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61 Calorie Popcorn Recipe

When you think of popcorn, you may think of the movie-theater variety; soaked in butter and loaded with saturated fat, trans-fat, and calories. Not good for any diet!

But you can break free from the gooey movie popcorn. You can make popcorn in your own home that tastes just as good - without all the extra fat and calories.

The recipe is in the new book "YOU: On a Diet" by Michael F. Roizen, M.D., and Mehmet C. Oz, M.D. (A great book, in my opinion, for the recipes alone).

Dr. Roizen and Dr. Oz wrote the book to help us understand why we gain weight, what we can do to avoid it, and offer quick ways to get exercise, and explain the psychology and emotional issues influencing overeating. Dr. Oz talks about it:

I think the part about our genetic ability to store fat is what helped ancient humans survive but nowadays is a problem, is very interesting. I guess its true what they say, too much of a good thing really is a bad thing!

But back to the popcorn! Here's what you'll need for the recipe:

1/2 cup popcorn kernels
Flavored cooking spray (butter, olive oil, garlic)
Garlic salt or cinnamon

Place the popcorn in a two-and-a-half quart microwave safe bowl, microwave for four to five minutes (don't burn it!) Pour it on to a baking sheet, coat with spray, and follow with the garlic salt or cinnamon. The nutritional breakdown for this is 61 Calories, fat - .8 g, carbs - 5 g, protein - 1 g, and sodium - 0 g.

Make sure you use about 1-2 seconds of spray at most - with Pam, that's 14 calories. If you use 1/3 second, I really doubt you'll cover the popcorn.

I recommend using olive oil spray for the garlic variety, and butter spray if you're using cinnamon.

Enjoy!

Image credit: betterbagofgroceries

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43 Comments

annalaura brown

Sounds great. but popcorn still has high carbs.

Ninalicious

61 calories! That's a pretty sweet low-cal snack. :)

Spectra

I've known about this one for a LONG time. I LOVE air-popped popcorn with Pam spray and sprinkle-herbs. It's really very satisfying and it's so much lower in calories than traditional popcorn.

Jan

I have a plastic container that makes microwave popcorn with no fat added. I'm sure you can find it any store that sells tupperware-type things.

Holly

Wow - only 61 calorie - incredibly, we should try in the next week

Debbie

Am I missing something? Most popcorn, whether plain or butter flavor, is only 80 calories for 2 cups popped.

Other than a few extra calories, what's the difference here?

fuzzypotpie

Don't you have to cover the bowl that the popcorn is in while microwaving?
I'm imagining popcorn bouncing and flying all over my microwave.

Jan

Fuzzy, you do. That is the part that is seriously wrong with this recipe. You either use a plastic container with a tight closed lid on it, like the one I use, or you place the popcorn kernels in a brown paper bag, glue it shut (don't try stapling it, believe me... been there done that), and pop it like microwave popcorn but without any oil.

Most microwave popcorn contains trans-fats, the oil tends to be hydrogenated, so that is the big deal.

Michael

To hold a bag shut while microwaving popcorn, we found bag clips made completely of plastic - no metal at all
We found them in our local 'dollar store'

Also, both Wal-mart and Target sell microwave popcorn bowls with lids ... about $8 - $9

Michael

Also you do NOT want a TIGHT lid on a dish. It will pop as the air in the dish expands.
You want a loose lid that breaths and will release built-up pressure

Dr.J

I love popcorn! It's a whole food! I worry about whether it is genetically manipulated, but I still eat it. I air pop it. Jan! I used to brown bag it in the microwave, but a couple of times(I'm a slow learner:-)
I ran it a little too long cause I always had a lot of unpopped kernels left over, and almost burned the house down!! I definitely toasted one fine Ammana microwave!

Debbie

Thanks for the explanation. I didn't catch the difference the first time.

Jim

annalaura brown said:
Sounds great. but popcorn still has high carbs.[...]

Yeah - like 5 grams of carbs is gonna kill me...Reply

kim

i know seriously

Jan

Dr. J, I almost did that too. That is why I invested the $2 on the microwave air-popper container, hahahah.

Sheree

Debbie said:
Am I missing something? Most popcorn, whether plain or butter flavor, is only 80 calories for 2 cups popped.[...]

I'm lost here myself because I'm reading the nutrition info on the bag of kernels I have and it's not agreeing with this info. It states 20 cals for every 1 cup. So is the 61 cals for 2 cups popped. What gives??Reply

Dr.J

I vote for 30 cal per 1 cup air popped. That's with nothing else added.

ayse

annalaura brown said:
Sounds great. but popcorn still has high carbs.[...]

What is wrong with carbs??? Sheesh!

ayse
...who has maintained a 50 pound weight loss while eating lots of carbs

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