Easy Caramel Popcorn

Yes this is totally a treat and off the diet for sure!  But I'm busy doing my Christmas baking for gifts today and I had to share this recipe because it's easy, tasty and makes a great Christmas gift!

I made two batches today and only ate a few kernels, packaged up the rest and saved a small amount for later..... only because I didn't have another container for it to give the rest away!

So here it is, my Easy Caramel Popcorn Recipe.

1/2 cup water

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup buter

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

Method:

Add water and sugar into a large pot.  Stir just to combine and then don't stir again until I say. 

On medium high heat, wait until the water boils out and sugar starts to brown.  This takes a long time, but keep an eye on it and have you butter ready as well as your vanilla and baking soda for when it starts to brown. 

Once the sugar starts to really brown... try to wait a few more seconds before you add the butter.  You don't want to jump too soon and not have a nice brown caramel.  But you also don't want to burn it.... so be ready but also be patient! 

Almost ready here...

While this is bubbling, pop your popcorn.  I like to use a brown paper bag and about a 1/2 cup of popcorn kernels in the microwave for about 2 1/2 minutes.  Works like a charm!

Once the sugar starts to brown, stir butter into the sugar mixture. Once melted add in the vanilla and baking soda to puff it up.  Now add your caramel to the popcorn.

Ok add that butter!

I did mine in two batches and then gave them a good stir to mix the caramel as evenly as possible.  Next you will place popcorn on a parchment lined baking sheet to cool and harden.  

YUM!  Stir that caramel into the popcorn

It won't take long before you can test it and even package it up!  

I found this awesome packaging at Target this year!
Packaging can be hard to find and pricey too, so I
was pretty happy to find these at Target this year. 

*Tip: to clean your spoon, pot and bowl I like to boil water in my pot after use and add my spoon too.  This loosens all the caramel that has hardened on it.  Then I dump the hot water into my bowl to soak for a while.  Then wash!  No scrubbing off hardened caramel!  

Elfish fun

Asher has been highly amused by Alfies fun and games this year and I'm happy to report no touching instances like we had last year! 

Asher Caught our little Elf having quite a bit of fun this week! 

After Asher watched Elf the Movie one night, the next morning Alfie showed Asher how he liked his spaghetti. 

One morning I woke up to find Alfie had gone fishing in our bath tub. Asher quite liked that Alfie was fishing for Goldfish and that his squid was in the tub too!

Then one morning Alfie was found on the kitchen table with the bananas, he had drawn minion faces on each of the bananas! 

What a funny Elf! 

Alfie is trying to Catch a Big Fish

Our Little Elf was busy fishing this morning when I woke up for work! What a character.

Asher Sure got a kick out of him fishing for Goldfish Crackers and the fact that his squid was in the tub too.  He commented that he had put that squid away last night... funny kid!

Now.... what will Alfie do next?

Chicken Enchilada 21 Day Fix Style

Satisfying meals are so important when you are trying to stick to a meal plan so my Lunch yesterday was this tasty Chicken Enchilada. 

I prepped my lunch the night before and then just topped it with cheese and baked it in the glass dish at work! Easy.

I've decided to share the different recipes from my 21 Day fix meal plans instead of my daily meal plans.... because well, many of my meal plans are the same as the day before.  I try to keep it quite simple because I know that taking the guess work out of meal planning helps to stick to it.  When you have to think about what the meals for each day are going to be it can take so much more time. So I find that if I keep the majority of my breakfasts and lunches the same it makes packing and making my meals so much easier.  

At the beginning of this week I had prepped 3 Salmon Spinach Salads and had all my lunches ready to go for a few days.  So for Thursday's lunch I decided to make something a little less salad like and a little more cheesy!  

Here is the Recipe...

Chicken Enchilada 21 Day Fix Style

1 Yellow Container: Whole Wheat Tortilla

1 Red Container: Chicken

1 Blue Container: Cheese

1 Green Container: Peppers and tomatoes 

1 Tsp Homemade Taco Seasoning

1 TBSP Greek Yogurt

Directions

• Cut chicken into cubes and cook in frying pan with a little bit of olive oil.  
• Once cooked mix in 1 tsp of Homemade Taco seasoning and mix until chicken is coated lightly. 
• Remove Chicken from the pan and add in Peppers and Tomatoes chopped.  Saute Veg lightly and remove from pan. 
• Onto whole wheat wrap, spread greek yogurt and add half of the Chicken and Veg and then top with half the cheese. 
  
  
  
• Place into glass or oven safe container and top with remaining Chicken and Vegetables. 
• You can either add the remaining cheese on top now or right before you bake it. 
  
• When you are ready to eat.  Bake in toaster oven at 350 for about 15-20 minutes or until hot through and starting to brown.  

