Tales of an Overtime Cook

I’ve been real quiet lately, I know. But I have a good excuse. No, a great excuse.

Lets start with the month of Jewish Holidays, in which I cooked and fed a monstrous amount of food. No time for pictures, no time for writing up posts. No time to breath, really. All the while, I thought to myself “well, as soon as the holidays are over (they are now) I will be cooking up a storm, photographing everything I make…after all, I will have so much time.”

I must have forgotten ab0ut *work* when I formulated those thoughts. My company closed for the entire week of Succos, which is very nice on Succos. Then we all came back, and the reality hits. It’s not like one person going on vacation, when you are the only one out, and everyone else’s work (hopefully) gets done. In this case, the entire company was out. We came back to over a week of backlog. Difficult, draining, exhausting…these words don’t begin to describe what it’s like to come back to the office to find hundreds of emails in your inbox. And don’t get me started on the phone calls.

Suffice it to say, every day (including Sunday, when I went in to catch up a bit) I came home from work and collapsed. Food? Who can eat when you are that tired? The mere thought of typing up this post tired me out.

But here I am, typing this post. Mostly because so many people have told me they are looking to tighten up on their diets, try to lose some weight. If anyone knows how tough that is, I do. I have lost a lot of weight, and continue to diet and (hopefully) lose weight. A specific request that I have gotten from friends and readers is for diet snacks. My first reaction is: You want diet snacks? If you are on a diet, don’t snack. That’s diet snacks.

But that’s not necessarily realistic. We’re human. We enjoy snacks. And sometimes, we enjoy snacks that aren’t carrot sticks or an apple. That’s where this recipe comes in. My favorite snack is popcorn, but I find it not very filling. This recipe is kind of like a more filling version of barbecued popcorn. And the best part? It’s ridiculously easy, either as a quick and healthy snack or a delicious side dish.

Barbecue Flavored Roasted Corn Kernels:

Ingredients:

1 16 oz bag of frozen corn kernels

1/2-1 Tbsp canola oil

1/2-3/4 tsp kosher salt

1/2 (heaping) tsp garlic powder

1/2 (heaping) tsp onion powder

1/2 (heaping) tsp paprika (smoked preferred, but not required)

1/8 tsp black pepper

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl (or if you are lazy, like me, do this right on the lines tray!) mix together all ingredients.

Spread in a single layer (or as close as you can get) on the tray. This is important, or the corn won’t get the delicious roasted texture.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes, depending on how well done you like it. Watch it carefully towards the end, because this goes from “oh yum” to “ohmygosh it’s burnt” very quickly.

This is delicious hot, straight from the oven, but is actually also delicious cold.

Enjoy!

Linking this to This Chick Cooks

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