Popcorn Au Natural
I love myself some popcorn. I grew up with my mom having the huge air popper with the popcorn popping all over the place as we waiting patiently for the popcorn to be done. I also remember the jiffy popcorn. You know... the kind you hold over the stove and shake until its done? Basically a huge fire hazard. With the invention of the microwave came microwave popcorn. Any breathing person including my 6 year old can make popcorn in the microwave. As I get older and start looking at ingredients I realized all of the "extra" ingredients that is in microwave popcorn. I also realized that it is much more affordable to buy plain popcorn and make it yourself. Because of that, I was very excited to try to make "au natural" popcorn. I started with 1/2 cup of popcorn kernels.
I even bought the generic target brand!
The recipe called to put the popcorn kernels, 1 TBSP of oil and a pinch of salt into a large stainless steel bowl. It then says to cover with foil and puncture a couple of holes through the foil and place it directly on the stove. This was not successful in my case because #1, we have an electric stove, #2 my stainless steel bowl either was dirty on the bottom or has some other material because it melted.
I started again with my large pot. Repeated the process but used the top instead of the foil. I constantly shook that huge, heavy pot for 3-5 minutes. It was kind of exciting and nerve racking to do because I didn't want to burn the popcorn plus it weigh about 5 lbs! If you have ever burnt popcorn before...it makes the house stink for hours!!!! It was a huge success. I then melted 2 1/2 tbsp of butter in that trusty microwave and put it on the popcorn with salt.
My kids LOVED it. We also went to the movies a couple of weeks later and Ryan and I decided that my popcorn was way better than the movie popcorn. I call that SUCCESS! Popcorn, a healthy high in fiber treat, that my kids loved, with no added ingredients that literally caused me less that $1.00 to make! Yea!!!
There are tons of options to change up the popcorn... parm cheese, cinnamon and sugar, chili powder. The options are endless!!! What is your favorite?
