Sometimes I have moments of brilliance… Not always but sometimes I do…  I should also preface this post with a disclaimer that I’m a fan of the sweet and salty combo.  Not every one is and I get that but me and mine?  We kinda love it.

But back to my ‘Brilliance…’

That’s what happened last weekend when I was with the boys and the Bestie and Her Hubster watching Guardians of the Galaxy.

When I go to the movies,   sometimes I get popcorn sometimes I skip it.  While I LOVE it, it doesn’t always love me… but when I take the boys it’s a completely different story.  We ALWAYS get popcorn.  Always.

And since we were going to the early show, it was a popcorn for breakfast kinda morning.

I’m probably not gonna end up on the cover of Parenting Magazine anytime soon for that move, but happy babies, plus happy momma made for a fun weekend.

At our theater (are they all the same?) if you “splurge” on the large beverage and the large popcorn, you get a free refill.  Daddy always taught me to get my money’s worth and when you math it out, two ginormous tubs of popcorn to feed the three of us for $7.00 isn’t a bad deal at all.

And with growing boys… well, do I even need to finish that sentence?

This particular trip however, the boys and I had leftover popcorn.  I know, I know – you’re saying “Leftover popcorn?  Next you’ll be sharing what to do with leftover wine” but seriously, we had 3/4 of a tub left over (on our refill) and I wasn’t about to let that salty, buttery goodness go to waste.

{fyi – don’t bother with comments about all of the chemicals in movie popcorn.  I know what’s in there and we operate on the 80/20 rule in this house.  We aren’t perfect and never claimed to be}

So I thought to myself “Self… What could you do with popcorn?” and brilliance struck.

Sweet and Salty Popcorn Bars.

Plus?  They are UBER easy if you do it this way…

Step 1 – Prevent your movie companions from eating all the popcorn.  Oh sure, you could pop your own at home but they won’t be the same.   Stop at the store on your way home from the movies if you don’t already have a big ol bag of marshmallows in your kitchen.  I also HIGHLY recommend picking up a bag of Kraft Caramel bits  from the chocolate chip aisle.  Trust me. {This is in no way a sponsored post, I paid full price and didn’t even have a coupon although you might be able to find one somewhere}

Step 2- Everyone knows how to make crispy rice treats, right?  Same concept so melt the butter (watching so it doesn’t burn) and add in your marshmallows.  Now would be a good time to enlist the aid of your children with the “stirring constantly” portion… especially if you convince them that the stirring will help build muscles.  uh… or so I’ve heard.

Step 3 – when the marshmallows have completely melted, add in your popcorn.  give it a mix or two to combine and THEN add in the caramel bits.  Now a couple of notes on this step – (a) you might have to take over the stirring to combine because it is harder and if they did their job, your mini sous chef’s arms are likely tired and (b) I’m a fan of homemade caramel in almost all cases but by using the bits, you get little pops of caramel instead of an overwhelming caramel coating throughout.  It makes a difference.  You could, of course, skip the caramel altogether, but WHY would anyone want to do that?!?!

Step 4 – grab your other child who didn’t do all the stirring {if possible} and have them hold the big ol’ stock pot you used for the melting mixing magic because now you need to scoop all of the gooey popcorn onto a cookie sheet.  Be sure your cookie sheet is buttered or lined or both because this is sticky goodness people.

That’s it.  Let it chill a bit and you can cut it into squares or pull hunks off a time.  No judgement either way.  You could get all fancy and make shapes or balls or whatever but it doesn’t taste any different to me.

One other side note {Gosh – I hope you are reading these instructions prior to actually making these} Learn from my mistake… pick out the un-popped kernals from your popcorn BEFORE dumping it into the melted marshmallow… that may have been a step I skipped.  Oops…

I personally prefer to bring them out of the fridge about 10 minutes or so before eating them so that the marshmallow caramel magic can soften up a bit, but to each their own.  The combo of the buttery popcorn and the marshmallow/caramel mix gives the perfect sweet and salty combo that I was hoping for.  I know at least one friend commented over on the book of faces that she thought the combo sounded less than desirable… here’s the thing … if you don’t like sweet and salty, don’t make these thinking they are gonna be fantastic.  For the rest of us, you need this in your life.

Mini-me is already creating new and improved variations on this recipe… he’s optimistic we’ll have leftover popcorn sometime again.