Healthy Microwave Popcorn

I love popcorn. Love it. Sometimes I make a batch of popcorn and eat it instead of a real meal. But I'm picky about my popcorn. I don't like pre-popped stuff in a bag or movie popcorn. (It's like eating salty Styrofoam.) And the microwave bags of popcorn have so many weird chemicals. I'm iffy about even eating margarine because I think it's unnatural, so the strange shelf-stable butter substitute that they have in microwave bags frightens me.

I have an air popper, which I love for the ability to make a family-size batch quickly with nothing but hot air. But it's a pain to dig it out of the cupboard, make room on my always-crowded kitchen counters, and then put it all away again, just for a quick snack. Same goes for the stovetop poppers.

A while back I found this idea on Pinterest...

You just put 1/4 to 1/2 cup of popcorn seeds into a brown paper lunch sack and cook it for about 2 minutes. Super simple, quick, and minimal clean up. I love this for a quick snack.

The only problem is that it makes enough for 1 person... 2 if you feel like sharing. But if you're trying to make enough for the whole family, you have to make several batches. Kind of a pain.

So when the kids asked for popcorn while watching a movie tonight, I decided to experiment. Why not just put the seeds in the bowl and pop it that way? Could I make enough for everyone all at once? I put a cup of popcorn seeds in my bowl, covered the bowl with cling wrap, and popped it in the microwave. It actually worked great! Popped up nice and fluffy and looked delicious. I was pretty impressed with myself for finding this new method. Right up until I took the bowl out of the microwave and discovered this...

If you look closely, you can see that the hot popcorn seeds melted right through the bottom of the bowl! So... don't use one of your good plastic bowls to try this method.

Be sure you cover your bowl securely. I didn't adhere my cling wrap firmly enough. Popcorn escaped all over the microwave.

 

I tried it again with a glass bowl and had great success. 1 cup of seeds, 3 minutes in the microwave, one bowl of popcorn ready to eat! We're purists here, so we typically go for the classic butter topping. I'll definitely be doing it this way again!

 

Quick and easy family-size batch of popcorn... no chemicals or preservatives!