Day 27: Champion Chow

I love popcorn. This is obvious given the fact that in 27 days this is my second blog on the subject.

To me, it is the perfect snack. It's salty and filling and easy to munch on as you watch TV or a movie or whatever else you happen to be doing while you're snacking.

I consider myself a little bit of a popcorn snob, though. I do not like most microwave popcorn. Occasionally I'll have a little of the microwave stuff if I'm craving popcorn and I don't have another option, but to me it just tastes stale and fake. This is a direct result of growing up in my father's household. We were always taught that nothing is better than stove-top popcorn. All popcorn is great, but any old popcorn does not compare to the wonder of popcorn prepared on a stove. And I'm not talking Jiffy Pop, people!

I mean putting oil and seeds in pan and turning the burner on high as you stand by and listen to the chorus of kernels serenading you with their "pop.......pop....poppoppoppoppop....pop..pop" song. Stove top popcorn is a beautiful thing, indeed.

Unfortunately, stove top popcorn is not the healthiest option when it comes to losing weight. Although, I have made it with olive oil before, which made it a little more nutritious (and it tasted great!).

Yesterday I bought an air popper (at the suggestion of my wonderful role model, Aunt Janine). I bought one called a PopLite. It's just a generic Wal-Mart one that cost about $20.

I tried it out last night and it made really good popcorn. It was a little dry, but I imagine I can figure out a way to spruce it up a little...maybe adding some light butter or margarine to it (that would NOT be at the suggestion of my Aunt Janine since she hates that stuff).

The problem I ran into last night was that my popper's instruction manual said that you should place 1/2 cup of kernels into the machine. You're not supposed to over fill it, and you're not supposed to under fill it, or you may end up with a lot of unpopped kernels. So I popped the half cup of seeds and wound up eating the entire batch of popcorn! Woops.

I just need to remember to portion it out. Maybe I can eat half of the popcorn as my evening snack and then take the rest of it to work the next day to eat with my lunch.

I like the popper, though. I think it will be a welcome new addition to my kitchen, and I'm looking forward to many more evening time popcorn snacks!

I love mixing it up and adding different flavors to my popcorn, too. I'll just go for regular margarine and salt sometimes. Other times I'll put a little seasoned salt instead of the regular salt. I've used garlic powder and Parmesan cheese before. And I've even used brown sugar and cinnamon for a little bit of a sweet and salty flavor. And I've recently discovered the wonder of spray margarine. You use a lot less and it sticks to the popcorn really well.