Homemade Apple Sauce

I love applesauce! It's best when freshly made, and oh so easy. Save yourself some money and make your own batch. You can either can them or just refrigerate and eat. We actually went through our jars so quickly that I'm not sure the whole canning process was necessary ;)

What you'll need:


3lbs of apples


Cinnamon and brown sugar to taste.


Canning jars with quick seal lids


large pot to fully submerge the jars


Canning tongs to remove the jars from the boiling water

Let's get started!

Peel, core and quarter apples.

You will need 3 to 3-1/2 pounds per quart of applesauce.

Place in large saucepot.

Cook apples with just enough water so they don't stick.


Cook over medium heat until soft.

Puree in food processor or food mill until smooth (I like my applesauce a little chunky so I used a masher 


and mashed by hand)

Return to pan and bring to a boil.

You may add sugar if desired.

Taste to see how sweet the apples are.

You can also add cinnamon

Keep applesauce boiling and ladle hot sauce into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch head space.

Cap off with the quick seal lids and place on wired rack to cool. When the lids make a popping sound they 


have properly sealed! so easy! and delicious. 

Canning is always fun to do with a friend. This one goes by so fast when you have two or more sets of hands pealing the apples.

Later I will post an awesome pork chop recipe that uses our homemade applesauce!

Trial errors and kiddie snacks that are picky eater approved =)

Oh my this week has been an interesting run of trials and errors in my kitchen...First, I wanted to make gluten free sticky buns and decided to try the "sweet bread sorghum flour" from Bob's redmill. Did you know you should read instructions closely? It's only meant to replace 10-15% of the gluten free bread mix! The sticky buns were far from sticky, they were like dog biscuits!  Then I had two separate requests for sugar free or low sugar cupcakes. Since my Chocolate velvet cupcakes only require a 1/4 cup of sugar I thought this would be easy to use standard flour instead of gluten free and Stevia sweetener instead of sugar. I was wrong. So gross. Beautiful texture and disgusting flavor, truly grotesque. I'm going to try again with using carrot juice instead of almond milk and make sugar free carrot cupcakes. Stay tuned for how those turn out.

So today's post is going to be your every day staple snacks for gluten free kiddies or just kiddies in general!

"Octopus" hot dogs and apple slice peanut butter sandwiches. 

For the hot dogs I took Foster farms natural turkey dogs and for 3/4 of their length cut them into strips (tentacles). Then boiled them in unsalted water until the tentacles curl up.

This little picky eater approves!

Another fun, easy and nutritional snack for your picky eater is a twist on the peanut butter and apples snack.  Nadine LOVES sandwiches but it's always more for the honey or the jam and she can get wild with sugar.
I "planked" an apple on cut size 3 on my pamper chef mini mandolin and used those as my "bread" for the sandwich.

Apple, peanut butter and a knife or mandolin. Easy!

So simple and delicious!