*Option to top with a Tablespoon of Greek Yogurt and salsa

Busy Elf

Alfie our little Elf on the Shelf has been a busy little elf lately.  

He has been keeping an eye on the Boys and reporting back to Santa each night.  This year Asher wakes up every morning excited to find Alfie, which has made it really fun for us.  However we darn not forget to move that Elf because sure thing he will notice!

There was one night where we did in fact forget, luckily we came up with a theory about why he hadn't moved right quick which did the trick! Asher had been up sick in the night and Gord ended up sleeping on the couch while Asher took his spot in the bed with me.  So our theory was that Alfie couldn't fly to the North Pole because Daddy might have seen him move since he was out in the living room.  It worked!  Phew.

Our little Elf has hidden in the Christmas Tree, the Christmas Village, on top of our Clock and has been busy playing with Asher's toys at night time.  One morning we woke up to Find Alfie on the back of Jake's Dune buggy racing Lightening McQueen around my bedroom! And yesterday morning we found Asher's Ninja Turtle playing Tic Tac Toe with Alfie on our kitchen table!

I have a few ideas for Alfie this week including a boat ride (when I know no one is showering or bathing the next day), Drawing on our bananas and maybe an elf breakfast too!

Comment below with your ideas for your Elf on the Shelf this week!  Or come by my Elf on the Shelf Ideas Pinterest board and share your ideas there!  You can request to be added to the group board which is so fun!

21 Day Fix Meal Plan Day 9

I switched up my workouts yesterday and threw in a T25 Lower workout!  KILLER!!  I haven't done T25 in a while and I forgot how good Shaun T is.  I'm seriously looking forward to my Insanity MAX:30 arriving and it should be here any day now.  

I ended up with an extra Yellow container at the end of the day so I melted a few organic dark chocolate chips and drizzled them on my apples and peanut butter for a treat!  YUM 

I heated up my salmon filet at work today and boy was that good on my Apple Walnut salad.   

Here is what my 21 Day fix meal plan looked like yesterday...

Breakfast

1 Red Container Greek Yogurt
1 Purple Container Raspberries
1 Yellow Container Waffle

Snack

1 Red Container Chocolate Shakeology

Lunch

Salmon Salad with Apples and Walnuts

1 Red Container - Salmon

2 Green Containers - Mixed Greens

1/4 Purple Container - Apples Slices

1 Blue Container Walnuts

Snack

1 Green Container - Cucumbers

Dinner

Chicken Dinner

1 Red Container Chicken

1 green container Broccoli and Carrots

Snack

Apple and Peanut Butter

1 Purple Container - Apple

2 Spoons - Peanut Butter
1 Yellow Container - Chocolate chips

21 Day Fix Meal Plan Day 8

I didn't blog my meals this weekend or Monday as I was tied up with Pace (christmas musical concert for my son) on Saturday all day and the Barn Raising fundraiser on Sunday all day!  I actually did quite well sticking to healthy meals.  What I did eat was healthy for the most part and within my 21 day fix limits but but I know I didn't eat enough each day. 

As for Monday we spent the day cleaning the house after hardly being there all weekend and then grocery shopping for a week of 21 day fix meals! 

Last night I spent about an hour, prepping lunches for the week (Salmon Salad) and planning our dinners as much as I could! 

But today when I arrived with my yummy Salmon Salad for lunch to work I discovered that we had scheduled yet another work lunch today that I wasn't expecting!  Sushi. 

I considered not going and sticking to my healthy lunch, but I didn't want to be rude.  So I decided I would go and see what I could have on the menu that was reasonable.  Unfortunately they didn't have brown rice at this particular sushi place. Very disappointing. I stayed away from greasy tempura and I ordered one spicy salmon roll and snacked on cucumbers later in the afternoon. 

Then around 4pm I had an early dinner (my salmon salad) so that I could go see a movie after I got home from work! So my salad got used anyways and it wasn't a waste!  Phew!


Here is what my 21 Day fix meal plan looked like today...

Breakfast

1 Red Container Greek Yogurt
1 Purple Container Raspberries
1 Yellow Container Waffle

Snack

1 Red Container Chocolate Shakeology

Lunch

Sushi Roll

1 Red Container Salmon
1 Yellow Container Rice

Snack

1 Green Container - Cucumbers

Dinner

Salmon Salad with Apples and Walnuts

1 Red Container - Salmon

2 Green Containers - Mixed Greens

1/4 Purple Container - Apples Slices

1 Blue Container Walnuts

Snack

Apple and Peanut Butter

1 Purple Container - Apple

2 Spoons - Peanut Butter

You can find my Meal Plans from Last week here, here, here, here and here!