I've heard horror stories among my friends about the flus and various viruses going around this winter. And with Spring right around the corner, I really thought that my family dodged a bullet by not falling prey to any of it. But alas, I was too quick to make that call. That said, when three of the five of us were flattened by the GI bug recently, it wasn't as grim as I feared.

I was the first to feel under the weather and was sick for 24 hours. Three days later, my husband got it. Again, 24 hours. And three days after that, it sucked to get the call from the school nurse to come pick up my child who had just hurled everywhere. Ugh. The thing is, even if you change the towels every two days, use a powerful cleaner on doorknobs and are hyper vigilant about hand washing, germs happen. And you never can tell who will pick up whatever is going around and who will be able to slough it off.

What's a mom to do? Well, when I'm feeling anxious, I like to tidy and to chop. I guess it's a pretty good thing because my refrigerator now has containers of fresh produce peeled, cut and ready to go for whatever I decide to prepare. Once my daughter was able to keep food down (24 hours later), I was happy to be able to provide her with freshly made applesauce (part of the BRAT diet). While I love to peel and chop apples, I always need to start with much more than I need because I nosh along the way.

The homemade applesauce really hit the spot - my kids like it chunky, which means less cooking time. I've added some fresh mango (high in vitamin C) to the apples for an extra bit of flavor as well as some cinnamon and juice of half a Meyer lemon. Note to self: always make three times as much of this stuff. It flies out of the bowls.

Homemade Applesauce with Mango
6 apples, peeled and chopped
1 mango, peeled and chopped
1 tsp cinnamon
juice of 1/2 Meyer lemon

Put all ingredients in a sauce pan. Cook on medium heat until the fruit begins to soften. Lower the heat and simmer until fruit is cooked to desired texture.