One of my major fitness goals for 2015 was to cut out added sugar whenever possible. It’s a great goal, but it makes finding snacks really difficult. It’s amazing how much added sugar is put into just about every packaged snack food.

One of my favorite snacks is popcorn, but there’s a good chance that packaged popcorn will contain some amounts of sugar, or extra salt to enhance the flavor. So buying in the bag was out. Microwave popcorn is supposedly bad for you, so it got nixed, too. It left hot air and doing it on the stove as the other viable options.

Since I don’t own a hot air popper, it left finding a good stove top recipe as the best alternative. Of course, doing a quick Google search made one easy to find. Thanks to Elise over at Simply Recipes, I discovered a great, and easy to make popcorn recipe.

For ingredients, use the rule of 3’s:

• 3 tbsp oil (high smoke point – coconut, canola or peanut)
• 1/3 cup popcorn
• 3 quart saucepan (with lid)

There is a secret she uses that helps to pop the kernels evenly, which is important to follow. You put the oil in the saucepan with 4 kernels of popcorn and place covered, on medium-high heat. Once the four kernels pop, you remove the saucepan from the heat, place the remaining kernels in the bottom of the pan and distribute evenly, cover, and wait 30 seconds. What this does is bring the oil to a steady temperature, and then it preheats the kernels evenly before putting the saucepan (still covered) back on the heat.

The kernels won’t take long to pop, and once done, immediately move to another dish so the kernels don’t burn. Just about every kernel, if not all of them, will be popped.

You can lightly season with salt if you like, but it also tastes good plain. I’ve also found that coconut oil works best, and since it is the healthy oil du jour, you’ll feel a bit better about yourself while you’re snacking.

If you head over to Simply Recipes, there is a bunch of suggestions in the comments regarding ways to spice things up. You can see the full popcorn recipe and comments by clicking here.

Thanks for sharing Elise!