{ Christmas Pop }

 Let me tell you a merry, merry Christmas story.

The Bean has decided to give his closest friends all gifts this year. They are from his own allowance and all under $5. Just little token, 'it's the thought that counts' type of gifts. He's buying for several though, so last night he had a lot gifts to wrap.

After showing him the basics of wrapping (and my awesome Mickey Mouse paper is gridded on the back for easy measuring), I left him to his own devices while I cooked supper. About 30 minutes later I wandered back in to the Family Room, where he loudly, and aggressively exclaimed:

"Wrapping presents sucks!"

"I hate wrapping presents. It's stoopid!", I said.

"I'm never wrapping presents again!", he growled.

*me, gesticulating wildly at the large mound of gifts I had wrapped earlier in the day*

"Yeah, thanks for wrapping them, but you never have to again. You can just put them in a grocery bag!", he said.

"I feel like that would kinda suck.", I pondered.

"Yeah, probably. So, yeah, thanks for wrapping my presents, Mom.", he says again.

 Does anyone like wrapping presents? I feel like there probably are people out there.

But I don't know them. Or understand them. 

I mean, I LIKE for my presents to look neat and pretty (and they HAVE to coordinate. No mish mash of papers here, sorry), but I do not like the process.

Or the .32 milliseconds it takes for all of my hard work to be destroyed.

Sigh.

You know what I do like? 

Popcorn.

See all my popcorn posts here

Also, I like chocolate and mint.

See all my chocolate & mint posts here

Well, all of those things come together in this creation.

 This is a quick, simple, no skill required recipe (just be careful with the hot chocolate!). It's also an easy to adapt recipe, just put whatever candies in you wish!

Christmas Popcorn

Recipe by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

(easily doubled, tripled, etc, if you are serving a crowd)

1 bag of popcorn, popped, unpopped kernels removed

1 1/2 cups of Rice Chex Cereal

2 Squares white melting chocolate (almond bark)*

12 Andes Chocolate Mints*

Candy Canes

SnoCaps

Assorted Christmas Sprinkles

*you can use more of either chocolate if you like

Lay out a sheet of wax paper/foil/parchment.

Pour your popped corn (unpopped kernels removed) onto it. Sprinkle the Chex cereal over.

Melt your white chocolate, 30 seconds at time and stirring at the 30 second mark, until fully melted.

Drizzle onto your popcorn and Chex.

Melt the Andes Mints, 15 seconds at a time and stirring at the 15 second mark, until fully melted.

Drizzle over your popcorn & Chex.

Let cool for about 5 minutes, then toss lightly to coat.

While the chocolates are still wet, sprinkle with crushed candy canes, SnoCaps, and Christmas Sprinkles.

This would also be great with M&Ms.

Add in any other candies you like.

Just play around and have fun with it.

You can also use regular chocolate in place of the white.

Pretty, quick, easy, festive, and fun.

Oh, and it tastes goood!

Happy Christmas!
Tina

{ Autumn Mix Popcorn }

My oven caught on fire.

Sadly, that's not the opening line to a joke. It actually caught fire. Well, not like flaming up, gotta call the fire department fire, but my element definitely had 3" flames coming off of it.

I was baking Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes for the Bean's girlfriend's dad. He likes to read my blog (Hi Roger!) and try to get her to make him some of the treats. I told them to pick something and I'd send it home with her one night. She chose the Cookie Dough Cupcakes. With nine minutes left in the bake time, yeah... flamage. 

Luckily, I was standing in the kitchen at the time and saw it happen.

Needless to say, I'm ovenless at the time. It's just the element, but it has to be ordered online. 

I'm going to need about a week's worth of stovetop/crockpot/toaster oven recipes.

This is the 2nd time in 6 years that this has happened. The first time didn't include flames, but an element blew out (and into pieces) a few years ago. I'm thinking i should forget the new element and just buy a new stove. This one is a menace. Sadly, that is not in the cards for me at this point in time.

Woe is me.

I think I'll survive though.

I needed a goody to take to Youth Group last night and baking was, clearly, out of the question.

I've done a couple popcorn mixes before. My Snowflake Crunch Popcorn & My Luck O' The Irish Pop and they are always a big hit. They are quick and easy to  make, and daggone tasty too.

