Bits and Pieces including Popcorn

I don't know if I've mentioned this or not, but I'm attempting to give up crisps. Crisps for me (sorry - I do mean chips...I was brought up in NZ for crying out loud, but I'm a language mimic and am forever inadvertently changing my speaking and writing habits when I'm around new accents and the likes. Hence I now call them crisps 'coz that's what they do here in the UK) are like cigarettes are for smokers. I know they are bad for me, I know I have too many of them and I know I should give them up, but time after time I find myself throwing a family sized bag of the bastards into my shopping basket and then guiltily devouring them once I'm home. The worst part is that my lad isn't a crisp/chip eater. He can and does avoid eating them which just makes it worse because I know without a doubt that I will eat the entire contents of said family sized bag of crisps/chips. I brush the chip dust and salt from my top like a smoker does ash from their sleeves and feel ashamed that I am unable to kick this nasty habit.

Anyway, much like a smoker, I routinely decide I'm going to 'quit' crisps and go cold turkey...it'll be better for me in the long run, I cry! I can just munch on raw vege and fruit if I'm hungry, I boldly claim, convinced that I have the will power to do this. Yet, time and time again I fall off the crisp wagon and find myself licking the salt from my fingers with an almost fiendish delight. This week, like so many weeks before, I decided to stop eating crisps. This time the sobriety attempt was sparked by bloody Mark Bittman's book - apparently crisps are not only no good for me but apparently the environment also suffers from my obsession. Sigh.

Today is day 4 of the cold turkey attempt and it hasn't been so bad thus far. The major difficulty for me is finding something to replace crisps. Logically I realise that I could eat 3 baked potatoes with butter for the same calorific content as a bag of crisps but A. I don't really give a shit about calories and B. baked potatoes are nice and all, but not really conveniently portable in the same way a bag of crisps are. Yesterday when I was at home I made popcorn* so that satisfied the salty, crunchy cravings, but today I'm in the office and despite my little containers of chopped fruit and nuts, I yearn to hit the vending machine and grab a bag of salty crispy joy...

Help me stay strong folks...what can I eat in lieu of my beloved crisps?? The environment needs me to stay on the wagon....!!!

Ok, on a different note, how FREAKING cute is my new lunch bag? Seriously, c'mon! You know you're jealous of its cute, Louis Vuittonishness! I am loving both its cuteness and practicality...it's currently keeping my delicious lunch of Moroccan vege and lamb cous cous and my can of diet cola (look, I've given up the crisps, leave me some sinful joy, won't you?!) chilled to perfection! It's my new favourite thing!




(it has a big lunch box with a fitted chiller pad, and 2 wee boxes which fit inside the big one and a-top the chiller pad. Ingenious AND cute!)


*The popcorn was rather a coup, actually. I cooked it in a pot with butter (I have no time for air-popping...the salt doesn't stick! What's the point?!) and I threw a crushed clove of garlic into the sizzling butter before adding the corn. Then I salted it before it popped (I think this is essential - it pops the seasoning right into the corn rather than just having it on the outside) and then ground over some freshly cracked black pepper before eating. Delicious garlicky buttery peppery popcorn! Who knew?!