Frugal Frannie's Revenge: Brown-Bag Microwave Popcorn

We've been Duped , people.

We've been tricked by Pop Secret and Jolly Time, and even... dare I say it... Orville Redenbacher.

They have tricked us into buying expensive, little baggies filled with popcorn kernels and imitation butter-flavor. I used to think this was the only way to make microwave popcorn.

But now I know different, and I just can't keep silent.

I feel like Keanu Reeves in the Matrix, when he wakes up in that weird, womb-like pod, only to discover that everything he knew about life was a big hoax.

Well, I'm sorry to be the ones to tell you this, my darlings. But everything you knew about popcorn was a big haox.

Are you ready for the (Pop) secret? Here it is...

You don't need to buy microwave popcorn to make microwave popcorn!

All you need is a brown paper bag and popcorn kernels.

It's cheap. It's simple. It's healthy.

It's going to blow the lid off the entire microwave-popcorn industry.

Here's what you do:

Get your brown paper bag...

...and take a picture with it.

Next you will need some corn for popping. I used 1/3 a cup, which seemed to be the perfect amount for my brown bag.

Just pour the kernels in your brown bag...

Fold it over a few times.

Make a pretty sharp fold in the bag so it won't come undone.

Now place the bag o' corn in your microwaveMicrowave for about 2 minutes, 30 seconds. Make sure you listen carefully and stop the cooking when the popping slows down and is sporadic. And.... this is the end result! Don't you feel proud that you stuck it to the man and did it yourself?!Now, I will admit, the popcorn doesn't taste very delicious as-is. But the fun part is, this is where you can customize it to your heart's content. Now of course the way I like my popcorn is with melted butter and lots of salt! Mmmm! This is the way to do it for a special occasion!

But in order to make it a little more healthy for everyday snacking, I like to top it with canola oil spray (or olive oil spray if you have an olive oil spritzer!) and salt. You need a slight amount of fat on the popcorn or the salt won't stick. So I like to just spray the popcorn with canola oil while it's still in the bag, then add salt and shake it up. This is the best way to lightly coat it with fla-vah!

I hope all my fellow Frugal Frannies out there enjoy this delectable snack!