I took 2 gallon sized bags last night and came back with zero kernels.

I think they liked it.

Baking isn't necessary for a delicious treat!

This would be excellent for Halloween parties, for Trick or Treaters (that you know!), and even sat out on Thanksgiving as a fun football game food!

 Now, I'm off to fix spaghetti, because, yes, no oven required for that!

Tina

Autumn Mix Popcorn

You'll need:

3 bags of popcorn

(a variety that is light on butter)

6 squares of Almond Bark*

Candy Coloring (optional)

Candy Corn Mix

Fall Colored M&Ms  

Assorted Fall Sprinkles

Oil

*you can also use colored candy melts

I know this is crazy, but I could NOT find the Autumn colored M&Ms at the store yesterday. So, I just picked the blue out & used the rest.

Pop 1 bag of popcorn. Allow to cool for a few minutes, then remove any un-popped kernels

Melt  2 squares of Almond Bark, 30 seconds at a time, in the microwave. Mine took about 1 1/2 minutes to fully melt. Add about 1 teaspoon of oil and stir until very well blended.

For my colors I did orange and black and left one bag just plain white.

You can color all, use different colors, or not color, leaving all the chocolate white.

With your bag of popcorn poured into a large bowl, drizzle with the chocolate. Allow a few minutes to cool,  sprinkle in 1/4 of the candy, then toss with your hands. Pour out onto foil/parchment to allow drying.

Repeat this process with the next two colors.

When you have all of it on the foil, sprinkle the remaining candy & any autumn sprinkles you wish.

After is it dry, mix all the colors together in a large bowl for serving.

Store in a tightly sealed container/ziploc bag. Stays fresh for about 2 days.

 

{ Luck O the Irish Pop }

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I really wanted to call this Erin Go Braughopcorn, but was afraid I was the only one who would find the humor in that.

Get it? 

No?

That's exactly why I changed the name.

This is another super quicky for St. Patrick's Day.

Just takes a few minutes (plus drying time) and a few ingredients.

You'll need:

2 bags of popcorn 

(a variety that is light on butter)

6 squares of Almond Bark

2 Mint Cookies (Mint Oreos/Grasshoppers/Thin Mints, etc), finely crushed

Andes Mints (I used 6 you can use more), chopped

Assorted Green Sprinkles

Oil

Pop the popcorn. 

I used 1 bag of Pop Secret's Homestyle & 1 bag of 94% fat free (affectionately known in this house as "cardboard corn"). The Homestyle has just a little butter flavor and a little salt, so it gives this mix a buttery/sweet/salty combo.

You can use whatever popcorn you choose, but the heavy butter/movie theater style is not recommended.

Melt your Almond Bark, 30 seconds at a time, in the microwave. Mine took about 1 1/2 minutes to fully melt. Add about 1 Tablespoon of oil and stir until very well blended.

Pour/Spoon over the popcorn. Stir to mix well. 

Sprinkle on the Andes, the cookie crumbs (I used Mint Oreos), and the sprinkles.

You can also use more cookie crumbs than I did, if you wish.

And allow to dry before storing or bagging for gift giving.

You could also throw in chocolate chips, mint chocolate chips, green M&Ms, other small candies.

I didn't have nearly the amount of sprinkles I would have liked, but, it still tastes good!

*note to self, buy green sprinkles

 I hope you enjoy this recipe, which, in my heart will always be Erin Go Braughopcorn.

Have a lucky day!

Tina

{ Super Bowl Snacks }

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Today I'm rounding up some recipes that I think would make good Super Bowl snacks.

I hear that the big game is this Sunday.

Also, I hear there are two teams playing it in. However, I had to google to find out who they were.

Not a football fan? No, I'm not.

(Oh, google says its the New England Patriots & the New York Giants. I assume that is right. It's google after all, and the google knows).

So, I'm not a footbal fan, BUT, I am a PARTY fan! Woot!

I think we are actually going to go to a Super Bowl party on Sunday.

We were promised board games and commercials. They'd better be there, or I'm demanding my money back. Even though I'm not paying. I will want money back.

I'm totally waffling on what to make myself.

I might do this Buffalo Chicken Dip that my friend Steph made for New Year's Eve.

Or maybe I'll make these whoopie pies shaped like footballs.

