Behind The Scenes

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to blog? What about when THREE girls are behind one blog?  Today, Natural Sweet Recipes is participating in the Behind the Scenes Blog Tour!

We were invited by Kelly from Hidden Fruits and Veggies to be apart of this little project. We love Kelly’s vegetarian blog and we really loved reading about her process. We thought it would be fun to participate! After we share how we work, we’ll nominate 3 other bloggers to participate next. Let’s get started!

1: What are we working on?

Right now, we are suuuuper excited for all the Fall and Christmas goodies we can get our hands on. Especially pie. You’re probably thinking, “Duh, it’s Thanksgiving soon”. We are working on a very special post for a pie recipe that is going to be deliciously different from apple or pecan or pumpkin. We shoot recipes in our own kitchens/dining rooms/living rooms and we’ll often be on speaker phone with each other while making or photographing recipes! We get dessert ideas on a daily basis so there is literally never a lack of blog “work” to be working on!

2) How does our work differ from others of its genre?

First off, we’re not nutritionists, we’re not dietitians. We’re just hungry for sweets all. the. time. With our busy lives, we want recipes that can be made all the time. We also have a passion for healthy eating and nutrition. Most desserts do not associate with that at all, but that’s our goal here!

Second, our site is about natural sweeteners and whole foods in general. We don’t JUST share desserts that are sugar-free. We focus on replacing sugar and other unhealthy ingredients (like white flour or butter) in all types of recipes like main dishes, breakfasts and salads.

3) Why do we write/create what we do?

We could eat desserts all the time! So when we were diagnosed with Candida, we needed to make some changes. After we took care of the Candida, we needed a way to maintain this new relationship with sugar and a way to stay motivated to live a healthy lifestyle. What better way to do this than to have support from your best friends (i.e. sisters) and ALWAYS ensure you have healthy treats around than to blog about those treats? What’s more, we are so thrilled when family, friends and readers are benefiting from our naturally sweetened desserts. When people tell us they loved a recipe and the ingredients we use – well, there’s nothing better!

4) How does your writing/creating process work?

Our creative process can change from post to post depending on our schedules! With three sisters, and three different schedules we have to have good communication and flexibility. We have a Queen Bee (Annie) who manages most everything on the blog and what needs to be done. With Chelsea in Brazil right now and Holly running after three kids, it’s often when things are posted entirely by Annie. Whenever possible, we collaborate, make, photograph and write recipes when we are together and love it! We love working in Holly’s big kitchen best (photo above)! Sadly, we usually aren’t together so there are a lot of recipes that were done by one person or are a collaboration of all our work. For example, Chelsea will come up with the recipe, Annie will photograph it and Holly will write up the post. Our Healthy First Birthday Cake is a great example of all of our help in making, photographing, writing and editing a recipe.

To make it more fun, our mom also loves creating healthy desserts and will send us a recipe or will help with writing and editing. With full-time jobs, families, church work and travels, it’s really nice to have each others help and makes the blogging process more fun!

Here are the next three bloggers that we have nominated for next Monday!

 

Abbie at Needs Salt

Needs Salt is an incredible blog devoted to natural foods, starring pink salt! We love that Abbie chooses whole foods in her recipes as well as natural sweeteners. She has a great selection of recipes and everything she posts is mouth-watering.  Abbie even guest posted for us a few weeks ago with some amazing doughnuts! What’s even more impressive about Abbie is that she runs her blog while being in High School – she’s only 17!

 

Susan at Bright Bold and Beautiful Food

Susan isn’t just a blogger friend – Annie and Susan went to High School together in D.C. This picture is from their senior year at prom! Susan shares beautiful recipes! She incorporates fresh produce and the best ingredients she can get her hands on. Her approach to cooking is simple but elegant. It’s the prefect balance from our overly sweetened blog and if you are new to cooking or just need some culinary inspiration – her blog is perfect!

 

Jessica at Desserts with Benefits

We love Desserts with Benefits! Jessica shares our passion for sugar-free, healthy desserts and her blog is packed full of them! What is different about Jessica’s blog is that as a student studying nutrition, she takes the term “healthy” in her recipes seriously and doesn’t use a lot of traditional ingredients like butter, white flour or eggs in her baking.. but everything you’ll see on her site looks completely delicious!

We can’t wait to see what these bloggers come up with for their tour! Thanks for participating guys and thanks for reading!