Eat Out Eat Well

Snacking, Noshing, Tasting

Movies, Popcorn, and the Oscars

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When you think movie, do you also think popcorn? A good percentage of movie viewing people do.

And what’s the biggest movie night of the year? The Academy Awards, of course.

Oscar has been around for a long time – the first Academy Awards ceremony was in 1929 – but the main snack food that’s associated with movies has been around a lot longer.

The Evolution of Popcorn

The puffy goodness we know as popcorn is a strain of corn (from maize) cultivated in Central America about 8,000 years ago and probably brought to New England from Chile in the early 19th century by North American whalers. People discovered that popping popcorn was fun and its appeal spread rapidly across the country.

By the mid 1800’s popcorn was widely available, especially at places like circuses and fairs. The invention of the steam-powered popcorn maker in 1885 meant popcorn could be made anywhere. Amazingly, the only place where it wasn’t usually available was in theaters, which typically had carpeted floors and theater owners didn’t want popcorn “dirtying” up the place.

Popcorn and Movies

Because of popcorn’s popularity, theater owners began to allow vendors to sell popcorn outside their theaters. During the Great Depression people looked for cheap diversions and movies were it and popcorn — at 5 to 10 cents a bag — was an affordable luxury.

Eventually theater owners began to lease their lobbies to popcorn vendors, but then figured out they could make more money by selling it themselves. Selling popcorn, candy, and soda from their own concession stands meant higher profits. Sugar shortages during World War II made sweet treats hard to come by so popcorn became the main snack. By 1945 over half of the popcorn eaten in the US was consumed in movie theaters.

Popcorn is still king. Americans eat, on average, about 13 gallons of popcorn a year. It’s cheap to make and allows for a huge price mark-up. You might pay $5 for a bag of popcorn, but it costs the theater about 50 cents. Plain popcorn doesn’t have all that much flavor, so yellow oil (it isn’t butter) and salt are added to make it tasty and make you thirsty. So, you buy a soda. No wonder movie theaters make an estimated 85 percent profit from concession sales, with those sales accounting for 46 percent of their overall profits.

Popcorn Recipes

On Oscar night – or any movie night — as you prop your feet up to watch the glamorous stars grab their golden statues, make sure you have a good supply of popcorn on hand. You don’t have to settle for the plain variety – unless you want to. There are some fantastic popcorn recipes with names like Bacon Bourbon Caramel Popcorn, Cinnamon Candy Popcorn (which is red, like the red carpet), Pizza Popcorn, Peanut Butter Popcorn, and Endless Caramel Corn.

For even more popcorn recipes to accompany your cheers, boos, oohs, and ahs on Oscar night, check out:

Food Network’s 50 Flavored Popcorn Recipes

19 Ways to Flavor Popcorn

27 Healthy Popcorn Recipes to Cure Any Snack AttackPopcorn Recipes

allrecipes Popcorn Recipes

Food and the Super Bowl

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Super Bowl Food Trivia

Super Bowl 51 is this Sunday. Even though professional football — as we know it – has been around since 1920, the first Super Bowl only dates back to January 1967.

Super Bowl Sunday certainly has the trappings of a holiday both in the US and in many expat communities. It’s the most watched annual television program in the US and ranks second (Thanksgiving is first) as the day for most food consumption. Over 20 million Americans attend Super Bowl parties and half of all Americans say they would rather go to a Super Bowl party than to a New Year’s Eve party.

It’s amazing how food has become associated with football — from tailgating to food for the game.  Think of all the hand to mouth munching on chips, dips, and wings; a swig or two or three; a cookie here and there.  And then there’s the “real food” at halftime – or maybe there’s pizza first followed by a selection of subs. By the end of the game do you have a clue about how much – or even what — you have popped into your mouth?

