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.

Mint Brownie {Jar} Cookies

So I have eight wide mouth quart jars.

Eh, make that seven jars because I'm making soup tomorrow, and I'm going to store the soup in a jar.

So I have seven wide mouth quart jars left over from the case that I bought at WalMart for $11. I used four jars to make my homemade vanilla extract and vanilla sugar. Now...what to do with the rest? My mind immediately went to jar mixes. You know, the jar contains everything needed to make a special delightful treat and all the recipient has to do is butter or water or whatever.

Yesterday morning, I decided to hold an audition for the quart jar mixes because some jar mixes just aren't created equal. I just can't package a bunch of ingredients up in a jar and give it as a gift without making sure the recipe actually works. So I gathered up some recipes to test because now is the time to do it if I'm going to be giving them away at Christmas. I saw this one by Bakerella, but I messed with her recipe a little bit because 1) that's just how I do, and 2) I didn't have plain M&M's on hand.

We're Single & We're Awesome Plus We Have Chocolate Party

We're single.

We're awesome.

We have chocolate.

And all of the above is worth celebrating!

We single people tend to get lost in the Valentine's Day shuffle, which is completely understandable since the holiday is really a celebration of love for couples or small children who know how to cut a heart out of construction paper with safety scissors. That's not a complaint, by the way. I'm happy for my married friends who take it as an opportunity to celebrate their love for one another. I also take it as an opportunity to pray for my married friends.

As a single person, however, Valentine's Day kinda makes me feel like the kid picked last for dodgeball. Or like the kid who couldn't find a partner for the three legged race at school so she had to sit off to the sides, feeling completely left out, and watch all the other kids have fun.

That never happened to me, by the way.

Honest.

Fine.

The dodgeball part is true.

Chocolate Banana Nut Wontons

It's official.

Football season is back.

The Ravens are playing their first game as I type. And they look dreadful. But I have hope.

Here's the thing. I shout at the TV when I watch at football. Not like, a ladylike shout. But a full on shout-at-the-TV-as-if-it-could-really-hear-me-and-it-wobbles-slightly-at-the-force-of-my-voice. That's how I shout.

So I bake during the game. Baking helps me channel my nervous energy. I shout at the TV less. And my family is happy. They reap the benefits of the quiet and whatever comes out of the oven.