong Healthy Eating (Rodale Books), geared toward parents who are busy but who actually have tastebuds.

We couldn’t resist this crowd-pleaser remake, nor the fact that you get a complete meal on one pan.

See the recipe here:
(more…)

Celebrity chef Tyler Florence thinks parents can take control of what their children eat from the earliest age. He shows them how in his newest book, “Start Fresh: Your Child’s Jump Start to Lifelong Healthy Eating” (Rodale, $19.99).

“It’s time to turn over a new leaf and get away from food that is nutritionally bankrupt,” writes the veteran Food Network star in his introduction. “Embrace the colors and flavors and wholesome qualities of fresh food. You owe it to your children.”

Florence, a parent himself, offers 60 recipes in the book that prove eating for good health can taste good too.

The recipes are scaled from a baby’s first nibbles to dishes the entire family can enjoy. The chef advises parents to invest in a high-speed blender, a steamer and a sheet pan on which to roast vegetables.

“Roasting gives you better flavor,” he said in a telephone interview. “Roasting provides a deep caramelization kids enjoy.”

A restaurateur in Northern California, Florence is co-founder of an organic baby food company called Sprout.

Here are three “Start Fresh” recipes, broken down by stage, for that first year of your child’s life.
(more…)

Last Friday, we were joined by celebrity chef, Tyler Florence, on “Morning Living.” He chatted with Brian and Betsy about easy ways to make food healthy and delicious for kids. Click below to listen to Tyler explain his method for roasting veggies. We’ve also included some of his recipes beneath the audio clip.

Read more on his recipes here:
(more…)