Chocolate Whoopie Pies

Another option my Snowflake Crunch Popcorn, but with the teams colors.

Google tells me they both have Red and Blue (and white/silver/whatever). Use the red and blue M&Ms instead of just the blue. Now, I KNOW it's not the perfect blue of the team- but... it'll work. If you are a big fan and HAVE to have the right color, M&Ms does sell the darker blue in specialty stores like Party City, etc.

Snowflake Crunch Popcorn

These Ranch Crackers are sure to be a hit Ranch Snackin' Crackers

Do you want to make friends fast? Then make this Chocolate Chip Cheeseball

If you want a savory cheeseball, try this one that takes minutes to make 1.2.3. Cheeseball!

Need a dip? Okay! Try this one Holy Moses Dip.

A favorite get together snack around here is this Pull Apart Pizza Bread. yum.

You just CANNOT go wrong with a batch of  Caramel Corn...

That is, unless you bake it at 200 degrees Celcius , like my long time New Zealand friend Pam. LOL!

Love ya, Pammy!

Maybe you'd like to delve into making some of these Peanut Butter Patties.

They are quick to disappear!

Or, even better, how about these 3 ingredient Oreo Truffles!

There's a few of my suggestions! Are you having/going to a party?
What are you planning to make?

Go Team! I really hope that the ....

oh never mind. I really don't care who wins!

But if you are into football, I hope YOUR team wins!

Have fun :)

Tina

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{ Snowflake Crunch Popcorn }

It finally snowed. Enough to cover the ground anyway. 

*grumble grumble*

Is it bad that I want it to snow, like, a lot? 

I love snow, I love to watch it fall. It’s beautiful and magical.

Yay…snow!

Unless I have to drive in it.

Then I HATE snow.

Boo… snow!

Snow makes me think of all things white.

And blue.

What’s with the white/blue/snow trend anyway? Is it because of the blue sky against the white snow?

Or because your lips turn blue if you are out in it too long?

Either way, when I think snow, I think white and blue.

I’ve mentioned I’m not that much into fake, ahem, white chocolate, yes?

Other people, apparently, like this stuff.

A LOT.

So, I made some white chocolate covered popcorn.

Blue and white… pretty, right?

(ooh, unintended rhyming!)

So, you can do this one of two ways.

Or two of two ways, if you prefer- who am I to say?

You can do this with a marshmallow base, or just straight white chocolate.

Both recipes are below.

Of the 2, I prefer the marshmallow only popcorn.

But then again, I don't like white chocolate, remember? So who am I to judge?

So, you’ve probably figured out already that I had to pick all the blue M&Ms out of the package for this.

This is a great menial task for teenagers. Let them eat all the M&Ms they wish EXCEPT the blue.

Eating the blue should be punished harshly. You know like refusing to buy Pizza Rolls or something.

However, I noticed looking in the blue-less bowl how odd the M&Ms looked.

Then I realized, this is almost what they looked like when I was a kid.

Whoa.. weirdness.

C’mon people, you know you remember them too.

There *is* one color missing from then. Hint, it’s not blue

Who can name it?

Tina

Marshmallow White Chocolate 
Snowflake Crunch Popcorn

1 bag of popped 94% Fat Free popcorn (unpopped kernels removed)

1/4 cup butter (butter only)

1/2 bag marshmallows

Melt butter in pan, add marshmallows. Melt those as well.
Once melted, stir popcorn in to fully coat.

Turn out onto parchment paper/wax paper/foil lined baking sheet to cool.

Once cool, eat as is- OR proceed with chocolate step (using the popcorn you’ve already coated, of course, not popping another bag).

White Chocolate Snowflake Crunch Popcorn

1 bag of popped 94% Fat Free popcorn (unpopped kernels removed)

3-4 blocks of white almond bark

2 teaspoons oil/shortening

blue M&Ms

blue sprinkles

In a microwave safe bowl, add the almond bark and oil. Melt at 30 second intervals (stirring between). Should take less than 2 minutes to melt.

Pour over popcorn.  Gently stir to fully coat.

Add in blue M&Ms and blue sprinkles

Lightly toss to incorporate.

Turn out onto parchment paper/wax paper/foil lined baking sheet to cool.

Once cooled, you’ll need to break apart larger pieces.

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Everyday Mom's Meals

Hugs & Cookies XOXO