Poor Man's Popcorn

Popcorn is delicious. However, buying bags of microwave popcorn gets expensive (not to mention they are terrible for you), and buying an air-popper will take forever to make a return on the investment. So how do you make popcorn on the cheap? The Poor Man's way, of course.

Things you will need:

1. Popping corn (you can get this anywhere that sells bulk food. I got mine from WinCo for about $.88 a pound)
2. A large, microwave-safe bowl
3. A lid for said bowl, or a microwave-safe plate (not a paper plate, it needs to be heavy)
4. Any toppings you want

Step 1: The Dumping

Measure out your popcorn into the bowl. One normal microwave bag is about 1/4 cup of kernels. For a single snack serving, I normally just use a small handful.

Step 2: The Covering

Cover the bowl with the lid, but don't seal it. There will be a lot of steam generated by the corn and you don't want the lid exploding off in the microwave. If you don't have a lid, flip over a plate and put it on top.

Step 3: The Cooking

Put the bowl in the microwave and cook as per normal bag popcorn standards. Heat on high until there are about 2-3 second between pops. Depending on how much you made and the power of your microwave, this is normally about 1:45 to 2:30 minutes. 

Step 4: The Eating

Carefully remove the bowl when you are done; it is going to be very hot. Remove the lid/plate away from your face, and behold your popcorn success. 

At this point, you can add whatever you want to your popcorn. Salt, pepper, butter, cheese, etc... Go crazy and experiment. 1 pound of popcorn kernels is about 50 servings of popcorn, so revel in your frugality and snack away!