Dad Tyler has just released his new cookbook, Start Fresh: Your Child's Jump Start to Lifelong Healthy Eating. His commitment to real, healthy food for kids (his and yours) is evident through Sprout Organic Baby Food, a Sponsor of the Holistic Moms Network, whose gourmet flavors and upcycled packaging are just what green and healthy moms are looking for when you don't have time to make your own. But when you do, this fabulous new cookbook is just the ticket to a delicious and healthy food experience.
"As parents, we are bombarded by marketing intent on convincing us that we don't know how to feed our children," writes Tyler Florence in his new book. "Food producers would have us believe that the Big 5 (pizza, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, french fries, and burgers) are the only things kids will eat, and that chicken nuggets pressed itno the shape of a dinosaur are a healthy part of a meal. It's insulting." Amen! Real kids will eat real food and treating them to some of these delicious creations is a great way to get the ball rolling.
But Start Fresh is not just about tasty baby food. Recipes in the Toddler section include great family meals such as Roast Turkey with Sweet Potato, Brown Rice, and Cranberries and Maple Roasted Pork Chops with Butternut Squash and Beets that will satify mom or dad, while also making delicious purees or chopped meals for the kids. Stage 4 brings Everyone to the Table with Butternut Squash Macaroni and Cheese, Stuffed Sweet Potatoes, and an original, fun savory cupcake dish of Barbeque Turkey Meatloaf Cupcakes with Mashed Potato Frosting.
Navigating the road to starting solids can be confusing. This great book will give you some inspiration. Holistic Moms can help give you support! Connect with your Local Chapter and share your story with other holistic moms and dads - discover what worked, how to keep your milk supply up, or how to deal with food allergies.
This is a cookbook you won't want to miss and Holistic Moms is giving away THREE autographed copies to some lucky winners! You can be entered into our random drawing by posting a comment on this blog. Tell us what was your child's/children's first food and his/her/their favorite food(s) now. Leave your comment and we'll pick three winners on June 15th!
My daughter's favorite food is breast milk.. she is only three months old. :) She sure does like her mom's organic/non-gmo/fair trade when possible diet though! I cannot wait to begin introducing those little tastebuds to what will become her favorite foods!
ReplyDeleteMary's 1st favorite food was pureed pumpkin which was harvested and frozen from last summer's garden. Now at 12 months old she loves meat - chicken, pork, turkey, and her latest favorite is prime rib!
ReplyDeleteAMEN - it IS insulting to pass off dinosaur shaped reconstituted chicken as food!
ReplyDeleteMy 2 year old son's first food was carrots -his favorite at the moment is orange juice that he squeezes himself.
My daughter is nearly 6 months & not quite ready to start on real food yet, I'm thinking of starting her with avocado... or going Sally Fallon style and giving her egg yolk!
I have an eleven month old who is still in the blessed stage of eating anything I present him with. I love this stage! My five and three year olds, however, have definitely developed their own palates. The favorite amongst them remains good old PB&J, so I make it the most nutritious PB&J that I can. I sprout wheat or einkorn, dry and mill it into fresh flour. I bake the bread and use almond butter in place of peanut butter along with homemade, low-sugar jam. Other items come and go from their current favorites. My eldest is on a hard-boiled egg kick right now. She is starting to truly understand what is good for her body and why. Yesterday, she told me that she didn't want juice because milk and water are are much healthier. That's my girl. I'm glad to see that the years of effort are starting to sink in :)
ReplyDeleteMy daughter, Kayleigh, is about to be a year old. At first, her favorite food was apple and cherry purée or green beans. Now her absolute favorite is the "super salmon" from Happy Baby. She gobbles it up! I never would've thought that she would like fish so much. Looking forward to making more of her food, but I love having the option to get products like those offered by Sprout.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter is 3 years old and people are always amazed at the scope of food she will eat and I think that has to do with the fact that we fed her the same fresh homemade food we ate and did not limit ourselves to "kid" foods. Her first food was fresh pureed sweat potatoes from our local farmers market which she helps me shop at every Saturday. I think it's important for her to know where her food comes from. I love this new book and with another baby on the way it will go to good use.
ReplyDeleteMy children are grown, but I follow you and like to join in. Don't laugh. My 21 year old's favorite and first food off of breast milk was Gefilte Fish - all ground up. This translates to a sushi lover today. My son's favorite food was lentils. When he was three and visiting the pediatric dentist, the dental assistant said, "What kind of toothpaste do you want? Mint or Bubblegum?" He said, "do you have lentil?" Today, at 19, he'll say yes to lobster or fried rice - anytime. Good luck with "Start Fresh."
ReplyDeleteAs an expecting mother I haven't yet started foods, but I remember when I was introduced to my chicken-nugget-and-pizza-loving step children. After a year of coaching them to eat better, their favorite foods are now poached pears and egg white salad with roasted root vegetables. It's so true that we convince ourselves that children are picky eaters by nature.
