Universal Truth: When kids come home from school, they're hungry. Do you remember being thirteen years old?
You walked in the door, devoured two large bowls of cereal — with milk! — while your mother cautioned you not to spoil your appetite. But she had nothing to fear, because there you were hovering in the doorway of the kitchen two hours later, starving for dinner.
One of my favorite smells when I was younger was popcorn cooked in oil on the stove. To this day, that's how I like to make it, though I have branched out from canola and prefer olive or coconut oil. (Please try the coconut oil. It's so good for you and it smells like movie popcorn!) Coming home in the afternoon and opening the door to that smell put a song in my heart. Popcorn is a social food, so I would usually sit down with my mother — or at least stay in the kitchen — while I ate it.
In our house, popcorn after school means homework can wait, dinner's already in the slow cooker, and soccer practice has been canceled. Since we're already at the table, we might as well play a classic game like Sorry, because the classics never get old. The conversation flows as the colorful pieces move around the board and the bowl empties.
What do you feed your children in the afternoon, during the seemingly endless (to them) hours between meals? Is there a snack that always inspires together time?
Related: Childhood Memories: What Was Your After-School Snack?
(Image: Anne Postic)
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Popcorn is coconut oil? Oh man, I know what I am making next!
Great post and a great idea! I often struggle with what I can feed my daughter so as to not spoil her appetite for dinner so I'll have to give this one a try.
Growing up we would eat dinner every day at 4:30pm. Sometime between 7 and 7:30 I'd want a snack so my mom would usually microwave us some popcorn for us to eat while watching Jeopardy. What's funny is that we never once put the popcorn in a bowl, we would just pass the bag back and forth. Now, as an adult, when I watch Jeopardy I always miss the sound of someone gently shaking the bag to make the unpopped kernels fall to the bottom.
ohhh i ate a TON of stovetop popcorn as a kid. it's so much better than the microwave kind, for sure. i cant wait to try it with the coconut oil!
If you're cooking with oil anyway, popcorn cooked in bacon fat is essentially distilled bliss.
Not that I would know, obviously. :)
Popcorn is our weekend movie snack--cooked in olive oil and tossed with butter & real parmesan cheese. Yum! But for after school, my kids enjoy peanut butter or nutella spread on graham crackers and topped with sliced bananas, ants on a log, granola bars or apple slices with peanut butter. After a long day at school, they need some protein to keep them going.
Hit it with the truffle salt. Or smoked paprika. Oh yeah.
Oh, please try it! It tastes a little like kettle corn.
I love the way memories get stuck in our heads that way. :-)
Oh, yum. I'm making some bacon tonight (to go with our pancakes) and I'll have to save the grease for some weekend popcorn!
Those are great snack ideas -- my children would love them! We'll have to add those to the list.
Sounds delicious. We love truffle-anything. I roasted pumpkin seeds with smoked paprika once and they were great. Hmmm...maybe truffle oil and mushroom salt...
My daughter is on her own for an after-school snack, so I make sure we have plenty of fruit and yogurt in the house for her.
I've had pretty good luck using grape seed oil - seems to reduce the number of unpopped kernels (over canola and olive) and has a nice flavor. White popcorn, minimal butter and sea salt - so good. Think I'll make some right now...
@DD Lizzy, I love that you leave healthy treats for her -- I bet she'll keep the same things in her home when she grows up!
@charnibp I love grape seed oil! It has a high smoking point, which might be why it leaves less unpopped kernels. I like to use it when I don't want to taste the flavor of an oil; it goes with anything.
ha, I'm working on a post for my blog titled "The Answer to Everything Is Popcorn." It's so true!
I also don't usually give my kids an afterschool snack (mean mom) but they eat beautifully at suppertime. I was influenced by that book on French eating. If they beg and beg, I let them have a piece of fruit. Popcorn is always our Sunday supper, usually shared with family and friends.
@Thrift at Home I love that title and I agree. :-) By the way, my mother in law is French and they definitely do things well. I don't think you're a mean mom at all. I love that you've found something that works for your family!