Naturally Sweet Food in Jars is my third cookbook and was published in March 2016. It focuses on preserving with honey, maple, agave, coconut sugar, fruit juice concentrates, and dried fruits. You can find an array of ordering options here.
The idea for this book was initially sparked by this post, as well as the many alternatively sweetened recipes that have come since on this site. The finished book features more than 100 recipes for preserves, as well as a handful of recipes designed to help you use up some of what you’ve put up.
I had two primary goals in mind when I was writing Naturally Sweet. The first was to translate some of my most beloved sugar-sweetened recipes into those that used less refined sweeteners.
The second objective was to create new and novel recipes that would be safe for canning and that featured the various sweeteners in ways that made the most of their unique, individual flavors.
I also wanted to help change the conversation about preserving. So often, people dismiss it because they feel like the products created when you preserve aren’t always the healthiest.
However, by shining a spotlight on alternative sweeteners, I feel like I’ve created a collection of recipes that are able to balance health concerns with issues of safety and shelf stability.
And, as always, the recipes are relatively small batches that don’t require too much of your time and energy.
Happy Birthday! I love birthday cake and even better with a nice homemade jam between the layers.
Cheesecake! But, like, vegan cashew cheesecake. Dairy hurts my belly, but I will take the dairy free version happily on my birthday!
Happy birthday Marisa! I loooove a lemon tart as a birthday treat.
Happy Birthday! I always make myself a birthday pie, usually apple…my favorite.
I love classic yellow birthday cake. Yum!
Ice cream is my favorite treat. Happy birthday!
Happy birthday!! I love waffles with jam for breakfast on my birthday!
My birthday is close to Christmas, but my mom still takes the time to make me cheesecake for my birthday. Cheesecake remains one of my favorite foods to eat even when it is not my birthday.
Happy Birthday Marissa! I hope you enjoy your day. I would love to win a copy of your new cookbook!
Feliz Cumpleanos , Gefeliciteerd and Happy Birthday! Fave birthday food would have to be a delicious homemade pasta!
Happy Birthday Marisa! My favorite birthday foor is most definitely bean tacos! I love to top them with different salsas and hot sauces. So. Freaking.Good! Enjoy your bday and eat lots of yummy things 🙂
Happy birthday! I’m glad you were born.
Happy birthday! In our family you got to choose your birthday dessert and my favorite has always been brownies, made from the box. None of that fancy stuff, just chewy brownies from Betty Crocker.
Happy joyful birthday!
When I was a vegetarian and living with someone who didn’t eat vegetables on my birthday I made them make me mashed potatoes and tofu dogs and creamed corn and anything else that I could think that would just disgust them but I would enjoy . It was my birthday revenge and I enjoyed it fully !
Happy birthday Marisa!
Happy Happy Birthday!!
For my birthday,
I always make myself the lightest, fluffiest gluten free coconut cupcakes, served warm out of the oven with some coconut icing and toasted coconut on top. Heaven Heaven Heaven
I wish I could beam one to you!!
Happy Birthday. Love my meatloaf.
My favorite is a nice slice of pizza. I don’t indulge too much in pizza on a regular basis, so that’s my little treat to myself.
Happy Birthday! My mom still makes me BBQ meatballs and cheesy potatoes and I’m 35! 🙂
Chocolate cake for birthday breakfast, even if I have to make it myself!
What I’d most like to eat are soft shelled crabs, but they aren’t in season during my birthday time of year. But I do usually have seafood of some sort. I wish I lived in New England. I’d have fish or seafood every day. Fresh seafood in the Midwest is either hard to come by, or so ridiculously costly that I might as well just get a plane ticket and fly to the coast to eat. Congrats on the book!
Happy birthday! My birthday is Sunday and my friends and I will be making lots of birthday cocktails featuring rhubarb, strawberries, and elderflowers, cause they’re all going like gangbusters in our gardens right now.
Have a fantastic birthday!!! I hope you are celebrated well and are surrounded by love! Thanks for blessing us with your book on your day!
I can’t wait to try the sweet onion relish and find some fun uses with these natural sweeteners I have here in my house.
Happy Birthday. May 14th is also my birthday. I like to eat anything containing the first deliciously sweet strawberries that are just getting ripe about this time. DEEEE-LISH!! And I usually spent the night sitting in a big field watching the lightening bugs 😉
Happy birthday to you, too!
Osso Bucco is the all time favorite.
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday!! Apple pie with peaches, plums, walnuts & almonds…YUM!!!
I love cake, funfetti cake. Happy birthday!
Happy birthday! I hope someone else does some healthy and delicious cooking for you to celebrate your day! My birthday is at the end of April so I am always happy to have some Spring veggies for my birthday, particularly if local asparagus is in season. And I must have chocolate to end the meal 🙂 Enjoy your day!
Happy birthday Marisa! My actual birthday was on Thanksgiving so that is the day we celebrate it, even though the date for Thanksgiving is different year to year. So one of my favorite things to eat on my birthday is turkey!
I have so looked forward to this book coming out.
I hope your birthday is full of all your favorite things! Happy Day.
Happy birthday, Marisa!
I enjoy a savory dish for my birthday- love Thai and Indian food.
Congratulations on your new book, I am new to canning and I look forward to learning from your work.
My mom always makes me a Strawberry type cake that’s absolutely horrible for you and completely delicious. We live so far apart now that I would love to have one any day!
Happy birthday Marisa! Beet salad followed chocolate cake for desert!
I’m an Independence Day baby (July 4 is NOT the real independence day!), so there’s lot of lovely fresh fruit around to make into a pie or strew over cake and ice cream. 🙂 And happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday!! I like to celebrate with vegetarian tacos, gin and tonics, and lemon bars 🙂
Wishing you the happiest of birthdays!
Happy Birthday! My own birthday is on the 10th and I celebrated with a casual trip to my favorite bakery in Seattle for rhubarb danishes! So delicious! However, at home I had made some strawberry syrup which we ate on vanilla ice cream, and I think that is my favorite think to eat on my birthday.
Happy birthday Marisa! My favourite birthday food is Indian takeout from Amaya (an amazing Indian restaurant in Toronto), followed by raspberry chocolate cake. Those things don’t exactly go together. But they do on my birthday.
First and Foremost! I wish you a blessed and Happy Day for your Birthday!~ May the sunshine be poured down on you! For my birthday, I like nothing particular. But I am quite fond of vegetables and Lobster. Yes, Lobster from CT!
Happy Birthday, Marissa! While I don’t have a birthday favorite, I generally like anything with figs and ginger.
Hope you have a wonderful birthday! I like homemade ice cream for my birthday.
Happy Birthday Marisa! My favorite birthday meal is anything not cooked by me.Extra special if it is Indian Food and a chocolate hazelnut truffle cake.
Since I’m a St. Patty’s Day baby, I generally have corned beef and cabbage, but I also love a good carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.
Happy Birthday! Things that I love on my birthday are pie or lemon tart.
I’ve done some preserving out of Preserving by the Pint and I am excited about a book that uses more natural sweetners.
Happy Birthday, hope you have a great day. My favorite thing to eat on my birthday is lemon cake.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! When I was kid, my mom always made me angel food cake with strawberries. To this day, as an adult, I have made myself that very same cake every single year and it is my favorite thing on my birthday. 🙂
Happy Birthday Marisa!!!
Happy Birthday! Thank you for being so generous to give someone else a gift on your day!
Happy birthday!! 🙂 I love to go out for dinner on my birthday. It’s nice to have a break from cooking 😉 My favorite place currently serves up the best chicken & Belgian waffle you can imagine.
I love to have ice cream on my birthday!