Super Bowl Food Facts

  • About one in twenty (9 million) Americans watch the game at a restaurant or a bar.
  • Americans double their average daily consumption of snacks on Super Bowl Sunday, downing more than 33 million pounds in one day.
  • The average Super Bowl watcher consumes 1,200 calories. Overall, potato chips are the favorite munchie and, in total, account for 27 billion calories and 1.8 billion fat grams — the same as 4 million pounds of fat or equal to the weight of 13,000 NFL offensive linemen at 300 pounds each.
  • Nearly one in eight (13%) Americans order takeout/delivery food for the Super Bowl. The most popular choices are pizza (58%), chicken wings (50%), and subs/sandwiches (20%). Almost 70% of Super Bowl watchers eat a slice (or two or three) during the game.
  • The amount of chicken wings eaten clocks in at 90 million pounds or 450 million individual wings. It would take 19 chicken breasts to get the same amount of fat that you usually get from a dozen Buffalo wings.
  • On Super Bowl Sunday we eat an estimated 14,500 tons of potato chips, 4000 tons of tortilla chips, and eight million pounds of avocados. Five ounces of nacho cheese Doritos is equal to around 700 calories. You’d have to run the length of 123 football fields to burn them off.  You’d have to eat 175 baby carrots or 700 celery sticks to get the same number of calories.
  • According to 7-eleven, sales of antacids increase by 20% on the day after Super Bowl.
  • Pizza restaurants love Super Bowl Sunday – it’s their busiest day of the year, according to the National Restaurant Association. Papa John’s, Pizza Hut, and Domino’s sell twice as many pies as they do on any other day. Domino’s expects to sell 11 million slices.
  • The Hass Avocado Board predicts that over Super Bowl weekend approximately100 million pounds of guacamole will be eaten – and approximately 14,500 tons of chips are used to scoop it up.
  • About 2 million cases of beer are sold every year for Super Bowl – which might explain why 6% of Americans call in sick for work the next day.

Is Your Coffee Or Tea Giving You A Muffin Top?

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Coffee cup and muffin top

Morning coffee. Coffee break. Afternoon tea. A nice cup after dinner. Many of us love – need – our coffee or tea.

A nice hot steaming cup of coffee or tea can hit the spot and a hot skim latte is a great snack – soothing, calorie controlled, and protein laced.  On the other hand, a giant hot coffee drink filled with syrup and whipped cream – often clocking in at 400 to 500 calories — might be soothing but sure isn’t great for your waistline.

Black Or Light And Sweet?

How do you like your coffee?  Black, light and sweet, regular?  Do you add sugar and pour milk until the color and taste is just right?

As you dump sugar and pour cream into mugs and those too hot to touch cardboard containers, have you ever thought about how many calories you’re actually adding to an otherwise very low calorie drink? Probably not. They’re calories not usually measured and all too easy to forget.

What Do You Put Into Your Coffee Or Tea?

There are about two calories in eight ounces (a small cup) of unsweetened black brewed coffee or tea – doesn’t matter if it’s hot or iced. Not a bad deal.

What a lot of us don’t think about is how many calories are in the add-ins that we stir into our coffee and tea.

How much milk or half and half do you add to your coffee or tea? How much sugar? Bet you don’t have a clue. We all do a freehand pour.  Try measuring how much you pour and you might be really surprised.

The Add-Ins

  • Heavy cream, 2 tablespoons:  104 calories
  • Half and half, 2 tablespoons (1/8 cup):  40 calories
  • Whole milk, 2 tablespoons:  18 calories
  • 2% (low fat) milk, 2 tablespoons:  14 calories
  • Non-fat milk, 2 tablespoons:  11 calories
  • Table sugar, 1 tablespoon:  49 calories
  • Table sugar, 1 teaspoon:  16 calories

How’s This For An Eye-Opener?

Say you have 3 grande (Starbuck’s) – or 3 large (Dunkin Donuts) – size coffees a day.  Each is 20 ounces or 2.5 times the size of a traditional 8 ounce cup.

If you add 4 tablespoons of half and half and three teaspoons of sugar to each that’s adds up to128 calories for the additives and around 5 calories for the coffee. That’s 133 calories for each grande/large cup of coffee.

Have three of those and that’s 399 calories a day of coffee (or tea) your way.

Do that every day for a year and mathematically that’s the equivalent of 145,635 calories. Does that make you stop and think?

Coffee Drinks And Hot Chocolate, Too

Sweet, creamy comfort in a cup is how Starbuck’s describes their hot chocolate made with steamed milk, vanilla and mocha-flavored syrups, and topped with a generous swirl of sweetened whipped cream. With a description like that, how can you resist? Just remember that hot chocolate and specialty coffee drinks come not only with a monetary price, but with a caloric one, too.

