White Popcorn Lime Kettle Corn

Looks like regular ol’ popcorn, I know.  But it’s different and better and……yummy!  Sometimes I want/need a little treat.  I’m over the wish for decadent desserts, cakes, cookies, brownies, ice cream, etc., well, mostly over it.  Every now and then I want something like that.  But I just get over it.  Healthy treats, like the ones I occasionally make with dates and such do the trick.  Every now and then, I want something crunchy and salty. 

One of my favorite things is making popcorn.  NEVER, and I’m serious, never eat microwave popcorn—all that butter “flavoring” stuff in it is NOT good for you.  Bad, bad.  But before I knew that a few years ago, I found Orville Redenbacher’s Lime and Salt microwave popcorn and I loved it.  Nowadays, I make my own with my Orville Redenbacher Presto Stirring Popper (no affiliate link, just love it).  Photo courtesy of Amazon.com. 

I have come to love white popcorn.  It’s just better.  Try it if you haven’t.  You can find it in most stores now.  Even better, but harder to find is organic white popcorn.  The kernels are smaller and it just has a more tender crunch.  You can use any popping corn you like.  The popper is great, you add a little oil to it and I ALWAYS use organic coconut oil.  I’ll never go back to anything else.  I love the slight coconut flavor and that it is a healthier option.  Plug in the popper after adding some oil, let it heat for just a minute.  Then add the popping corn and put the big, ventilated, plastic lid over it.  You can watch the corn start browning a bit, hear the sizzle and then you see the corn start popping.  Listen for the pops to almost stop, then unplug it and turn the whole thing upside down and the lid becomes the bowl (until you move it to a bowl that isn’t ventilated with holes to add all the yumminess to it).

I most often make the popcorn with just the coconut oil and some salt.  It doesn’t need butter!  Sometimes I add lime zest.  That lime and salt really is a great combination on popcorn.  Try it!  Just zest a little lime right onto the freshly popped and salted corn and stir it together.  Mmmm!

Today though, I felt like a little sweet and salty, so while the corn was popping (it’s fast), I mixed together a little salt, organic cane sugar and lime zest so that as soon as the popcorn was done, I could sprinkle it on the fresh, hot corn and stir it all together.  You can drizzle it with a little more coconut oil as soon as it is done popping, but it isn’t necessary. 

White Popcorn Lime Kettle Corn, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1/4 cup organic coconut oil, 1 tablespoon or more to drizzle over popcorn if desired

1/2 cup white popping corn kernels

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 1/2 teaspoons organic cane sugar

zest of 1 lime

Put the 1/4 cup of coconut oil in the popper (*I use the Orville Redenbacher Presto Stirring Popper).  Plug it in and let the wire arm start moving around and the oil heat up for a minute.  Add the popping corn and put the lid on the popper.  Combine the salt, sugar and lime zest in a small bowl and stir it together.  Within minutes the popcorn will pop the corn.  Unplug it and carefully (with hot pads) turn it upside down so all the popped corn is in the lid.  Put the popcorn in a large bowl, drizzle with extra coconut oil if desired. Sprinkle the salt/sugar/lime mixture evenly over the popcorn a little at a time and stir it to combine.  Serve.  When you get to the bottom of the bowl, you’ll see lots of the lime mixture left, but you can still taste it throughout.  (I tried a little coconut oil drizzle on some and stirred the lime mixture around and it stuck to the popcorn more, but I was fine with the taste when it had less, so do it to taste.) *You can pop popping corn with any popper you’d like, including an air popper, this is just my preferred method.) 

There is a big bag of popcorn at Costco called Skinny Pop because it just has popcorn, oil and salt.  My friend, Paige, at For Love of the Table mentioned how hard it is to eat just a little bit once you open the bag.  I’ve seen it and resisted the temptation to buy it because I know I can just make my own popcorn at home.  I thought it was funny that Paige posted a photo of the empty bag of popcorn with Skinny crossed off the label and she wrote in Piggy.  She thinks it should be called Piggy Pop because it’s hard to stop eating it once you get started.  I’ll just say that this combination of lime and salt (and a little sweetness from the sugar) as well as just my version of plain popcorn with coconut oil and salt is pretty hard to stop eating when I make a big bowl of it.  It’s my version of Piggy Pop.

Honey Nut Popcorn—Secret Recipe Club

In my new adventures of giving up gluten and refined sugar, I am sometimes finding it difficult to find treats that will cure certain cravings I have.  I’ve been using raw honey in many things.  When looking through my October blog assignment for the Secret Recipe Club, I found one of the things I’ve been wanting—something crunchy with a little sweetness!

This Honey Nut Popcorn hit the nail on the head!  I was assigned Kate’s blog, Kitchen Trial and Error.  There is definitely lots to see and try on her blog.  The cookies alone that she’s posted made me pine for those good ol’ days of making lots and lots of cookies.  You know, I haven’t given up on making goodies for other people, so I do still get to dapple in the good stuff when I want.  Kate lives in New York state, has a hubby and a cute baby boy (Boys rule!).

