Homemade Fruit Roll Ups from Applesauce

I find myself checking and double checking expiration dates on our food this time of the year. Rotating our food storage has always been a BIG job for me...one that I don't enjoy but seems to constantly be on my mind. We did pretty well this year except with one thing...applesauce. I had cans and cans of applesauce that needed to be used and so we had it with our meals as a side for about a week but quickly got sick of it...I decided i needed to get creative. My friend suggested I make fruit leather/fruit roll ups. I am so glad I did!

She introduced me to Parchment paper. Yeah, I had no clue what it was. It's found by the foil, saran wrap and paper products in the grocery store and can be purchased for about $3 a box.

These fruit roll ups are straight applesauce...nothing added and they are yummy! I tried making them 2 different ways: with a food dehydrator and in the oven.

Food Dehydrator: I cut parchment paper to fit my dehydrator trays and then put applesauce (Nothing added) on the paper, stacked trays and let dehydrate for a day and a half. (This made yummy fruit leather but it was tougher then when I made it in the oven)

Oven: Heat oven to 170 degrees (This should be your ovens lowest temp), Line cookie sheet with parchment paper and pour applesauce on paper, let cook for 8 hours. (Be sure to use lowest temp to avoid cooking the applesauce...the goal is to dehydrate it)

We ended up eating most of the fruit roll up before we needed to store it but did store a few by cutting strips, rolling it up and storing it in a plastic bag. I am told you can do the same type of thing with any type of pureed food. I plan to try more flavors in the future!