Baby Applesauce

Four days later, I'm still looking for ways to use up the abundance of apples we brought home from the farm. And then, my dear friend L reminded me that I have a little baby. And in a few months, he'll be eating solids. Riiiiiight.....APPLESAUCE. Big duh.

Now, at first, I was a little apprehensive to do this. I know it seems a bit of a double-standard to write a blog about healthy and local eating and then buy all of my son's baby food. However, all of that cooking and processing and freezing and so on seemed way out of my reach unless I wanted to have less sleep and lose my mind. However, even though I think there are some really great and creative baby food companies/foods out there for purchase, COME ON, paying for applesauce? squash? BANANAS?!?! The question became, how do I do it.

Williams-Sonoma has a very cool device called the Beaba BabyCook baby food maker. And for only $149.95, plus an additional $200 or so in accessories, you can steam, chop, and freeze your baby food the Williams-Sonoma way. Nope. Not gonna happen. Babies R Us had a similar but only mildly less expensive version, the Baby Brezza, which also came with ridiculously over-priced accessories. I was just about to give up when, after turning the aisle in Babies R Us, I came across this little number. The Babies R Us brand electric baby food processor. It's only $26.99 and the freezer containers (16 to a box) are only $10. It's all BPA free, and the only real difference between this and the others is that I have to cook the food first and pour it into the jars myself.

It was ABSURDLY easy. After I sterilized the parts and freezer containers, it took five minutes to peel and cut the apples, ten minutes to cook them, ten seconds to process them, and fifteen seconds to pour the applesauce into the little containers. After they cooled, I popped the lids down and into the freezer they went.

Here's the recipe. Oh, and if you are interested in more recipes for babies, I'm going to set up links on the side JUST for baby food recipes so you can find them all in one place!

You need:

8 apples, peeled and quartered
water

Place the apples in a 2 qt. or larger pot. Place 1" of water into the pot. Cover and bring to a boil. Once the apples are boiling, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Let cool slightly and then process. Pour into jars or freezer containers. Fridge safe for up to a week, freezer safe for up to 8 months.