While we always have a full fruit basket here and plenty of other healthy choices for snacks, there is definitely a fair share of other treats available often.  As I mentioned, I’ve been craving popcorn.  My current favorite is white popped corn that I make with our Presto Stirring Popcorn Popper.  You put a little oil in the bottom of it, then add the popcorn and a little arm turns it around and around as it pops.  I’ve been loving using coconut oil and just putting salt on the popcorn.  You’ve got to try the white popcorn, the kernels are smaller and more tender.  You can get the white popcorn in most stores. 

Along came this honey nut popcorn and I was sold on trying it.  I did adapt Kate’s recipe that she got from Healthy Food For Living.  That recipe used some honey and some corn syrup.  I just used all honey.  Also instead of vegetable oil, I used coconut oil.  The honey nut popcorn is great!  Some peanut butter and peanuts are added to make it nutty.  It would be fun to try with almond butter and almonds.  That’s it, I’ve just decided, as soon as the honey nut popcorn I made is gone, I’ll have to try that.

Such simple ingredients and still a great treat.  Sure, it might not be just the same as a buttery caramel popcorn, but it works for me.  The boys tasted it and like it okay, but are leaving it alone and I’ve been enjoying it here and there throughout this week. 

Honey Nut Popcorn, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Kate at Kitchen Trial and Error

4 quarts popped popcorn (1/2 cup kernels) *I used white kernels

1/2 cup salted peanuts

2 tablespoons organic coconut oil

1/2 cup raw honey

1/4 cup smooth, natural peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.  Line a rimmed baking sheet with Silpat or parchment paper. 

Put the popped popcorn in a large bowl with the peanuts. 

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the coconut oil, honey and peanut butter.  Stir constantly and cook for two minutes.  Remove from heat and mix in the vanilla and salt.  Pour the peanut butter/honey mixture over the popcorn and peanuts and stir to coat evenly using a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula.  Spread the popcorn in an even layer on the baking sheet.  Bake for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.  Cool completely before eating and store in an airtight container.

Great sweet, crunchy treat for snitching a handful now and then!  Great blog, Kate!  Really enjoyed it and will be back.

White Chocolate and Lime Popcorn with White Chocolate M&Ms

I know, this just looks like a bowl of popcorn with some pastel colored M&M’s in it.  But there is a little added twist of deliciousness.

The popcorn is from Orville Redenbacher.  It’ is one of their Natural microwave popcorns that is Lime & Salt flavor.  I love it.  Not sure I’ll ever be able to eat popcorn without lime flavor in it again. ;)

After also recently finding White Chocolate M&M’s, I started thinking about how good white chocolate and lime would be together. 

So this is actually not really a recipe, but an idea I carried out.  Try it—I thought I’d just have a few bites and let the kids eat  the rest.  And I ended up eating the whole thing!  Shhh.  No, those microwaveable bags of popcorn are the smaller individual sizes.

I popped a bag of the delicious lime and salt popcorn and melted around 2 ounces of white chocolate (Lindt is the best!).  I pour the melted white chocolate over the popcorn and stirred it to coat all of it evenly.  I then put it in the fridge to harden up for a few minutes.  Although it was just fine and tasted great still “wet”!  Then for kicks, I sprinkled some of the White Chocolate M&M’s in with the popcorn.  Those M&M’s are good, white chocolate is actually not my preferred kind of chocolate (dark, Baby!), but now and then it’s a fun little sweet treat. 

White Chocolate and Lime are a match made in heaven! 

Poppy Chow---A Special Secret Recipe Club Post

Here we are again with another Secret Recipe Club post for August.  Why?  Because as a group, when we heard that only one blogger didn’t get something posted from their blog, we all banded together and decided that as many of us as could would make and post something today just for fun.  Surprise, Connor's Cooking!

You’ve probably seen or heard of General Mills Chex Muddy Buddies (also sometimes called Puppy Chow)—this is the same idea, except instead of making it with cereal, it’s made with popcorn--Poppy Chow.  Cute.  I was drawn to the fun name and I knew my boys like the Chex Muddy Buddies version of this treat, so after seeing it over at Connor’s Cooking, I decided to make a batch.

It’s simple as can be, pop up some popcorn--

Melt some chocolate, peanut butter, a little butter and some vanilla together--

Add it to the popcorn and coat all the popcorn with the heavenly chocolate/peanut butter mixture--

That is not all though—after that, generously coat the chocolaty popcorn with a nice dusting of a little more sweetness—powdered sugar.

Let it set for as long as you (and your kids) can stand to wait before serving up the treat for the evening!

There’s just one word for this stuff---

You can get the super simple recipe at Connor's Cooking.  She found the recipe at Tasty Kitchen.

