The Hunger Games

In between coming home after work and having dinner there is this terrible time of the day where I’m starving (almost to death) after having spent eight hours sitting at my desk - sometimes just working, other times working hard and from time to time working really, really hard. Not that it matters because however busy I have been at work, hunger creeps in every day and takes over my body and soul - making me grumpy and extremely impatient.

Of course, and luckily for me – and my life partner – there is this thing called “snack”. I try to snack as healthy as possible (fruit in the morning and vegetables at work in the afternoon when I get hungry from all the (hard) work).

The problem: when I come home I have to find healthy alternatives to satisfy the hunger. My latest discovery in the food department is home-made popcorn. It’s easy to make (description will be given later) and I guess it’s healthier than salty crisps and crackers. Besides, popcorn doesn’t fill, yet it manages to battle that evil beast, hunger and – also important – the bad mood that last one puts me in. You can eat like a bowl of popcorn and when dinner is served still feel (a little) hungry. Just enough to eat the (delicious) meal that you have prepared while enjoying the popped pieces of corn.

FYI: the recipe

Ingredients

a small cup of corn to pop (available in most grocery stores)

some oil (olive or sunflower)

salt or sugar

a steel pan with lid

What to do

Heat the oil in a steel pan.

Drop the corn in the heated oil.

Put the lid on the pan (for your own sake because if don’t do this you may end up in a kitchen full of popcorn) and wait for the corn to pop (normally it begins after half a minute).

Keep waiting until the popping stops.

Put the popcorn in a bowl and add some salt or sugar (depending on what you prefer - before dinner I prefer salty corn) and shake with the bowl to spread the salt/sugar.

Et voilà, your snack is ready!