Menu Plan Monday ~ Feb 18/13 + Easy Caramel Popcorn Recipe
Happy family day to those provinces in Canada celebrating the statutory holiday today! My entire family is off today with absolutely no plans. Those are my favorite kind of days!
So last week I had another kitchen disaster because you know I hadn’t had one in at least two weeks…ha! This time it happened AGAIN with my dinner club selection. Seriously, really? I was making caramel popcorn, how hard can that be?? Apparently I can even mess popcorn up, I’m skilled like that! Yep the first batch messed up and was blah, blah, blah. So I switched back to my old faithful recipe (don’t ask me why I didn’t just use that one in the first place!) and had much better luck with batch #2. Here’s the quick and simple recipe I used.
- Approximately 24 cups of popped popcorn
- 2 cups packed brown sugar
- 1 cup butter
- ½ cup corn syrup
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- Pop popcorn and place in large roasting pan. I used the one I cook my turkey in.
- In a large saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar, corn syrup and salt; bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.
- Boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Remove from heat.
- Stir in vanilla and baking soda; mix well.
- Pour over popcorn and stir until it's coated evenly.
- Bake, uncovered, at 250 degrees for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.
- Cool completely and break into smaller pieces.
- Store in airtight container.
Recipe Ebook Resource:
While I was jumping around checking out last week’s MPM links, I found another FREE recipe book to share with you. This one is called Around the Table: Family Friendly Meals in a Flash by Lydia Senn. It looks great and is available for instant download in pdf format. Check it out!
My Weekly Menu Plan:
Monday: Bacon-Tomato Quesadillas served with Strawberry Banana Smoothies
Tuesday: Beef and Bean Taco Casserole
Wednesday: Slow Cooker Beef Stew served with Bread Machine Garlic Parmesan Bread
Thursday: Leftover buffet
Friday: Slow Cooked Pineapple Pork Roast served with rice and broccoli
Saturday: Tortellini with Mushrooms, Spinach and Italian Sausage
Sunday: Picking night!
WHAT’S ON YOUR MENU THIS WEEK? JOIN US!
Menu Plan Guidelines, banner selections and recipe helpers are here.
More family favorite recipes here.
Don’t forget to join the growing Menu Plan Monday Facebook Page!!
One of my favorite menu planning resources:
Caramel corn is one of my faves! Yum! Have a wonderful day off with your family (we have one today, also. Woo-hoo!) and a great week.
Yum, those bacon and tomato quesadillas sound like they would be great. Bookmarked it to try soon. Thanks for hosting Laura and have a great week! 🙂
Thanks for hosting again! That caramel corn looks so good. My mom always makes it, but I have never tried making it myself! Maybe because it’s her specialty? Maybe I’ll finally try it. 🙂
Bummer about the caramel corn! Glad you had better success with the old stand-by recipe. Sometimes I think a new recipe will be better than one that’s tried and true, and sometimes they are. But, when they are not, they don’t even come close to the real thing.
By the way, I don’t think I’ve been by to see your updated header, etc. Looks lovely!
Your the first person to notice! I’m so excited about it, thank you! I haven’t announced yet only because we are still working the kinks out but it’s coming together for sure!!
I LOVE caramel corn, but I haven’t made it in a long time because of my kiddos with braces. Just didn’t seem very kind to sit and munch it in front of them…..not that I haven’t considered it! My recipe uses almost the same ingredients as yours, but it is made entirely in the microwave (well, except for popping the popcorn). It is soooo easy, and only takes about ten minutes (or less) from beginning to end. My name is linked to the recipe, just in case you want to give it a try!
Enjoy the day with your family! Today is Presidents Day in the US, but my kids still had to go to school.
Oh I didn’t realize that Keri. Is it not a stat holiday where everyone gets the day off?
I’ve never been brave enough to try making caramel popcorn (or any other kind–I had an aunt who used to make the most amazing popcorn balls though). Your recipe looks simple enough that maybe I could manage it though. Hope you enjoy your holiday! We’re all here today as well for President’s Day in the U.S.
Oh, yum! I love caramel corn. Hope you’ve had a wonderful day.
Just linked up, your menu looks really good!! I love having link ups to look through every week as I’m planning my menus, it is a big help.
Good idea to use the turkey roasting pan because that carmel corn looks like it will disappear fast!