How to Enjoy Air-popped Popcorn

You can use several healthy ingredients other than traditional butter to get Parmesan cheese to stick to your air-popped popcorn snack. This way all of your grated cheese won't sink down to the ...

'The Recipe Doctor' offers healthier options for a favorite snack.
Tags: diet, nutrition, healthy snacks, popcorn, trans-fat

Microwave popcorn was all over the news today. Diacetyl, which adds that buttery taste, can cause lung damage when heated and inhaled - leading to a potentially fatal condition known as "popcorn workers’ lung." And that's not all - Angela at Shelterrific pointed us to this article: Plastic Ocean, which says that one of the chemicals used to treat microwave popcorn bags has serious health risks. So, whether you like your popcorn plain, salty, buttery, or sweet, chances are you're looking for another way to make it. Here's the basics on making popcorn yourself - with or without a bag.

Popcorn. Lovely, buttery, crunchy, melt in your mouth, popcorn. I could eat it everyday. Sadly, my thighs might begin to hate me, should I feed “the baby” popcorn everyday. There is much to say and bicker over when it comes to the creation of the perfect popped kernel. Some things to think about: What kind of kernel? White, yellow, blue, heritage, on the cob? How should I heat it? In a pot with oil, in an air popper, in the *shudder* microwave? What toppings are best? Butter, salt, truffle oil, nutritional yeast, grated cheeses, sugar, spices, herbs, oil, pepper, so many choices! So here is my take. Popcorn is very personal. Some people are content to pop a bag of store bought microwave popcorn with hellish “flavourings” into the microwave and wait 3.5 minutes for heaven. I’m too scared of the dreaded “popcorn lung”. It may take a few hundred bags, but the sheer fact that it can happen has scared me away from ever buying it again. When camping, Jiffy Pop is a great alternative to the oil drenched popcorn in a pot trick. Quick and entertaining, the bag expands right before your eyes! You can flavour it however you like. I used to make popcorn in a pot with lots of oil (a la Alton Brown), but I always had a distatse for the way the popcorn remains somewhat chewy. Maybe I wasn’t heating it hot enough, fast enough, but then my husband came along. His method of air popping and his patented buttering technique have me smitten. This time of year, when the snow is falling (or not) and there is a chill outside, it’s nice to come home to your sweetheart (and or children) and snuggle up on the couch, throw on a DVD and make a big bowl of popcorn for everyone to share. One of my favourite things to do has to be curling up on the couch and watching my little boy’s eyes light up when the bowl makes it over to the living room. Eyes wide, hands plunging into the bowl, he is in toddler heaven! It’s a rare moment of quiet and I treasure every second of it. So let me share my husband’s perfected popcorn popping method. (Sorry all you pot poppers, but this is an air popping technique!) Perfect Every Time Popcorn You will need: Air popper 1/4 cup Popcorn kernels 1/4 cup Butter Salt A large bowl Napkins 1. Heat your air popper without anything in it, for about 2 minutes. This ensures the metal inside is warm and ready to go when you add the popcorn. 2. Heat 1/4 cup of butter until melted. In bottom of receptacle bowl, pour in a Tbsp or so and add a sprinkle of salt. This ensures that even Continue reading Perfect Popcorn