You may have read about how standing at the dairy display, struggling over my weekly yogurt purchase, was giving me sweaty palms but the news today is that the time I am spending in the snack aisle lately is making me just plain old mad. A few months ago I made a decision. No more high fructose corn syrup in this house. No more. And then I decided that it would be nice to have a few child-friendly snacks around for a play date we had coming up.
What I discovered is that if you would like to buy a cracker with no high fructose corn syrup, you are going to have to settle for one with enough sodium to make your child float in the bathtub or one containing enough saturated fat to warrant your starting a bypass surgery trust fund in his name.
Twenty minutes and a headache later, I realized that the convenience of these boxes of snacks is not all that convenient. I could have whipped up something corn-syrup-free at home and slipped it into the oven by the time I resigned myself to the futility of finding a whole-grain, low-fat, low-sodium package of snacks free from artificial colors and high fructose corn syrup that cost less that four dollars a box.
I think there is a whole series here. In this year of taking things a little more slowly, the next item on my list of problems that need creative solutions is this: Snack Food.
Partly because our microwave was broken for over a year and partly because of my attempts at eliminating the instant from our diet, lately I have been popping popcorn. Old school. On the stove. In a pot. I know that popcorn is not a Superfood and I hope to offer you some nutrient-packed, homemade and convenient snack options soon, but since the idea for this post grew out of my struggle to purchase the perfect cracker, this crunchy, savory, classic snack food seems as good a place as any to begin.
Have you ever cooked popcorn on the stove? It is incredibly easy. And a bag of popping corn is much less expensive than a box of the microwave variety. I follow the directions on the bag almost exactly. It calls for three tablespoons of oil but I have found that if you use a small pot, you can get away with much less. I use about a tablespoon of canola oil along with a third of a cup of popping corn. Since one batch easily feeds four people, each one of us is getting less than a teaspoon of the oil. Most dietary recommendations of late suggest at least two teaspoons of heart healthy oils like canola a day so this is one fantastic way of getting in these healthy fats.
When the popcorn is popped, I sprinkle it very lightly with olive oil and even more lightly with kosher salt. Finally, I add about a pinch, or several hearty shakes, of dried thyme. Delicious. And I am in control of all of the ingredients. Have I mentioned yet how wonderful the house smells after preparing a batch? What a way to greet your guests.
Quick brainstorming about ways to vary the approach to this easy snack solution brought me to a few combinations I am hoping to try. How about using a very light drizzle of sesame oil and some black pepper? Or flaxseed oil and some Pecorino Romano cheese? Or you could make it spicy with some fresh cilantro and chili powder or cumin.
Any other ideas?
*This blog post is part of SteadyMom’s 30-Minute Blog Post Challenge. This challenge stems out of her recent blogging resolutions and her attempts at reminding the rest of us who blog about all things family to put down the laptops and be preset to our children. SteadyMom challenged us to complete an entire post, start to publish, in 30 minutes today. I must confess that I downloaded and formatted my photos in a separate session while I was doing photos for work but I am considering that the trade off for the fact that while I was writing, my lovely niece called to quiz us on our ability to name all 50 states for a school project. It was a little hard to focus on writing while listening to my husband chanting, “North Dakota, South Dakota, North Carolina, South Carolina…” If you haven’t checked out SteadyMom.com yet, do so now. You will love her.