Wednesday, December 17: At the end of a long day, my wife, Nicki, and I enjoy putting our three little ones down to bed and relaxing a bit. One of our favorite “down time” activities is popping a DVD into the player and enjoying a recent film.
In our household, we’ve got to eat popcorn with our movie—isn’t that why some people call fast-action films “popcorn thrillers”?
I have to tip my hat to Nicki, who came up with a great recipe to satisfy our munchies. It’s called Zesty Popcorn, and here are Nicki’s ingredients:
• 1/3 cup popcorn
• 3 Tbsp. extra-virgin coconut oil
• 2 Tbsp. garlic-chili flaxseed oil
• 2 Tbsp. melted butter
• Herbamare (a commercially available sea salt and spice-seasoning mix)
Nicki melts the coconut oil in a pan over medium heat, and when the pan is hot enough, she pours in the popcorn and covers everything with a lid. While the popcorn heats up and begins to pop, she melts the butter. When all the popcorn is finished popping, she pours the hot popcorn into a large bowl and pours the melted butter on it. Then she seasons with garlic-chili flaxseed oil and Herbamare, mixes thoroughly, and we have a tasty and healthy after-dinner treat.
I know that few households have extra-virgin coconut oil, garlic-chili flaxseed oil and Herbamare in their pantries, but it’s worth a trip to a natural food grocery store to stock up on them. Garlic-chili flaxseed oil is high in omega-3 fatty acids, which are crucial to good health. Herbamare is the product name for a great-tasting seasoning made up of organic ingredients such as sea salt, celery leaves, leeks, watercress, garden cress, onions, chives, parsley, lovage, garlic, basil, marjoram, rosemary and thyme.
In terms of good health, I have no problem with people snacking. I love to nibble on something myself when I’m relaxing and visiting with friends, which seems to happen a lot during the holidays. I’ll talk more about my philosophy of snacking in tomorrow’s blog.