A simple and sweet applesauce

While growing up, applesauce was always a staple at our house.  My grandmother would make applesauce on a regular basis from the apples she and my grandfather grew on their farm.  Now that I have all these apples from apple picking last Saturday, I thought I would try my own attempt at making applesauce.  Because on Weight Watchers natural applesauce is 0 points, I definitely knew when going into this applesauce making adventure that I wanted mine to be natural (meaning without sugar) too.  I also knew I wanted it to be chunky like my grandmother's applesauce.

However, one thing I didn't know before beginning this process was just how simple making applesauce actually is.  Even though we had about 24 apples sitting in the kitchen and I knew I wanted to bake with them, I was very intimidated by the idea of actual using them to make applesauce.  After talking to my mother this afternoon, I felt reassured this project wasn't that big of a deal.  The recipe below is her inspiration.  She understood my desire to stay away from sugar and worked around that.  What a helpful mom I have!

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Simple Cinnamon Applesauce

12 apples of different varieties
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 medium sized lemon

Peel, core, and cut apples into bite-sized pieces.  Put apples in a big pot.  Add water and cinnamon to big pot. Cut lemon in half and squeeze into pot the juice from both halves. Cook covered for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.  When apples are soft, mash them with a potato masher until you reach your desired applesauce consistency.    Let cool.  When cool, the applesauce needs to be eaten within a couple days or frozen.  If freezing, scoop 1 1/2 cups of applesauce into freezer bags.  Stack on top of each other to save freezer space.  Enjoy!

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