Low mess - no stress, easy entertaining!

Are friends coming over?  Need to add a twist to a party?  Is it your turn to provide snacks?  

Well if you answered YES to any of these I’ve got you!  A simple popcorn bar!

My Popcorn Bar….  

It was my turn to provide SNACKS for a class I’m in.  Normally people bring a fruit or veggie tray, cheese and crackers, some baked goods - and all of those are perfectly okay.  But as I was thinking about what I would bring when it was MY turn, I wanted something SIMPLE but awesome.  I didn’t want to spend an incredible amount of time making or shopping for something.  What would seem UNEXPECTED to come in with that would give a WOW factor, but be so ideal that people could walk away saying, “I can do that!”  A popcorn bar!  

The first thing I did was find containers to use.  I didn’t have anything that would work for the amount of popcorn and waters I needed, or little matching containers and scoops, so I had to do a little shopping.  Did I HAVE to go shopping?  Well, no.  But I wanted the PRESENTATION to really pop and I knew these were items I would use many times entertaining, so I could justify it :)  But I couldn’t find a large scoop for the popcorn.  “What am I going to use?” I thought to myself.   I continued with my Walmart shopping and there it was!  The perfectly sized scoop that didn’t cost much at all . . . . a cat litter scoop (new of course and designated to only be used for food purposes)!

**ALWAYS MAKE SURE TO WASH ITEMS USED FOR FOOD WITH SOAP AND WATER BEFORE USING!

I found the metal containers for the popcorn and bottled waters at Walmart and the little metal buckets and wooden scoops at Hobby Lobby.  I already had the tablecloth and plaid table runner, and I think the RUNNER really added that “something extra”.   If you don’t have a tablecloth or runner don’t fret, it will still be awesome.  In fact, you can get some butcher paper to put down under your containers and that will make a really nice STATEMENT.   You could even WRITE a message on it, or the names of your toppings!

The hardest part of this popcorn bar was to DECIDE what toppings to have. The little metal buckets for toppings came in a pack of 5, the scoops were in a pack of 6.  So I had to decide what 5 toppings I wanted to use for the popcorn bar.  Let your CREATIVITY flow here!  I chose plain M&M’s, Reese’s Pieces, peanuts, Snider’s “itty bitty minis” pretzels, and gummy bears.  Other IDEAS I had were red hots, mini marshmallows, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, coconut, sunflower seeds, raisins . . . . seriously ANYTHING you think would be a fun topping!  I also had to think about the SIZE of my buckets and scoops when choosing my toppings to make sure they would work.  I considered getting gummy worms, but they wouldn’t have scooped up well.  Now if there was an extra bucket, I could have put the worms in it and used some kind of small device to get them - maybe small kitchen tongs, toothpicks, or even purchase TWEEZERS that would only be used for food purposes.

I also wanted to add some powdered FLAVOR toppings to the popcorn bar, so I chose 4 different flavors.  I considered putting them in their own fancy SHAKERS, but I wanted to keep this as SIMPLE as could be.

Time to make the popcorn!  I have this Presto PowerPop Microwave Multi-Popper  and I love it!  You can pop popcorn with or without oil, most all kernels pop, and it uses a little PowerCup concentrator that can be used for multiple batches.  I normally get 3 batches of popcorn using the same concentrator!

Yellow or white popcorn?

Yellow Popcorn: larger kernels, fluffy, thick hulls, strong “popcorn” flavor, off-white color when popped

White Popcorn:  smaller kernels, tender, thinner hulls, milder “popcorn” flavor, bright white when popped

While yellow popcorn is the most common variety, either one will work.

For my popcorn, I chose YELLOW popcorn, added 2 Tbsp. olive oil to the concentrator, added 1/4 cup popcorn kernels, put the lid on, and into the microwave it went.  If you have a “popcorn” BUTTON you are set, but always make sure to listen to when it stops popping - not many people like burned popcorn :(  If you don’t have a “popcorn button”, follow the popping instructions with your microwave popcorn popper. When it’s done you can add a little salt or leave it as-is.  Continue making popcorn to fill your container.

You’ll  need something to serve the popcorn in.  I chose some paper BOWLS I already had, but you could also use cups, small paper bags, or even coffee filters - that was a go-to bowl I used when I was a teacher. 

For the drinks, I took a cooler for the ice so all I had to do when I got to the meeting was put the ice in the container I bought and position the water bottles in it. Simple! 

This was really simple and made a big IMPACT!  You can go as simple or extravagant as you’d like - it is just something that is fun and different.

Now, go get popping!

Thanks for reading this blog, comment below if you’ve made a popcorn bar like this and let me know how it went! Follow @mamapinspired on Instagram, take a photo, tag and hashtag it with @mamapinspired. 

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