Peanut Butter Popcorn with Chocolate Drizzle

Here’s a super fast, easy, yummy treat for you to make for Peanut Butter Popcorn with Chocolate Drizzle (yes, the chocolate is optional, but uh, why would you not?) ;)

No, really, this was so fast and easy.  Besides the fact that we just had our neat, new popcorn maker out like last week and I could NOT find it, the rest took literally only about five minutes.  We finally found the popper in the strangest place.  Sometimes you’d think we’ve lived here for years, but no, we just moved here a few months ago.  Sigh.

I got the recipe for this Peanut Butter Popcorn from a friend of mine growing up.  I think we were probably only about 14 years old.  And I’d noticed over the years that I still had the actual recipe card she wrote and gave me (I think we were at a young women’s activity where we swapped recipes).  From time to time I’d see that card in my recipe box, the same box that also still holds some of the recipes from when I took a cooking class in 7th grade!  I remember that a lot of those recipes from school were not very good, just not the best recipes and having a bunch of 12-13 year olds make them, yeah, they just didn’t always turn out very good.  So why are they still in my recipe box?  I don’t know, it’s just kind of fun to keep them.  Maybe one of these days I’ll talk myself in to trying one of those old recipes.

Just out of the blue though, my friend, Patty, contacted me just to see if I happen to have a clue what her old recipe for peanut butter popcorn had in it.  She said over the years she couldn’t find the recipe and had tried many others, but never liked others as much as she remembered hers being like.  What are the odds that I actually have THE card with her writing on it.  I sent her a picture copy of the recipe.  We both were surprised that the recipe didn’t have butter.  In fact, it only had three ingredients, besides the popped popcorn.

Patty’s Peanut Butter Popcorn (with optional chocolate drizzle-adapted by Katrina, Baking and Boys!)

1/2 cup unpopped popcorn

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup light corn syrup

1/3 cup peanut butter (I used chunky)

2 ounces chocolate, melted

Pop the popcorn in an air popper and put it in a big bowl (Really, you could use a fat free microwave popcorn, probably two bags).  Heat sugar and corn syrup in a medium sized saucepan until the sugar is dissolved, I let it boil on medium for 1-2 minutes.  You just don’t want the sugar to start burning.  Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter.  Pour immediately over popcorn and stir to coat evenly.  Let cool just enough to eat.

After peanut butter mixture is cooled on the popcorn, drizzle with melted chocolate and let it harden.  (I stuck it in the fridge for a few minutes.)  Break up pieces that have clumped together.  Enjoy!

You could add peanuts to this, or I’d also thought of pretzels, M&M’s, there are a lot of things you could add to this popcorn that would be great additions.  This popcorn would also be a fun treat to bag up in cute packages and give away as gifts!  Thanks for the memory, Patty! ;)

***Later today, I made the peanut butter popcorn again and used Sugar in the Raw (turbinado) in place of the granulated sugar, agave nectar in place of the corn syrup and Adam’s all natural peanut butter and it’s just as good, if not better.  The peanut flavor is stronger, instead of just a super sweet flavor.  It also has a chewier texture.  So now, it’s even healthier!  Love it!

Thank You C & H Sugar!

I was recently one of the lucky ones to happily receive a $20 gift card from C&H Sugar to go towards purchasing all my sugar/baking needs for the holidays!  Believe me, it is going to great use and is very much appreciated!  Thanks, C&H!

You’ve got to check out their website and see all their neat ideas for holiday gifts and more!

One of the ideas they share is to make logs of cookie dough and wrap them up nicely to give as gifts.  That is actually what I did one year a few years back.  I think that is a great idea because your friends and family can just stick the dough (I’ve also done cookie dough balls) into the freezer and pull them out sometime after the holidays when all the goodies are gone and enjoy the treat later.  C&H has a recipe for an Egg Free Sugar Cookie Dough that would be wonderful and some cute printable instructions to go with it.

Their website is full of great recipes, a number of which I tried and think are really good!

Their Molasses Ginger Cookies are the closest I’ve found so far in my quest to find THAT particular ginger cookie someone gave me a few years back that I thought was the best.  Please pardon the horrible picture.  I had to use the “other” camera when mine broke.  Never fear!!!  My new camera arrived yesterday.  I’m so lucky (Thanks, Kev and Santa!) and spoiled and happy to have it!

I also quickly put together their Chocolate Chip Blondies.  They really are a great blondie!  I used 1 cup of mixed plain M&M’s and peanut M&M’s as well as 1/2 cup milk chocolate chips, just to be festive.

And finally (but just for this post), I couldn’t pass up trying out C&H’s recipe for Caramelized Popcorn.  Perfect!  They suggest using their caramel popcorn as packing peanuts for sending some of your holiday packages.  Wrapped properly that’s a great idea!

Have some caramel!

C&H, I’ve been baking like crazy to prepare for some holiday festivities and thanks again for helping with the funding for that!  Oh so  much more to come!