Coconut Caramel Popcorn

My friend Tamara of the Lead Safe America Foundation proves that healthy and organic food doesn't mean you have to deprive yourself or your kids of low cost yummy snacks! Especially when it is a sweet twist on one of my favorite snacks...popcorn! 

So we're broke and we eat all organic food. The reason for both is the same, our children got lead poisoning (which was very expensive to deal with) and, as a result, we can't bear the thought of burdening them with additional chemicals from conventional (non-organic) foods. We also keep a mostly-vegan household, which can make things even more challenging in slim times!

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Sometimes the cupboards seem bare but there are actually really yummy things in there - it's just a matter of mixing them together in just the right way. 

My mother is a honey farmer (honey is one our few breaks from "pure" vegan tradition), so no matter how little we have in the cupboards, we almost always have honey.  

Our substitute (generally) for butter is coconut oil - extra virgin, cold pressed, organic coconut oil! Yum!

.... and a regular treat for a family with four children - especially  when things are tight - is POPCORN!  Always exciting and always interesting because it is both an activity (watching it pop) AND a food!

So - one day - when the cupboard seemed bare - I invented the following delight....

Coconut "Caramel" Popcorn Recipe

1. Put a small saucepan on the stove - melt 1/2 cup coconut oil together with 1/2 cup honey on very low heat. Once it is thoroughly melted, mix it together a bit. It will be kinda like oil and vinegar - with the two substances very separate when hot - so let cool a few minutes and then mix again. Add a teaspoon or two of organic vanilla and a 1/2 teaspoon of sea-salt. Mix well again (with a fork or small whisk) and let sit on the stove (with the heat off.)  The mixture will still be a little transparent -  if not fully transparent.

2. Pop your organic popcorn - we use a hot-air popper and fill a huge mixing bowl with popcorn.

3. As your popcorn pops your coconut-vanilla-honey mixture will start to get milky as it cools - mix it together now as the ingredients will now stay mixed as they get cooler. The consistency when this is ready to drizzle over your popcorn will be like a thick syrup and it will be a consistent light milky honey color.

4. If you have a second large bowl - drizzle about half of the honey mixture all over the inside of the second large bowl and swirl the bowl around a bit so the mixture is fully covering the inside of the bowl. Put the popcorn in this second bowl and then drizzle the rest of the honey mixture (slowly) over the top... use a large wooden or metal mixing spoon to toss the popcorn in the honey like you would toss a salad. 

5. Eat up!  

For less sticky popcorn you could put in the fridge for a little bit to cool it down quicker.

As an added twist - on step one - after the honey and coconut oil are mixed together add two tablespoons of peanut butter (in addition to the vanilla and salt) and keep on the stove (over very low heat) until that is melted and well mixed in as well.

YUM YUM YUM!

From Tamara Rubin

Mom of four boys

Executive Director

Lead Safe America Foundation

www.leadsafeamerica.org

www.misleadmovie.com

http://www.facebook.com/

MisleadMovie

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