snack

Yellow Curry Popcorn

March 7, 2014 by Erica

Yellow Curry Popcorn

Today I have the perfect Friday recipe for you.

Perfect because it involves you, your microwave, and 2.5 minutes of your time. (Or however long it takes your microwave to pop popcorn… and not a SECOND longer, because as any kid who’s made microwave popcorn after school knows, the hardest part is not burning it to a black, stinking crisp.) Anyway, assuming you can handle that part (not gonna lie, it usually takes me two tries), this recipe then involves you, your couch, and a movie for the next 2.5 hours.

The popcorn? It won’t last that long. You might have to take 2.5 more minutes to make a second batch. (Or a third batch if you burnt one of the first two…)

I “tested” this recipe when the craving struck at about 10:30 PM on Saturday night. Anything for a blog recipe, you know? I just haaaad to.

Yellow Curry Popcorn

I posted another DIY microwave popcorn recipe on the blog back in 2012, but assuming you’re newer here, this is the deal: It turns out that microwave popcorn is actually incredibly easy to make on your own at home. You just need some lunch-sized brown paper bags, popcorn kernels, and whatever flavorings you like. Scoop the popcorn kernels (no more than 1/4 cup!) into the bag and fold the very top of the bag down once or twice. If you have a stapler and want to get fancy, you can staple the top after you’ve folded it. I don’t own a stapler, and it works just fine without it, too. Then place the bag on its side in your microwave and microwave until there is a second or two between pops. It’s just as convenient as unwrapping the plastic off a bag of pre-packaged microwave popcorn, but no need for the fake butter and other chemicals. It’s like magic!

When you can take out chemicals and replace them with curry, I would say that’s pretty much always a win.

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Milk Chocolate Salted Pecan Butter

February 10, 2014 by Erica

Milk Chocolate Salted Pecan Butter

Happy Monday! I often post healthy recipes on Mondays, but I think today deserves some chocolate.

Not only chocolate… chocolate and pecans.

Milk Chocolate Salted Pecan Butter

I have a slight pecan obsession. I’m actually surprised I don’t have more pecan recipes on this site. But it’s tiiiime to fix that! And it doesn’t hurt to add to the chocolate archives, either.

Remember the cashew-macadamia nut butter I posted a few weeks ago? Well, it’s probably one of my favorite recipes on this site. It’s a pretty solid rule that anything I can’t stop eating is blog-worthy! And in that post I wrote about the time or two that I’ve tried to make pecan butter… with horrible results. As I was writing that, I was thinking, hmmm, that doesn’t make any sense. There must be a way to fix that. So naturally… this happened.

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Blueberry Vanilla Cashew Energy Bites

February 7, 2014 by Erica

Blueberry Vanilla Cashew Energy Balls

Can we talk about recipe fails for a minute?

A few weeks ago I posted my latest recipe fail on Facebook – I was trying to recreate the blueberry vanilla cashew Kind bars that I love (and that you can no longer get at Starbucks – wahhhh!). Unfortunately, I was far from successful.

Blueberry Vanilla Cashew Energy Balls

They looked pretty and tasted delicious, but they just wouldn’t firm up. And when I tried to cut them… well, they didn’t look so pretty anymore.

Blueberry Vanilla Cashew Energy Balls

I had to take a picture because it was so hilarious.

They didn’t stick together at all, and were basically like eating globs of raisins and nuts covered in honey. Not terrible, but not exactly something I could recommend to you all.

But listen, I love those Kind bars, and I am seriously bummed that Starbucks doesn’t sell them anymore! (At least the Starbucks I’ve been to…) So despite failed attempt #1, I decided to bring my food processor to the rescue. And that’s why today we have, not bars, but balls.

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Maple Vanilla Macadamia Nut Butter

January 24, 2014 by Erica

Maple Vanilla Cashew-Macadamia Nut Butter

Welcome to this week’s edition of Erica’s Food Addictions. And the food I can’t stop eating this week is… drum roll please…

Maple Vanilla Macadamia Nut Butter.

Succinct? No. Unbelievably cram-it-in-your-face, spoon-it-from-the-food-processor, lick-the-spoon, decadently deliciously amazing? Yes.

Maple Vanilla Cashew-Macadamia Nut Butter

(Oh and P.S. it also has cashews. Hence the picture of cashews. But Maple Vanilla Cashew-Macadamia Nut Butter was a little too long of a title, even for me. And “Cashew” was the only part of it I could bear to part with? I don’t know.)

This nut butter is the inevitable result of last week’s carrot butter. While I had my carrots simmering on the stove, I was blending up the macadamia nuts, maple syrup, and vanilla, and sneaking a taste (of course) from the food processor, I thought, Holy crap, this is good. Maybe I should stop right here? But I really wanted to make carrot butter for you, so I forged on, and I wasn’t disappointed with the result. I knew, though, that the macadamia nut butter was something I’d have to revisit. And by revisit, I mean have another excuse to spoon it out of my food processor straight into my mouth.

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