Vegan Junk Food: Popcorn

Popcorn is a whole grain! Eat it all the time and have a happy tummy! I make it in large quantities because it stores pretty well and takes a while to go stale. We also buy it in bulk from Amazon.com for pretty cheap, and organic! Seriously, our popcorn stash will last us forever.

You can add whatever you'd like to popcorn, but my go-to is Earth Balance, Nutritional Yeast, and Cajun Seasoning. If you do not use Cajun Seasoning or Old Bay, you should include a little bit of salt. Other yummy toppings are Italian Seasoning and Garlic Powder. By the way, that is not Parma, just Nutritional Yeast, though Parma is great. Basically Nutritional Yeast with little bits of walnuts. I cannot imagine ever eating popcorn with Nutritional Yeast ever again. So delicious.

This may look a little scary, we had the burner too high. Pour a bit of oil at the bottom of a pot, a little salt, turn to medium heat and add your popcorn kernels. Stir or shake pot often to prevent sticking and burning. It will cook very quickly! Take off the heat once pops have one second between them and pour into another container immediately, preferably with a bit of Earth Balance to melt it. Mix it up and dig in!  

What is your favorite way to enjoy popcorn?

Vegan Junk Food: Crab Chips

Sorry for the long hiatus! I will be posting more soon as my spring break is next week!!! I am mostly busy finishing up my student teaching to be followed by writing my master's thesis and trying to find a job (and maybe also planning my cat's first birthday party).

I ran into a conventional box grocery store after school to pick up some treats for my third graders. As a vegan, I am compulsively checking labels of packaged foods to ensure there are no egg or milk products. Fortunately, these are required to be listed as allergens. 

Let me pause to say I am not a junk food vegan. Really. Most of my diet is raw, most is homemade, and most is organic. (Hopefully soon I can say that most is homegrown). I rarely ever eat potato chips, like once or twice a year. When I do, they are likely to be Utz Crab Chips. I looked at that labeled out of curiosity.

HONEY. They are made with honey. But not just honey, some sort of honey product that I don't remember. I will do a post soon about honey and the vegan mind. 

If you are interested in an alternative and don't begrudge a bag of chips every once in a while, I found one at my nearby-ish organic store: Route 11 Chesapeake Crab Potato Chips

The website clearly lists the ingredients. Nothing from an animal! They are yummy and crunchy. Try them out.

This post might mean nothing to you if you aren't a Marylander. I have spent most of my life in Maryland and now live very close to the Chesapeake Bay. Even though I no longer eat seafood, I get my kicks from the seasoning usually used on it: Old Bay. 

I have to tell you that I did not pose this picture for this post. This was taken freshman year of college in my dorm room five years ago. I brought Old Bay with me to the cafeteria every day. Thankfully, I stopped that after the first semester, but it just makes everything taste better,

I still like Old Bay but use it infrequently. I also started using the low sodium variety, though I actually have low blood pressure so sodium is not a big concern. Probably, I could mix up a seasoning similar to Old Bay myself but somehow the thought makes me feel like a traitor. 

I hope I've put you in the mood for summer!