Here’s the nutritional information for some other Starbuck’s and Dunkin’ Donuts drinks:

  • Starbuck’s Caffe Latte, grande (16 oz), 2% milk:  190 calories; 7g fat; 18g carbs; 12g protein
  • Starbucks’ Non-Fat Caffe Latte (espresso and non-fat milk)
    • Tall (12 oz):  100 calories, 10 grams of protein
    • Grande (16 oz):  130 calories, 13 grams protein
    • Venti (20 oz):  170 calories, 16 grams protein
  • Starbuck’s Cappuchino, grande (16 oz), 2% milk:  120 calories; 4g fat; 12g carbs; 8g protein
  • Starbuck’s Peppermint White Chocolate Mocha, grande (16oz), 2% milk, no whipped cream:  440 calories; 10g fat; 75g carbs; 13g protein
  • Starbuck’s Gingerbread Latte, grande (16 oz), 2% milk:  250 calories; 6g fat; 37g carbs; 11g protein
  • Starbuck’s Hot Chocolate, grande (16 oz), 2% milk with whipped cream:  370 calories; 16g fat ; 50g carbs; 14g protein; 25mg caffeine.  Without whipped cream: 290 calories
  • Dunkin’ Donuts Gingerbread Hot Coffee with Cream, medium:  260 calories; 9g fat; 41g carbs; 4g protein
  • Dunkin’ Donuts Mint Hot Chocolate, medium:  310 calories; 10g fat; 52g carbs; 2g protein
  • Dunkin’ Donuts Vanilla Chai:  330 calories; 8g fat; 53g carbs; 11g protein

For flavored lattes, add (in sugars): 50 calories to the tall, 70 calories to the grande, and 80 calories to the venti and drop the protein count for each by a gram.

Do You Swipe Candy From Your Kid’s Halloween Haul?

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ghostsswipecandy

Ah — Halloween candy! It’s pretty hard to escape because it’s everywhere – on desks, in restaurants, even in my veterinarian’s office in a nice purple bowl with a dog bone painted on the side.

Halloween week accounts for about eight percent of yearly confectionery sales and 34% of seasonal candy sales (like Christmas and Valentine’s Day). Only Easter, the next largest candy holiday, comes close.

FYI: The top five candies of all time — click here for the list of the top 50 – even though you might not agree:

  1. M&Ms
  2. Hershey’s Kisses
  3. Snickers
  4. Twizzlers
  5. Reese’s Peanut Cups

Can’t resist – do you invade your kid’s Trick or Treat bag — what do you go for first?

Don’t feel guilty — If you’ve ever swiped candy from your kid’s trick or treat bag, you’re certainly not alone. According to the National Confectioners Association, 90% of parents confess they occasionally dip into their kid’s stash. I know I sure did.

It’s been estimated that, on average, a child in the US collects between 3,500 and 7,000 worth of candy calories on Halloween night.

Parents invade that collection big time — they eat one candy bar out of every two a child brings home.  Their favorite targets are snack-sized chocolate bars (70%), candy-coated chocolate pieces (40%), caramels (37%) and gum (26%).

In Case You Want To Pick The Least Caloric Candy . . .

Here are the calories in some popular Halloween candy – just in case you might want to minimize the caloric damage (you didn’t read that wrong — candy has a big range of calories and fat grams) – and, just so you know — minis are small square candies while snack-size and fun-size are usually about 2 inches long:

25 calories or less:

  • 3 Musketeers, Mini
  • Hershey’s Kiss
  • Smarties Candy Roll

30 – 50 calories each: 

  • Airheads, Mini Bar
  • Kit Kat, Miniature
  • Milky Way, Mini
  • Peppermint Pattie, Fun size
  • Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Miniature
  • Snickers, Miniature
  • Starburst, 2 Fun Size pieces
  • Twix Caramel Cookie Bars, Mini

50 to 70 calories each:

