Salted Hershey Kiss Popcorn

Week one of Simple Start is done, and I'm down .8lbs. It wasn't what I wanted, but anything moving in a downward direction I'll take! Jennifer, who weighed me in, reminded me the small numbers are good, safe, healthy, and mean I'm not swinging around with big losses and big gains. She's right.

The theme this week was, "You can't eat it if you don't have it." How right is that? I do all of my shopping for the week on Saturday, and I find by Thursday I'm out of food but I don't want to go to the store because I'll be going in two more days for my big shopping trip. That's the day I struggle with the most - I want to go out to eat "because there's nothing in the fridge." So when I went to the store today, I tried to be aware of that and plan food that can be made on those two final days before my grocery trip on Saturday.

Something else I realize I needed to plan are snacks because I've found myself very snacky in the evenings. Most of the time I try to ignore it, but this week I just wanted to indulge. What's your go-to snack right now? One of the snacks my Weight Watchers leader Noelle shared that she makes was a Fiber One brownie, fat free Cool Whip, and strawberries. Lots of volume in that snack so you feel full afterwards!

As I was thinking about snacks that would fit into Simple Start, would be kind to my indulgence points, yet truly feel like an indulgence, I settled on my own version of "gourmet popcorn." I discovered Trader Joe's Reduced Guilt Air-Popped Popcorn is 3 PointsPlus for 2 1/2 cups, and it's a Power Food! Heaven! It's also very bland, so I'm going to look at it in a positive way: it's a blank canvas and ready for me to add my own fixings. And if I'm going to add something to this canvas, it's going to be chocolate. Chocolate, glorious chocolate. One ounce of chocolate is 4 PointsPlus. I did the math: 6 Hershey Kisses is one ounce, 4 PointsPlus. I can do that. Drizzled on the popcorn and sprinkled with sea salt? YES.

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Salted Hershey Kiss Popcorn

2 1/2 cups (1oz / 28 grams) Trader Joe's Reduced Guilt Air-Popped Popcorn
6 Hershey Kisses (or 1oz chocolate), unwrapped
Sea Salt
Sandwich sized Ziplock bag

Line a small tray with foil or wax paper. Place popcorn on the tray in a single layer. Try to fill in the holes as much as possible - you don't want the chocolate falling through the cracks.

Place the Hershey Kisses in a small microwave safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir, and then return for another 30 seconds. The kisses should be melted; if they aren't, microwave on 10 second intervals.

Spoon the melted chocolate into the sandwich bag - try to get it as much in one of the corners as much as possible. Snip a tiny corner off of the bag and drizzle over the popcorn. Immediately sprinkle with the sea salt. Don't be stingy with it - the popcorn isn't salted so it can use the help.

Eat now for a slightly messy treat, or leave on the counter for the chocolate to harden. Eat or store in a quart sized bag for your next snack attack.