This is a Trim Healthy Mama E popcorn that is low fat but super delicious!

Popcorn is something I don’t think I want until I start eating it….and then it’s hard to stop lol. I love it buttery and salty but since starting Trim Healthy Mama, I realized that eating it that way isn’t exactly waist line friendly!

Popcorn isn’t the diet sabotaging food that it is made out to be. If eaten in the right setting it can definitely be a part of your healthy eating lifestyle. If you eat the THM way, you know that one of the key concepts behind the plan is that you shouldn’t mix carbs and fats in the same meal if you are wanting to loose weight.

Why wouldn’t I want to mix carbs and fats together?

The reason for this in a nutshell is that your body uses either fats or carbs for fuel. If you are eating them together all the time, it can be too much fuel for you to burn off before your next meal and you end up gaining weight. By eating meals that contain either mostly carbs or mostly fats, it makes it much easier for your body to efficiently burn off the fuel you have given it.

I go into more detail about this in my post What Is Trim Healthy Mama.

I love how THM can be used for any season of life

One of the things I love about Trim Healthy Mama is how versatile it is. It is so much more than a weight loss plan, it a way to eat for HEALTH! Yes it starts with the word ‘trim’ but don’t overlook the middle word, ‘healthy’.

You can be trim and still be unhealthy. As you eat in a way that promotes health, your weight will fall into place. Don’t let a number on the scale dictate how ‘heathy’ you are.

THM can be used to loose weight, maintain weight, or even gain weight, but the main theme running through it all is that you will end up healthier. If you jump on board just to loose weight, awesome! But as you grow in the plan, I hope you start to catch sight of the much bigger picture of true sustainable and lasting health.

This is a subject I am extremely passionate about and I could go on for a long time. Trust me, whenever I do a Instagram post about this, I quickly run out of space lol. Maybe I’ll have to dedicate a whole blog post to the topic some day, but for the moment I’ll carry on to the popcorn recipe!

How does popcorn fit into my THM lifestyle?

So, since we are generally keeping carbs and fats separate in our meals, popcorn slathered with melted butter is something we are probably going to reserve for special occassions.

The rest of the time we will need to keep our popcorn low fat, since it is obviously a carb source.

I thought low fat popcorn would be terrible when I started Trim Healthy Mama. But there are ways to get around this and come up with tasty solutions.

One way I like to eat popcorn is to lightly spritz it with oil, and then dash on hot sauce and sprinkle it with salt and nutritional yeast. I recently discovered that you can also buy Braggs soy sauce in a spritzer bottle. I think this is intended for spraying it on to salads. But it just occurred to me as I’m sitting here writing this post that it would probably also be fantastic sprayed on popcorn!

Ok, now my mind is immediately toying with the idea of a miso/soy sauce/ savory popcorn lol. Any other adventurous foodie friends out there who think this idea sounds intriguing?

If I’m not eating my popcorn savory, I like to go with a caramel twist. I love that making a sweet caramel sauce to pour over it makes it seem so much more indulgent, all while staying low fat.

I originally wanted peanut butter popcorn….

When I first started testing this recipe, I was planning on making a peanut butter version. I included peanut flour in the sauce but couldn’t detect a peanut flavor in the popcorn.

So I retried it again, using more peanut flour and a little bit of real peanut butter and peanut butter extract. While the popcorn does have a faint peanut butter flavor, it is barely noticeable. I guess I would have to go a lot heavier on the peanut butter, which would turn this recipe into a crossover.

Which would be totally delicious for once in a while, but in this case I wanted to keep the recipe an E.

Interestingly enough, I did end up with what is the best THM E caramel popcorn recipe that I have tried! The peanut flour and tiny bit of peanut butter add a rich depth to the caramel flavor that I love.

So without further ado, here is the recipe!

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THM Salted Caramel Popcorn Recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 cup popcorn kernels

3/4 cup Gentle Sweet or Sweet Mix [Food For Life Cookbook]

1/4 cup almond milk

3 tablespoons peanut flour

1 scant tablespoon natural peanut butter

1 teaspoon caramel extract

1/2 teaspoon peanut butter extract [you could substitute this with vanilla extract]

1/2 teaspoon butter extract

3/4 teaspoon sea salt

Instructions:

Pop the kernels in a popcorn maker and spritz very lightly with oil. [I use coconut oil spray.]
In a saucepan, melt together the sweetener, almond milk, peanut flour and peanut butter over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and simmer rapidly for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Take off the heat and add in the extracts and salt. Pour the syrup over the popcorn and toss well to coat. You will need a good sized bowl to do this in.
Spread the popcorn on parchment lined sheets to cool or eat immediately. The popcorn is best fresh, but I definitely also make it ahead to have for E snacks. I don’t recommend storing it for more than a few days though. I mean, I have stored it much longer but for best taste, no more than a few days lol.
Enjoy!

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5 from 1 vote

THM Salted Caramel Popcorn

A delicious low fat and sugar free popcorn recipe!

Prep Time10

Cook Time5

Total Time15

Course: Snack

Cuisine: Trim Healthy Mama Compatible

Keyword: THM E

Servings: 4

Equipment

Popcorn maker

Ingredients

1/2 cup popcorn kernels
3/4 cup Gentle Sweet or Sweet Mix [Food For Life Cookbook]
1/4 cup almond milk
3 tablespoons peanut flour
1 scant tablespoon natural peanut butter
1 teaspoon caramel extract
1/2 teaspoon peanut butter extract [you could substitute this with vanilla extract]
1/2 teaspoon butter extract
3/4 teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

Pop the kernels in a popcorn maker and spritz very lightly with oil. [I use coconut oil spray.]
In a saucepan, melt together the sweetener, almond milk, peanut flour and peanut butter over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and simmer rapidly for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Take off the heat and add in the extracts and salt. Pour the syrup over the popcorn and toss well to coat. You will need a good sized bowl to do this in.
Spread the popcorn on parchment lined sheets to cool or eat immediately. The popcorn is best fresh, but I definitely also make it ahead to have for E snacks. I don’t recommend storing it for more than a few days though. I mean, I have stored it much longer but for best taste, no more than a few days lol. Enjoy!

Notes

You can eat up to 4-5 cups of popped popcorn and still be in your carb limit for THM E guidelines. You wouldn’t want to eat more than a third of this recipe though or you’d be over the 5 grams of fat that is allowed in an E.

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