We had popcorn and hot chocolate for breakfast!
Yep, you read it right. Let me give you a bit of background on what caused this culinary decision.
First, you need to understand that popcorn is a food group for me. I eat it every week, usually more than once. (I could write an entire blog post about popcorn…but I’ll save it for another day.)
Last weekend, at a ladies’ retreat at our church, munching on popcorn and M&M’s, one of the gals at my table mentioned that she loved chipotle pepper in her popcorn.
Hmmm? I thought. I may have to try that. Nothing else was mentioned and no amounts or explanation were given, but the idea was stuck in my head.
Wednesday, drowning in homework for a ministry class, I decided to take a break to fix some popcorn for lunch.
Digging through my cabinet for a bottle of chipotle spice, I found cayenne instead. Wonder if I this would work? I thought, staring at the unopened bottle.
Then, because my brain always goes from one thing to the next, I thought, What if I added something sweet to it? I LOVE hot and sweet stuff together.
So I experimented. I made my popcorn, poured melted butter on it and then sprinkled it with a generous amount of sea salt, cayenne and xylitol.
Ta-dah! It was so good I ate it all in one setting.
I need to make this for Larry and see if it’s as good as I think it is.
Two days later, at the grocery store with hundreds of my fellow Okies stocking up for our three-day shut in (It is snowy and cold in Oklahoma today and we are expecting more sleet and rain this afternoon and tomorrow) I had a hankering for hot chocolate — hankering is Okie-speak for “I want some of that.”
Because my husband is allergic to both cane sugar and dairy, it’s been years since I’ve had any. When I did buy it, it always came in a pretty blue box and had dehydrated marshmallows to put on top.
It won’t hurt to buy some, I thought, grabbing a box off the shelf. Then, I did what I always do these days…I read the ingredients.
Oh my! I thought, setting the box hurriedly back on the shelf. “I can’t buy that,” I said out loud to no one in particular. It had corn syrup and all kinds of other nasty goodies in it.
Yuk!
I started looking at other brands, even Keurig. There were none that were clean without added fillers and corn syrup. (I was not at a natural food store. There are probably better choices somewhere else.)
That’s when the idea came…since the popcorn turned out so good, maybe I can make hot chocolate too.
So…filled with courage, I got up this morning and fixed both. Since Larry is my taste-tester, he had to help me out by trying them. (He liked the hot chocolate so well that he made a second batch before I could get the popcorn done.)
THAT is why we had popcorn and hot chocolate for breakfast.
In case you want to try this culinary delight, too….here is what I did:
Hot & Sweet Popcorn
Ingredients:
- 3 tablespoons Coconut Oil
- ½ cup of organic popcorn (Orville Redenbacher’s is non-GMO and a good choice as well.)
- 3 tablespoons butter
- ½ teaspoon organic Cayenne Pepper
- 1 teaspoon organic Coconut Sugar (Brown Sugar would be a good substitute for this)
- Sea Salt to taste
Mix cayenne, sugar and salt in a separate bowl.
In a Whirly-Pop or Dutch oven, melt coconut oil over medium heat. Add popcorn and cover. (We make our popcorn in a Whirly-Pop that I bought on sale after Christmas several years ago. I think it makes great popcorn. Before that I used a covered Dutch oven and shook the pan vigorously while it popped. Whatever you do, just make sure you don’t use the microwave-in-a-bag kind.)
Melt butter in a small saucepan (or in the microwave).
When popcorn is finished popping, pour into a large bowl. Drizzle ½ the butter over the popcorn. Stir. Repeat.
Sprinkle 1/3 of the spice mix on the popcorn. Toss. (I actually just used my hands.) Repeat twice.
Serve it up and enjoy. Serves 3-4.
I used coconut sugar today instead of xylitol. I think brown sugar would taste great too. I also will probably experiment with a bit more cayenne next time (because I like hot), but I think it’s pretty near perfect as it is.
Hot Chocolate
Ingredients:
- 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons of Rice Milk
- 4 heaping teaspoons of cocoa powder
- 2 heaping teaspoons of honey
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- Cinnamon
Heat 2 cups of rice milk, honey and vanilla in a saucepan on medium heat.
In a separate small bowl mix the remaining two tablespoons of rice milk and the cocoa powder. It doesn’t mix easily. I had to “push” the cocoa into the milk. It should eventually make a thick slurry-like mix.
When the rice milk begins to boil around the edges add the cocoa mix and stir. Steam about 30 seconds more. Pour into mugs. Sprinkle with a hint of cinnamon. Serves two.
We made this the second time with almond milk – it was good too, although not quite as sweet as the rice milk. I think if you keep the same ratio of cocoa to liquid, you could try any kind of milk: regular, coconut, soy, hemp, etc. You could also adjust the honey to taste.
I hope you enjoy both of these recipes. (I’m going to make another serving right now.)
