Low Cal Cheesy Popcorn

If you love to eat as much as I do, you probably--like me--want to eat as much as possible without gaining weight. Because of this, I'll readily admit that I loosely count calories. What does that mean? I have a vague understanding of how many calories I should eat in order to stay the same size and a rough idea of which foods offer the best bang for my caloric buck. Just like with money, a good deal is a high volume of delicious foods for fewer calories. This doesn't mean that I'm on a diet--not even close. I'm just on a loose budget.


More than anything else, this affects snack time. I LOVE my snacks, so I try to be smart about them. One of my absolute favorites is popcorn. If you buy the 100-calorie bags like I do (I prefer Orville Redenbacher) you know that you can eat a lot of popcorn for 100 calories. Today, I thought it would be fun to spruce it up a bit. Thanks to my trusty kitchen scale, I added 1/4oz of shredded Parmesan (a lot more than it sounds) and a sprinkle of garlic powder to my hot, popped butter-flavored corn. Just like this morning's coffee, I was pleasantly surprised. For 125(ish) calories, I had a really hearty, delicious snack. Now, I've tried this before with the more powdery Parm and been less enthused, so I think that it's the real stuff that made all the difference. Try it out and let me know what you think.

Happy Noshing!