A Little Bit of Magic

okay, so last night I went to a
"welcome to the holidays"
party...
we were asked to bring a holiday snack munchie food
I decided to do the whole caramel corn thing

I found two recipes on my pintrest boards

Addictive Vanilla Caramel Corn source: Oh My Sugar High

Corn Syrup FREE Caramel Corn source: Amy's Food Room

so using the microwave popcorn trick from yesterday I made a boat load of popcorn
and then I combined the two recipes from my two pins...
I wanted a 'healthier' version so I made the corn syrup free version but then really liked the vanilla and sweetened condensed milk version...
so I guess taking out the corn syrup and then adding the sweetened condensed milk sort of makes it not as bad as it could be for you rather than maybe calling it healthy...
...creating...

Creamy Vanilla Salted Caramel Corn
16 cups popped corn, any unpopped kernels discarded, in a very large bowl (or split between two large bowls)
The caramel:
2 cups (1 lb.) brown sugar
1 cup butter
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2-3 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
sea salt (to taste)

1. In a large, microwave safe bowl combine the brown sugar, butter, water and salt and cook for 3 minutes, stirring at a minute and a half.  Continue cooking about 3 more minutes until mixture starts to thicken.

2. Stir in the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla.  Put back in microwave for another 2 minutes.  Remove from microwave and add baking soda. The caramel will bubble and puff up as you do this -- keep stirring. Working quickly, but carefully (since the caramel is very hot), pour the caramel over the popped corn kernels and stir gently to coat. (I put the popcorn into a large paper bag and shook it all around)...

3. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Line two cookie sheet pans with parchment paper. Divide the caramel corn between the two pans, salt generously with sea salt (if you want salted caramel...this is optional) and bake for 45-60 minutes (depends on if you want a little chewy or all crunch, 45 for a little chewy, 60 for all crunch!). Stir every 15minutes. Cool briefly, then watch out...you need to pace yourself otherwise you might eat this all in about 7 minutes...

my kids kept saying, 'Wow, mom you really made this?'
guess that means it was good...

You've Got To Be Kidding Me

Okay, so I've heard rumor that you can make microwave popcorn with...
ready for it...
popcorn and a brown paper bag...
I have even pinned it over on my pintrest board

source: Squawkfox

yep...that's all...

so I researched this crazy idea on the intranet...
(ps Beau hates when I call it that)
Beau thought it was all just one of those things that you read online and shouldn't believe...
he laughed at me...


turns out it's totally true...
so, you can believe some things you read on the intranet...
(said that to make him cringe)


this was so easy that I'm not going to give you the tutorial in pic not words...

okay, so I will use some words...use just under 1/3 cup of popcorn

take it out when the popping gets to about 3-5 seconds apart

and bonus...you can reuse the same bag, over and over...

this was 5 popped bags...one bag, 5 times through the microwave...

okay...so, lets break this down...

1.  ingredients that you're feeding to yourself and your kids...

White Pop Corn...or Yellow ...depending on what you buy...that's IT...pop corn...

or you can feed them this 

and this is Jolly Time Healthy Pop Butter, 94% Fat Free

and you can choose to put your own butter and salt (or whatever you like)...

just butter and salt...

no partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Natural Flavors (really, you can't even tell me which ones, just natural?), Annatto for coloring (cuz I like a good color on my popcorn), Soy Lecithin, Egg and Milk (yep, in my popcorn)....

2.  One bag put into the recycle or green waste bin (not into a landfill, can you imagine how many microwave bags are in our dumps)

3. Cost $1 on 50 brown bags  $1 bag of popcorn...$2 total for who knows how many HUGE bowls of popcorn...

4.  Husband finally realizing that you are a genius!  Who's laughing now