In the Kitchen

The average person takes 4,000 steps in a day. An active person (and the number recommended if you are trying to lose weight) is 10,000 steps. Yesterday I took over 16,000 steps. Active was an understatement. It also was not much of a surprise that at dinner last night I was exhausted.

It would have been really easy to call for pizza (I tried, Dave wasn't going for it) but instead I made chicken enchiladas. As I stood there I realized how much simpler my meal was because I already had some stuff together. I had precooked diced chicken in the freezer that cut down my actual on my feet prep time in half.

I believe everyone should have a collection of easy prep recipes that can solve the food dilemma. By doing some prep work when you have time, you will save yourself time and money later on. With that in mind, I present to you slow cooker apple sauce. You can make this once a week and have enough apple sauce to use as a side in lunches for a week. It cost me $1.70 for 2.5 lbs of apples, and about $0.02 for cinnamon. So for $1.72 I get my lunch side and I have no preservatives or additives.

Ingredients:

2.5 lbs apples, cored and sliced (and peeled if you prefer. I don't)
A little bit of cinnamon (totally optional. As for how much that's optional too. I added half a tablespoon)

Put the apples and cinnamon in the slow cooker and let it cook for about 5 hours or more on low. Once the apples are soft and mushy, pull the crock out and mash the apples until smooth (I use a mixer on low.) Allow to cool completely in the crock before moving to containers. Done! Enjoy!