Strawberry Applesauce

Many years ago Matt and I did taste tests to find the best strawberry applesauce.  We decided Wal-Mart's store brand was our favorite and proceeded to go through a lot of those individual serving cups.  A lot.  Then we stopped doing our major grocery shopping at Wal-Mart and were better at sticking to a grocery budget and that was the end of our strawberry applesauce eating.  Many years later we found Aldi's store brand which is delicious but unfortunately one of their seasonal items so we can only get it about once a quarter (at which point we usually buy at least 10 jars).  It's about $2 for a jar we can eat in two days.  Not horrible but we could certainly do better. 
Enter this homemade strawberry applesauce.  It's just 5 ingredients (including water), doesn't take long to throw together, and I can make it for less, even if apples aren't in season (which they are now!).  I picked up almost 18 pounds of apple for about $10 which got me a lot of applesauce.  I used strawberries I had previously frozen when they were in season which made this extra inexpensive to make up.  Even without the money savings (which I find very exciting), this has no preservatives and tastes better than any storebought one we've tried.  And we've tried a lot. 

Strawberry Applesauce
Ingredients
-6 cups peeled, cored, chopped apples (I use my peeler/corer/slicer which takes seconds per apple)
-2 cups hulled strawberries
-1/3 cup sugar
-1/3 cup water (or more, for thinner sauce)
-cinnamon - I just shake a bunch in, can't really have too much

Directions
1) Add all ingredients to a large sauce pan or stockpot.  Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer until the fruit is soft, at least 10 minutes, stirring often. 
2) I use my immersion blender to get a smoother consistency but you could also use a potato masher or transfer to a blender.  Let cool and transfer to containers.  I freeze most, leaving some for immediate consumption (which happens pretty quick!).


Source: slightly modified from The 36th Avenue