A lot of snacking going on!

We're big snackers at our house .... some of you know how crazy of a schedule Marc has with being in a very intensive Phd program and so a lot of the time we're eating dinners later in the day and snacking lots in the mean time to keep the two growing boys satisfied! We already go through 2-3 gallons of milk a week, I am seriously scared to see what our grocery bill is going to be when they're teenagers.

One of our favorite things to eat is edamame! Asking some friends and then also on twitter I was surprised at how many people had never even heard of it .... you really need to try it. Especially if you have kids! You only eat the soybeans (not the pod) but you have to crack open the pod to get the soybeans out -- Mason has mastered holding the pod in just the right way and squeezing it - shooting the bean out across the kitchen. It's hilarious.



They're healthy for you, fun to eat, usually can be found pretty cheaply, and they're GOOD! I usually buy the frozen bags at the local grocery store or Costco, so I can just cook up whatever serving size we feel like. We heat ours up in water on the stove, just because they're frozen, but you can really eat them warm or cold - whichever you prefer.

The other thing we eat a ton of is popcorn! I've been addicted lately to the microwave kettle corn you can get - I think it's just Orville brand - but it's sooo good. Perfectly salty sweet. I'm not ashamed to admit that I can eat the whole bag by myself over the course of the day and might even keep my bowl hidden from a certain perceptive 19 month old that always tries to steal it.



Another thing we do is make plain popcorn in the microwave in a regular brown paper lunch sack.
I just do a scant 1/4 cup (ha - is that like a scant 1/4 inch?!) of kernels and pour in a few tablespoons of EVOO and shake the bag around a bit to get them all covered. Then just fold the top of the paper bag down twice and put it in the micro! Put it in the microwave quick so the oil doesn't start leaking through the paper too much. Stay by your microwave and listen for when the popping of the kernels starts slowing down. Then you can put salt, cheese, paprika, cinnamon sugar, whatever you want on it! Very good and easier then dragging out our huge air popper that we have for family movie afternoons.

Edamame and popcorn - two of our favorite snacks at this time in our lives. Of course, more often then not the In-n-Out that is conveniently located right on the way home from Preschool means we are stopping for root beer floats pretty often too. ;]