Sweet and Savory Popcorn Options For Family Movie Night

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This shop sharing sweet and savory popcorn options for family movie night has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #PopIntoSAMS #CollectiveBias

 

When you think about having a family movie night, what comes to mind?  Well, maybe I should say what comes to mind as a must have beyond the obvious need to have a movie to watch!  If your family is like mine, snack food options are top of mind and the perennial favorite movie night food is popcorn.

Our family can go through a lot of popcorn between our at home movie nights and summertime RV trips. Since it was time to restock the shelves, I headed to our local Sam’s Club to pick up a large box of microwave popcorn. 

 

Even though Sam’s Club already saves me money on things my family uses, I am always on the hunt for ways to save even more.  So, I was super excited to learn about the Ibotta app.  Once I had it downloaded to my phone, I found an exclusive $2.00 off rebate for ACT II Butter Lovers Popcorn to use at Sam’s Club (while supplies last).  Cha-ching is the sound I hear as I can save money through that app!

We discovered them sampling ACT II popcorn dressed up a bit with crushed OREO cookies (4 OREO cookies to one bag of popcorn.) The boys loved the mixture of sweet and savory and it got me thinking about how I could dress up popcorn at home for us.

When we got home with our stash of ACT II popcorn in tow, I started brainstorming ways to dress up our plain buttered popcorn. Don’t get me wrong, we LOVE it straight from the microwave.  However, I am really trying to mix things up and get us out of our ruts when it comes to food and movie night.  Instead of one type of popcorn, I experimented with three different flavors: Garlic Parmesan, Cajun, and a “Moose Turd” mix.

The “Moose Turd” popcorn is reminiscent of trail mix.  I thought the name apropos given the abundance of moose in our area and how the particular chocolate covered almonds looked a bit like that animal’s droppings. Thankfully, the almonds are tasty. 

 

 

If you can’t find chocolate covered almonds to use, you can get the same flavor combination using almonds and chocolate chips, just without the same appearance. If you don’t have a visual reference for the name, visit this post showing an artistic representation.

Cajun popcorn was made to tantalize my spicy food lovers’ taste buds. As soon as it came out, I opened up the bag, sprinkled the homemade Cajun seasoning blend into the bag, and then gave it a good shaking to distribute the seasoning. This is a super easy method compared to baking it with lots of stirring needed to avoid burning. My spicy loving guys noted that they only detected a slight hint of heat, so if you like it really spicy just up the amount of cayenne pepper.

After tallying the taste test results in the house, the favorite one was the Garlic Parmesan.  Okay, I’ll admit that this mama has found a new addiction.  Think garlic bread meets popcorn.  I only used the cheese and garlic powder for this initial trial, but will be adding parsley the next time I make it.

Once we had our popcorn all ready, we could finally enjoy movie night as a family. 

Of course, the popcorn was a BIG hit with the boys.

 

 

Which of these popcorn recipes would you most like to try in your home, and why?

Is popcorn a go to snack for your movie nights?