Fall for homemade organic baby applesauce

It's fall, and organic apples are 100% fresh and in-season. If you eat the peel, apples are a great source of fiber plus offer vitamin C and just 95 calories per whole apple, which makes a crunchy sweet apple the perfect low-calorie snack for a busy mama. Apples also make a great fresh fall snack for your baby if he's started solids, however, you're going to have to loose the peel (yup choking hazard). Homemade baby food really is as easy as pie and better than store-bought. Below is a delicious recipe for easy and healthy homemade organic baby applesauce. You can make baby food in a pot or your baby food maker. In fact, you could even make super simple baby applesauce by cooking, then simply mashing up your organic apples. But I digress. To make yummy organic applesauce you need...

• 2 pounds of organic apples. You can try mixing apple varieties to produce new subtle flavor differences if you like.
• 1 organic lemon (you won't be using the whole thing, so plan for another lemon dish as well).
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon.
• 1/2 cup water

To make: 1. Wash your apples and lemon very well. 2. Peel and core your apples. Then chop your apples into chunks. No need to cut little pieces, 8-10 chunks per apple is good. 3. Peel two or three very thin strips of lemon peel from your lemon using a veggie peeler. 4. Place apples, lemon peel, cinnamon and water into a pot. 5. Allow the mixture to come to a boil. Reduce to simmer. Cover and allow it to cook for about a half hour, or until apples are very soft - they should be soft enough to mash with a basic fork. If the mixture seems too thick as it cooks down, add a bit more water, but not too much. 6. Remove from heat, allow it to cool a little then use a spoon to get the lemon peels out. 7. For younger babies blend until pureed. For older babies allow a little texture (don't blend so much). 8. Freeze any extra. You can serve this warm or cool. Also, it's very easy to double and freeze a bunch at once. You can also mix this with baby cereal for a heartier meal. Other awesome fall baby food creations you can make fast:

• Pumpkin broccoli puree and other pumpkin baby treats.
• Lentils or brown rice & carrots.
• Organic broccoli and tofu with peanut sauce.
• Sweet potato cubes for little ones feeding themselves.

Image © Anthony Hall