You know what really bugs? Those diet sites (and there’s a pretty popular one out there that you girls love, but I won’t mention any names…), where all the diet tricks and recipes are filled with chemical additives, like Splenda, NutraSweet and other bad-for-you sugar alternatives. If that cancer-causing crap is what you really want in your body then I’m not stopping you, but you will NEVER see any of those ingredients on my site. What you will find in the low-cal, healthy recipes are ingredients that are always natural and so that brings me to my next trick: lower calorie, no-sugar-added and good for you kettle corn.
Yesterday afternoon I had a hankering for popcorn. I do not have a microwave, but I do have a stove, some canola oil and a pot with a lid. That’s really all you need. Screw the stuff that comes in a bag. That weird chemical buttery stuff is for the birds. Besides there’s nothing better than popcorn you pop yourself on the stove. And it takes the same amount of time as the microwaved stuff does…about 2-3 minutes.
So after I was done popping my corn, I put a little salt on top and eyed my Stevia that was sitting on the counter from the morning’s green smoothie. Hmmm, I thought, I bet a little sprinkling of Stevia would make my popcorn sweet. Stevia is a naturally sweet and calorie-free herb native to Paraguay. You can buy the extract from Trader Joe’s. Highly recommended! A couple sprinkles of Stevia was all I needed to transform my already yummy popcorn into sweet and satisfying kettle corn without the empty sugar calories and with MUCH less calories.
There you have it; quick and easy:
Fill a small pot with enough oil (about 2 TBS) to cover the bottom of the pan (you don’t want burnt popcorn). Fill the bottom with one layer of kernels. Heat on medium-high heat and cover. Turn off heat when you no longer hear vigorous popping and shake the pot a little to make sure as many kernels are popped as possible. Pour in a large bowl and sprinkle with sea salt and 4 scoops of Stevia extract. Toss and eat!
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October 28th, 2009 at 7:28 am
You wrote “4 scoops” of stevia on the kettle corn recipe. I haven’t even tried stevia yet, but that would seem like alot. Can you give me a more accurate description? Thank you, Deborah Leahy
October 30th, 2009 at 11:14 am
Hi Deborah,
When you buy the Stevia extract from Trader Joe’s it comes with a teeny tiny scoop. The scoop is no larger then a child’s pinky nail. It’s a concentrated extract that comes in a powdered form. The four scoops only applies to the Trader Joe’s brand. When you buy it you will know what I’m talking about.
February 10th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
You know, I’ve done this too, but I like to put the stevia and salt in with the oil. The stevia won’t burn like sugar can. I often have the packets and one or two packets is good. I really like it too, it works well.