  • 3 Musketeers, Fun Size
  • Hershey’s Milk Chocolate, snack size
  • Jolly Ranchers Lollipop
  • Skittles, Fun Size Bag
  • Sour Patch Kids, Treat Size
  • Swedish Fish, Treat Size
  • Tootsie Roll Pop

70 to 85 calories each:

  • Brach’s Candy Corn: 10 pieces
  • Butterfinger, Fun Size
  • Kit Kat, Fun size; 73 calories
  • Milky Way, Fun Size
  • M&Ms, Fun size bag
  • Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, Fun size
  • Snickers, Fun Size
  • Tootsie Rolls, 3 midgee pieces

Impress Everyone With Candy Corn Trivia

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8 Great Candy Corn Facts

It’s orange, yellow and white candy corn time. No matter how hard you wish it, the candy shaped like a kernel of corn can’t substitute for a veggie. Those little tri-colored triangles have celebrated over 130 birthdays and are still going strong. Here are 8 sweet things you probably never knew about candy corn:

  1. Candy corn was created in the 1880s by the Wunderlee Candy Company. It was popular among farmers who loved the corn kernel shaped candy that looked different from other candy. The Goelitz Candy Company, famous for their candy corn, began selling their brand around 1900. They still make candy corn today, but their company name has changed to the Jelly Belly Candy Company (guess what else they make!).
  1. Candy corn is over 130 years old. It’s a “mellow cream,” a type of candy that’s made from corn syrup and sugar with a marshmallow kind of flavor. It tastes rich, but it’s actually fat-free.
  1. The original three colors of candy corn — orange, yellow, and white — mimic a corn kernel, although each piece of candy is about three times the size of an actual kernel. The bottom of the triangular candy is yellow, it’s orange in the middle, and the pointy end is white.
  1. Although 75% of the annual candy corn production is for Halloween, you can find it year round in varying holiday colors.
  • Indian corn has a chocolate brown wide end, orange center and pointed white tip, often available around Thanksgiving
  • Reindeer corn, the Christmas variety, is red, green, and white
  • Cupid corn for Valentine’s Day is red, pink, and white
  • Bunny corn for Easter is only a two-color candy and comes with a variety of pastel bases (pink, green, yellow, and purple) with white tips.
  1. Some facts about Brach’s Candy Corn:
  • There are nineteen pieces of candy corn in a serving.
  • A serving has140 calories (7.4 calories per kernel), zero grams of fat, 70 mg of sodium, 36 grams of carbs, and no protein.
  • A large bag of Brach’s candy corn is 22 ounces and has about 300 pieces.
  • Ingredients in Brach’s candy corn: sugar, corn syrup, confectioner’s sugar glaze, salt, honey, dextrose, artificial flavor, gelatin, titanium dioxide color, yellow 6, yellow 5, red 3, blue 1, sesame oil.
  1. According to the National Confectioners Association:
  • candy makers will produce nearly 35 million pounds of candy corn this year equal to about 9 billion individual kernels of corn — enough to circle the moon nearly 21 times if laid end-to-end
  • candy corn is so popular that it has its own day: October 30 is National Candy Corn Day.
  1. How candy corn is made:
  • Originally it was made by hand. Sugar, water, and corn syrup were cooked into a slurry (the consistency of thin mud) in large kettles. Fondant (a sweet, creamy paste made from corn syrup, sugar, and water) and marshmallow were whipped in to give it a smooth texture and a soft bite.
  • The hot mixture was poured into “runners,” or hand-held buckets that held 45 pounds of candy mixture. Men called “stringers” walked backwards as they poured the steaming mixture into trays coated with cornstarch and imprinted with kernel-shaped molds. They made three passes; one each for the orange, white and yellow colors.
  • Today, the recipe is much the same but production is mechanized. A machine fills trays of kernel-shaped holes with cornstarch to hold the candy in corn triangle shapes, then the holes are partially filled with white syrup, then orange syrup, followed by yellow syrup. The mixture is allowed to cool and harden for about 24 hours, then a machine empties the tray, the kernels fall into chutes and they are glazed to make them shine.
  1. A survey of Americans found:
  • 8%think the whole piece of candy corn should be eaten at once
  • 7% think you should be start eating at the narrow, white end 10.6% like to start eating at the wider yellow end.