Introduction

“If you eat your veggies you can have a treat” are words spoken by many parents, mid-meal, trying to get their kids to eat their food. “But it’s good for you!” is often another plea we all have made to our children.

I know this scenario well because I’ve lived it with all three of my kids. And while veggies are not my kids’ favorite thing to eat, treats certainly are. “I don’t want to eat a cookie,” said no child ever. Right?

I’ve been developing whole-food, real-ingredient, and clean-eating recipes for MOMables.com, LauraFuentes.com, and all of my cookbooks since 2010, and my family has been the unpaid test group for most of my work before I consider publishing it.

With the exception of my second cookbook, The Best Homemade Kids’ Snacks on the Planet, most of my recipes have focused on the main meal, providing solutions for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as an entire cookbook dedicated to tacos!

And while all of the recipes have been tremendously well received by my community, one thing I’m often asked is “Do you have any recipes for clean treats I can feel good about eating?”

Of course, I have them. I just rarely share them. No, they aren’t a secret for me to keep; on the contrary, I publish my best stuff for everyone to make. The truth is that the thought of publishing treats never occurred to me, even though I test and modify recipes I come across the internet almost weekly to fit our dietary needs.

In 2018, I launched the Family KickStart Program at MOMables.com, where parents can eliminate processed foods and added sugars from their family’s diet and reset the way they eat as a family. And while the thirty-day program has been very successful for thousands of families, one piece of feedback I received from parents was to include more occasional treats for their family to enjoy.

You could say that I finally heard the universe telling me to create, write, and share simple clean treat recipes families can enjoy and not feel guilty about eating!

The recipes you see in this book are just that: crave-worthy treats you can make with simple ingredients you already have in your pantry.