A is for Apple

I bought a couple 3 lb bags of organic apples the other day and got around to making some homemade apple sauce today. Hudson has been all about eating apples lately so I thought is would be fun to make applesauce together and do a craft. While the applesauce was cooking Hudson made some apple stamps. Here is what you'll need for the craft and you can find the applesauce recipe below:

• 1 apple, cut in half
• Red paint
• Paper plate
• 2 pieces of paper, (we used red and white)
• Scissors
• Glue
• Marker

 Cut the apple in half and pour some red paint on the paper plate. Have your child dip the apple in the paint and press the apple onto the paper. While they are stamping the paper cut out an uppercase and lowercase letter A out of construction paper. Have your child glue the letters onto the paper. Then I had Hudson write out Apple at the bottom of the paper as we sounded and spelled it out together.

Homemade Organic Applesauce

Hudson was able to help a little while making the applesauce. He counted out the apples and sorted them by colors. Then placed them in the pot as I peeled and chopped them. However, about halfway through he snagged one of the apples and had himself a little snack while I finished up.

I made the applesauce with organic apples, however you could use non-organic apples. We also did not add any extra sugar, just a little bit of honey. But you could add 1/2 cup brown or granulated sugar to it. 

Here is our recipe:

• 3 lbs of organic apples (about 6-8 total, we used half Gala and half Granny Smith)
• 3/4 cup organic fresh pressed apple juice, or you can use water
• 1 to 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons Honey

Peel and slice the apples. Place them in a large pot with the apple juice or water, cinnamon, lemon juice, and honey. Stir together. Cook on the stove top on medium high until it begins to simmer. Reduce the heat to low and cook for about 12-15 minutes. Once the apples are soft use a potato masher to mash them to your desired consistency. I like homemade applesauce chunky, but if you want it to be really thin you could run the cooked apples through a food processor until smooth. Serve warm or cold.