Make your own fruit cups!

Okay, here's my first post and what made me feel like a SuperMom today.... Not very deep but very practical - I finally figured out what to do with the fruit that I know we are not going to finish, and apples when they are going for a song at the fruit market. Plus, Hannah started really liking fruit cups with her school lunch, and I hate the waste they create. You have to throw away the foil cover, and you are left with a perfectly good, sturdy plastic cup that you don't want to throw away.

So who knew applesauce was so easy to prepare? Delish too, even without adding any sugar! And I had some leftover blackberries, as always happens when I can't resist and buy 3 for $3 at the fruit market and they don't last that long because they are already somewhat past their prime. Put the two together and you have a super healthy, yummy snack!

Applesauce with leftover berries

Ingredients:

bunch of apples (Macintosh, Cortland - my fave, Empire, etc. I try to use anything local.)
leftover berries

Directions:

To make the applesauce, peel and core the apples and chop into chunks. Put in a pot and add just enough water to almost cover (about 1cm below the top of the apples). Boil until the apples are soft and start to darken in colour. Mash with a potato masher. Taste it and enjoy! If it is too watery, boil it longer and let it evaporate.

To prepare the berries, in a smaller pot add a bit of water to the bottom, depending on how much berries you have. I wouldn't cover, but add just enough so will get cooked as you stir. You don't want watered down berry juice.

Let the berries cool and process in a food processor or blender. Mix in with the applesauce (if there is any left after you tasted it) and enjoy!

I haven't given exact measurements here, as I think it's pretty much foolproof and up to you to decide what proportions you want or have on hand. The best part, no sugar added!

If you are just making applesauce, don't forget to try adding cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves!

Redefining SuperMom....

Here it is, finally. I've found the theme of my blog and I can start it now - redefining SuperMom. I feel like that is what I'm doing. SuperMom is a play on Superman, who has the strength to do anything he wants. So this tends to be used to denote the image of a Mom who is trying to doing everything, working, housekeeping, carting her kids around town. But I want to be a different kind of SuperMom. Super, as one definition says, is of the highest quality. That's what I want to be. Of the highest quality. And to me, that is a Mom who is constantly searching and striving to improve her parenting and herself.

Parenting has really been a huge catalyst for me for self-improvement. I feel the enormity and challenge of my job as nurturer and role model for my child everyday. There are many successes, and many disasters to say the least. But having a child offers me something that very few situations do - many, many chances to try again. If I don't get it right, she will let me know! But if I do get it right, the result obvious, and it is priceless....

Parenting permeates every aspect of my life and asks me to improve - no, nags at me to improve. From what I decide for us to eat, to how I handle my finances, to how I show respect for the environment and how I relate to other people. There is always something to improve, another goal to strive for, because what I know I am really doing is building the future. The future that my child will live in, and the future my child will be.

So, I guess that is what I want to share. How becoming a better parent and a better person are one and the same, and leads to a better world, which is really the end result. The kind of SuperMom I want to be is actually more like Superman - not a Mom of super strength or superhuman powers, but a Mom that will help the world with the strength of her mind....