ReplyDeleteI'm so excited for this new book - I will be recommending it to my clients and including it in momma/baby care packages that I give. My kids are much older now, and I didn't become a "holistic mom" until they were both nearly tweens - so we all had some bad habits to break. I would have loved to have this book and know-how when we were starting out with our babies. Thanks to Tyler Florence for his contribution to improving children's health in our country! It's a beautiful book.
ReplyDeletewww.peaceandgoodeating.com
When it comes to packaged baby food my nine month-old will only eat Sprout!! I swear! For weeks it was a struggle to get her to eat, but from her first taste of Sweet potatoes With White Beans and Mango Banana she has been a champion eater! She loves it and it is so cute to hear her say "mmmm" after every bite! I think her favorite food in general is sweet potato. My now three year old son's favorite first food was also sweet potato , but now he loves mom's organic baked chicken fingers, and sweet potato fries! Cant wait to try out Start Fresh for the whole family
ReplyDeleteI think this is going to be a fantastic book and I am very excited about it, My daughter's first food was sweet potato and the look on her face when she tried it was priceless! She is also a huge fan of avocado, getting her started eating right is very important yet a little overwhelming for me, hopefully this book will help!
ReplyDeleteMy 3rd child had mango as her first food. I was prepping a fruit salad one day while wearing her in the sling, and she grabbed the mango pit and started gnawing away. She was almost 6 months, so I pureed a few mango chunks and she enjoyed eating it! She's 17 months now, and loves eating a wide variety of foods. I'd say cut up grape tomatoes and watermelon are her two favorites right now.
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to this book. We need more books about healthy food for kids. We are vegetarian and our 2 year old son eats salads, fruits, kale chips, and lots of other good stuff. I find that he eats what we eat so it also encourages us to stay on the healthy road.
ReplyDeleteThe importance of shaping young tastes - on all levels - is such a big responsibility. As parents, we have the ability to shape the future health of our children, from the moment we conceive. Food is fuel & we have to remember that. Gregory, our beautiful 2 1/2 year old, is all the proof I need to see how healthy eating is critical in the foundation for a bright & love-filled being.
ReplyDeleteMy girls' first food (after breastmilk) was avocado. Now their favorite food is, unfortunately macaroni & cheese (homemade, but nevertheless...). Luckily, they do like greens like kale, tatsoi, bok choy, etc. I
ReplyDelete'm facing my biggest challenge now though, as their father has not only stopped feeding them organic produce/organic food but has largely had them eating unhealthy, SAD diet-type foods and my girls are liking it. :(
Laureen.Marston AT gmail DOT com
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great book!
ReplyDeleteMy sons first food was avacado.. he went on to eat all sorts of wonderful things from turkey with peas and carrots (all homemade of course) and even local smoked fish! unfortunately at around 15 months (when I stopped breastfeeding) he just stopped eating and now at 2.5 eat mostly freeze dried fruits, rice, rice cakes, toast, homemade mac n cheese and lots of goats milk. Apparently its just a long phase! im hoping that this little baby on the way who is set to make her arrival any day now starts off eating like her brother and keeps eating that way!
My daughters first food was avocado and she loved it! To this day its her favorite food along with bananas. I need to get more creative though!
ReplyDeleteAshleyabb@gmail.com
First food was rice cereal. Favorite now would be macaroni and cheese (for the one that's home tonight so I can ask! lol.).
ReplyDelete@bctripletmom
bctripletmom at gmail dot com
This book looks fantastic!
ReplyDeleteMy four year old's first food was avocado, though he definitely enjoyed smushing it more than eating it at the time! He likes it now, but his absolute favorite is blueberries, which are happily just in season. We made our first trip to the blueberry patch yesterday. Not much better than enjoying a beauitful afternoon of berry-picking with your boy!
My 4 month old has a bit of time to go before exploring anything other than mama's milk, but we'll probably go with something that is in season when he's ready. Sweet potato or pumpkin perhaps. Maybe butternut squash. So many good things he has to look forward too!
Hilary
Our 6 yo 1st food was rice cereal (doctors orders) and our 3yo son which I trusted my instinct was avocado and carrots.
ReplyDelete6yo fav food today is potato leek soup and 3 yo is carrots raw or cooked.
We are still breastfeeding, but I would LOVE to have this book when we start introducing solids!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to our winners!
ReplyDeleteBeth
Jennifer Moiles
Debbye
Thank you for commenting on our blog and congratulations on winning an autographed copy of Tyler Florence's Start Fresh!
Please email us at info@holisticmoms.org with your full name and mailing address so that we can ship your book out to you tomorrow!!
Thanks to everyone for participating and for reading our blog this week! We hope you will continue to connect with Holistic Moms!
Sounds like a good one! I'll have to check this out. Days can quickly get away from me and I find myself scrambling to make meals. But I find that if I have a recipe and shop and plan for it, I actually work meal preparing into our day. Imagine that!
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