Chocolate Popcorn

I had never heard of chocolate popcorn before last week.... or least not that I remembered. And now, I just want to eat it all the time!

I made it to take to a Christmas party, and I plan on making some for the family over the holidays.


Six bags of popcorn requires 1 package of almond bark.
(I used light buttered popcorn and white almond bark.)

Melt the almond bark on the stove; I split the package in half and melted each half separately, due to the size of my pans. It's also easier to pop a bag of popcorn, drizzle some chocolate over it and shake it up. Each time you add a bag of popcorn to the bowl, drizzle some more chocolate on it. The first batch we attempted to drizzle all the chocolate over all the popcorn, which didn't work well at all.

[In case you've never dealt with almond bark, stack two similar pans on top of each other. Fill the smaller one with a little less than half of water; it will go on the bottom. The bigger one will partially sit on/lean into the other pan, but won't touch the water.] 

When it's all said and done, it still looks like normal popcorn, for the most part. The first time I ate it, I thought it was just normal popcorn. So, don't expect it to be covered thickly with chocolate!


Rating: Not the absolute healthiest treat, but there are far worse! I just love how easy it is to make :)

Pumpkin Spice Peanut Butter Granola

I love pumpkin, and I love granola. And to my luck, I came across this pumpkin spice granola recipe. I changed it up a little, and it's so good! I lessened the sugary ingredients to make it healthier (and more diabetic friendly).

6 cups old-fashioned oats (not instant)

3/4 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tsp. honey

2 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. pumpkin spice

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp. peanut butter (optional) 

 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Place oats in a large bowl. In a separate smaller bowl, mix together pumpkin, brown sugar, honey, vanilla, spices, and salt. Pour over oats and mix together until everything is moistened. Spread evenly onto a large silpat or parchment lined cookie sheet (or 2 smaller ones). (If you don't have a silpat or parchment or wax paper to line the pan, you can just lightly grease it, which is what I did.) 

 

Bake in oven for about 15-20 minutes. Take out pan. Using a large spatula, flip the granola in batches. Disturb it as little as you can if you like lots of clusters. If you don't care about clusters, just stir it around as much as you please and break it up a bit with your spoon or spatula. Place back in oven and bake for about 10-20 more minutes. It will kind of depend on oven temp and how thin you're able to spread the granola on your pan(s). 

 

Remove from oven and allow to cool undisturbed. It should continue to crunch up as it cools.  Once cool, break up any clusters you feel are too large. If you want, mix in a few handfuls of chopped almonds and craisins and store in an airtight container. 

I had some granola start to burn around the edge of the pan, so I turned down the temp just a little bit. My baking time increased because I didn't have enough pans so I had to rotate and do a few batches. I didn't cluster together as much as I should have, so right now I have a big mixture of some clusters, and some loose granola. But, that's okay because I eat granola plain, in yogurt, as cereal, in smoothies, etc.

Rating: This recipe was really easy, and quick to make! Not to mention, you can eat granola with a lot of things, and it's healthy!

Pumpkin Puree

I bought pumpkin puree in the hopes of trying a Pinterest recipe... but they all called for 10+ ingredients that I didn't feel like buying.

So, instead, I just formed my own simple recipe:

Sugar-free pudding mix (add milk as it calls for)
Can of pumpkin puree
1-2 tbsp. of sugar
Few shakes of cinnamon/pumpkin spice
One small shake of salt.

Mix and let sit. 

And if you like dipping your apples in something, you can either use that recipe, or another dip I tried:
1/4 cup of plain yogurt (fat-free if you want to be extra healthy)
1/2 Tbsp. of creamy peanut butter
3 Tbsp. of pumpkin
Add cinnamon, splenda, and pumpkin pie spice. (optional)


Rating: There's not enough of the milk, peanut butter, or sugar in either of these recipes that I would consider it unhealthy.