Crazy Karo Crunch

This is a recipe that my family remembers my great grandma making. She passed away before I was born, but she is quite the inspiration to me in many ways.

More on that later.

This carmel corn is the best carmel corn you will EVER try. I used her recipe with a touch of a modification. I like more pop corn than carmel. It gets too sweet. It is seriously like eating pieces of heaven, as far as carmel corn goes.

Crazy Karo Crunch

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Butter

1/2 Cup Karo Syrup (Light)

1 Cup Brown Sugar

1/2 tsp Vanilla

2 Quarts air popped dry pop corn

Cooking spray

Preheat Oven to 200 degrees

1. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray (I actually cover my cookie sheet in tin foil for easy clean up).

2. Spread the pop corn across the cookie sheet and PICK OUT ALL OF THE SEEDS! (so important)

3. In a pot on the stove, combine butter, sugar, and syrup on high. Stir until boiling. Reduce heat to Med-High and boil for EXACTLY 5 minutes. Add Vanilla.

4. Drizzle over pop corn, stir, and bake for 15 minutes.

5. Remove pop corn from oven, mix the pop corn and carmel around replace in oven for another 15 minutes.

6. Repeat step 5 until carmel corn has been in the oven for an hour and has been mostly covered in carmel.

7. Allow it to cool, break apart, and serve.

Things you may want to know in advance:

1. I know the caramel mixture looks frightening delicious, but don't lick the spoon. It's hot. I know, I know. You're thinking "I'm not stupid, of course I won't lick the spoon." Just wait until you think about licking the spoon. You'll thank me.

2. This recipe tastes like Wethers Original in pop corn form.

3. I know baking soda helps the mixture spread. I know it spreads things more evenly. Don't use it. It also takes away from the lovely Werthers taste and makes it plain old carmel corn. The mixture won't get as crunchy and delicious if you add it.

4. Add peanuts for the last 15 minutes. Viola. Home made (and better than the original) Cracker Jacks.

Sick Day Potato Soup

Being sick stinks. This week my kids and I have all had strep throat. I wanted to make something for dinner tonight that would go down easy, but be filling for my boys. They're famished, I can tell. ;)

Because I have been feeling terrible, I want this to be something I can do quickly without a lot of effort or mess. In this instance, the simpler, the better.

However, we still live on a student budget, so my mind still tries to make meals as inexpensive as I can. So, I decided to go for crock pot potato soup. Here is how I did it:

Crock Pot Potato Soup (Prices are approximate. Consider that I buy the least expensive brand I can buy)

Ingredients:

5 Large Potatoes ($.75-I buy the $1.29 bag of Idaho Potatoes)

1 Small onion ($.79)

4 Stalks of Celery ($.75)

4 Cups (1 Quart) of Milk ($1)

Salt

Pepper

1. Peal and dice potatoes, onion, and celery.

2. Combine vegetables with milk in a crock pot.

3. Add a dash of salt and pepper.

4. Turn the crock pot on high for 3-4 hours or low for 5-6.

It costs about $4 to make, and it FILLS a regular sized crock pot. We will eat this for dinner tonight, and probably for lunch the rest of the week. When it's finished, we can sprinkle cheese and bacon bits on top for a loaded potato soup feel, or eat it plain. It's delicious either way.

It's been a while...

It's been a while since I've updated this blog. I will probably post a couple of times within the next few days.

I haven't taken a lot of time to introduce myself and my family. I'll also get on that as well.


But for now, here is another AWESOME protein smoothie recipe I generated earlier today. Enjoy:

Banana Blueberry

1 Banana

1 6 oz Light Banana Yogurt

1 Cup Blueberries

1 1/2 Cups Ice

1/2 Cup Milk

1 Scoop Vanilla Protein

2 TBS Stevia

Blend until smooth and enjoy. As always, I split my smoothies in half and keep half in the fridge until lunch time. It's delish.