This is our new go to applesauce. It’s healthy. It’s yummy. It’s pink! Apples and beets simmered together with the cloves, cinnamon and a dash of ginger to make pink magic happen. Healthy, delicious pink magic that picky eater toddlers love to eat and moms love to serve.

A glass jar of red beet applesauce with a small wood spoon.

A couple of weekends ago, I loaded up my family with enough supplies to us through 10 days of the apocalypse and we drove into the mountains to go apple picking. I foolishly imagined this amazing orchard of lush green trees with branches so heavy with ripe, sweet apples that they would be falling to the ground, woven basket overfilling with fresh apples and memories to last us years. I would be in a cute dress, my children would behave and I would return home with enough apples to make all the recipes that I have been coveting.

Oh sweet dreams, how fancy they are.

In reality, none of this happened. The orchard was farther then I expected, I got cranky, we arrived to find a line just to get into the orchard and all the trees were bare, as in they had NO apples on them whatsoever. How does an apple orchard run out of apples? I would love to say that we enjoyed the scenery and just wandered aimlessly around the place soaking in an idyllic Fall day, but it was a too hot of day and I was sweating down my baby carrier so much so that I thought I would drown my poor infant, I wore the wrong shoes and the crowds of people hovering around trees without any apples on them was getting to me.

It just wasn’t happening.

I wasn’t going to win this one.

A couple weeks went by and I slowly got over my sadness of not having any fresh apples to make my baking dreams come true and then by surprise Mary showed up to my front door loaded down with a brown bag filled with apples from her friends yard. Local! Organic! Fresh! Apples! Just for me! Score! I was like winning the jackpot – the scratch ticket jackpot not the mega millions.

Now I could get my apple making groove on. First task, a chunky, warm applesauce for Ellie that was filled with just the right amount of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.

She scraped her bowl clean.

I scraped my bowl clean.

We smiled at each other, laughed and then she threw her spoon at me.

After a couple batches of this, it was time to move onto something more adventurous. This is me we are talking about –  I can only do so much classic. I get board with classic. I had to try something different. Something fun. Something that I could make on a whim and know it would turn into our new classic.

Our new go to applesauce. It had to be healthy. It had to be yummy. It had to be Pink.

Pink applesauce or blushing applesauce as I lovingly call it. Apples and Beets simmered together with the cloves, cinnamon and a dash of ginger to make pink magic happen. And pink magic is something that all toddlers, princesses and mommas love to eat.

Apple + Beet Toddler Applesauce

6 organic dessert Apples
1/4 to 1/2 organic Red Beet
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Clove
1/8 tsp Nutmeg
Pinch of Ginger
1/2 cup of water

1- Peel, core and chop apples. Peel and chop beet, the more beet you use the more this applesauce will turn an intense red color instead of a pink color. My first recipe I used an entire beet and it was extremely red but still extremely tasty.

2- Place all ingredients into a medium saucepan and heat for 30-45 minutes over medium/low heat. Stirring occasionally.

3- For chunky applesauce, smash apple and beet chunks with the back of a wooden spoon. For smooth applesauce, transfer all ingredients into a blender and puree until you reach your desired consistency.

Will store in the fridge for 2 weeks.

Some other great toddler snacks –