Whirley Pop
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Cheap, tasty, and pretty healthy popcorn.
It is no secret that we love to eat popcorn at our house. We have popcorn at least three times a week, and sometimes more than that. It is easily our favorite snack, and everyone enjoys a bit of popcorn when we do have it. Eating popcorn as much as we do means that we have a few different ways to prepare it so we don’t get tired of it - if we always ate it the same way then we would be moving on to other options pretty quickly.
One of the primary reasons that we eat popcorn so much is because we avoid most other salty snacks in our home. We buy chips maybe twice a year at most, and we avoid other tasty and salty snacks that are high in calories that don’t really fill you up. You can see this in action by putting 100 calories of popcorn in one bowl and 100 calories of chips in a separate bowl - the difference is pretty wild.
Popcorn is also more filling than chips. It’s really easy to eat an entire bag of chips if you’re not careful. Sit down, open a bag of chips, and simply munch on them while you are doing something else and you’ll soon find that the entire bag is gone and you’re probably still hungry. While you may do the same with popcorn, you’ll also find that you’re simply more full and not want to eat more.
One of the ways that we make popcorn is using a Whirley Pop. This contraption is basically just a pot with a lid that lets you stir the popcorn inside of it while it pops. You put some oil in the bottom of the pan, put in your kernels, and then put it on the stove. While the oil is heating up, start to spin the popcorn around a little bit until it starts to pop. Once it starts popping, then stir things a bit faster.
You actually don’t have to have a Whirley Pop to make popcorn like this, but it’s much easier with this tool. Without it, you have to shake a pan across the heat, hold a lid on top, and be careful not to spill or drop something. We used to make popcorn with this method, but our pans and stove were getting ruined from the rubbing of the pan on the stove. A Whirley Pop removes that issue completely.
One of the nice things about making your popcorn on the stove in oil is that it adds a bit of flavor that you don’t get with air-popped popcorn. Air popped popcorn is by far the healthiest popcorn choice, but it’s also the most boring. If you just eat air popped popcorn, you’ll likely find yourself going back to chips and other snacks later simply to get something a little bit tastier. A little oil makes a big difference.
Our favorite oil to use in the Whirley Pop is coconut oil. It gives your popcorn a flavor that is similar to the theater. While it’s not exactly the same flavor, it will remind you of that flavor that you get there. Add in some salt, and you may actually feel like you’re in the theater again. The oil adds some calories to the popcorn, but if it’s what keeps you out of other snacks that are higher in calories then it’s worth it.
Eat popcorn instead of other snacks to not eat as many calories. Popcorn can taste great and help tide you over. Get a Whirley Pop now to make your popcorn.