I'll Never Buy Microwave Popcorn Again!

I am so excited over my tiny accomplishment of popcorn making.  (It's the little things in life.)
I have been eyeballing popcorn makers for quite some time now.  I heard long ago that microwave popcorn bags are bad for you, but I have an addiction.  I love popcorn!  With a birthday last week, I started to think, "Hey, that's a great gift from the husband."

As I read The Zero Waste Home blog this week, I am determined to minimize the clutter in my house, and minimize the clutter that will come in contact with my house.  Plus, popcorn machines are typically made of plastic, which I am learning is the arch enemy of eco-conscious humans.  So I Googled (my answer to everything as you will see) "making popcorn on the stovetop," and would like to give a big THANK YOU! to Elise (that's my middle name!) who posted this recipe onto Simplyrecipes.com   Here's the delicious result of my experiment:

It's so easy and cheap, I'm wondering why poisonous microwave popcorn was even invented?
For those who still feel the need to make popcorn in the microwave, you can also put popcorn in a brown paper lunch bag.  I feel that this is still wasting a bag and tape, but it's much healthier and cheaper than buying the microwave popcorn from the store.

Learning to make popcorn (I know, it's the simplest thing, but I said before I'm a terrible unmotivated cook, so I have to start small!) I am:

• Saving money.  The 32oz bag of popcorn (and you only use 1/3 cup at a time) is about $1.60, where as a 6 bag box of my favorite microwave popcorn is around $3.50 (of course buying canola oil, butter and salt cost money, but I always have that in the house anyway)
• Also saving money from buying a popcorn maker.
• Eating healthier.  This popcorn had minimal butter and salt, yet still tastes delicious (as I am not a dietitian, I cannot calculate the actual fat and calorie savings, but I do know it's less).
• Don't forget about all those chemicals I'm not putting in my and the baby's body!
• Not adding unnessessary appliances and clutter to the kitchen.
• Not creating more eventual waste from the plastic and other parts of buying the popcorn maker.  Plus the plastic wrapping and and probabaly styrofoam cushion and cardboard box.
• I should however look into buying canola oil and butter not in plastic containers.  One step at a time.  The bag of popcorn I bough is also wrapped in plastic, as I could not get myself to buy the 3x more expensive brand just for the glass jar.  Maybe in the future.
• Having fun.  It's fun to see popcorn shoot out of the top when you take the lid off, and I think my future child will have fun with the process too.  I had fun making it when I was a kid.

In other awesome baby step accomplishments of yesterday, I reached my other two goals for the day:

• Remember to bring my cloth bags to work (I work in a retail store where I usually buy lunch and shop after work).
• Do not buy a drink at work (I have an aweful addiciton to vending machines, not bringing my cup, and soft drinks).

Added bonus: I refused the plastic bag Subway puts sandwiches in, and resisted the urge to use a disposable cup for water when I left my cup in car earlier that day.  Hooray!

 Now I must work on another goal: cleaning!  Nothing like the possibility of your husband's grandparents (who I am sure June Cleaver learned a lot from- his grandmother is amazing at everything!) to motivate you to get your house in order!  Wish me luck!