Quick, Simple Applesauce

I’m sorry I’m so late posting this week! I was in one of those moods yesterday where I couldn’t get motivated for anything, plus I had a terrible case of the Mondays the day before. But I guess my biggest excuse is that Saturday was my birthday and I was too busy celebrating to update.

The great thing about my birthday is that my mom’s birthday is the day before mine and we always have a big family dinner. I’ve been in an autumn/fall mood for weeks so it’s no surprise that I requested we have pork chops and apple sauce. My mom makes, hands down, the best pork chops ever! So I contributed by whipping up a quick batch of applesauce, because what’s pork chops without apple sauce?

While perusing Pinterest I found several recipes for crock-pot applesauce but all those recipes take hours and I needed them to be ready pretty quickly.  My grandma has a recipe for really simple applesauce that only takes an hour, so I just went off of that.

I started by taking 7 apples and peeling them. Then I got too lazy for that and just left the skin on. 

(if you haven't seen this video you have to watch it.)

Leaving the peels on didn't affect the apple sauce but go ahead and take them off if you really want to, you over-achiever.

In a large pot throw in the apple chunks, the juice of one lemon, 1/2 cup Sugar, a cinnamon stick or 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, and 2 tbs water. 

Bring the apples to a boil over high heat. Then reduce it down to a medium heat to  let it cook down stirring occasionally so that nothing gets stuck to the bottom. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour for the apples to become soft.

Mash the sweet smelling mixture until its smooth or you could use a food processor which would also remove the large pieces of apple skin. 

I put a heaping spoonful of the applesauce on top of my pork chop. It was so good! My mom hates cinnamon and she loved it. 

Some great things to do with left over apple sauce:

Ø  Put it in greek yogurt as a healthy snack

Ø  Add it to cake mix instead of oil

Ø  Make apple fruit leather. If you have a dehydrator, or use your oven and spread a few cups of applesauce on a tray and dehydrate for 4-8 hours at 135 degrees

Ø  Add some to pancake or waffle batter for yummy apple pancakes or waffles