My family loves popcorn so it stands to reason that making healthy airpopped popcorn is the way to go. The Cuisinart easy pop is simple to use and creates a single ingredient popcorn without anything added to it. You add your toppings to your liking and to your dietary needs.

When using the Cuisinart CPM100 EasyPop Hot Air Popcorn Maker, keep in mind that the plastic top (which incidentally is BPA free an important feature for our family) gets very, very hot so be careful when handling it after use.

The plastic top includes a removable measuring cup. This cup can be used to melt butter (as mentioned, it does get very hot to the touch and will melt butter during the popping process) as well as to measure the amount of popcorn you use. You should not use more than what can fit in that little measuring cup at a time. It equals to about a quarter of a cup of unpopped popping kernels.

Since we don't use butter in our house because of dairy allergies, our favorite topping for our hotair popped corn is some sea salt, macadamia oil (for a delicious flavor) or olive oil, and a few sprinkles of nutritional yeast, which adds not only a good range of B vitamins, but it also adds a bit of a cheesy flavor to replace the one we lose but not adding dairy toppings to the popcorn.

Popcorn is actually a very nutritious snack. A one ounce serving contains only 106 calories, 1.2 grams of fat (most of it polyunsaturated); 78 mg of potassium; 21 grams of carbs; not to mention fiber, protein, iron, vitamin B6 and magnesium. Of course, once you start to add toppings, you will need to take into account the nutritional components of whatever you are adding. But, you can keep it healthy. Using the Cuisinart CPM100 EasyPop Hot Air Popcorn Maker, you have a clean slate with plain popcorn. Where you go from there is up to you!

To make the popcorn using the Air Popcorn Maker, simply measure out the popcorn kernels using the mentioned measuring cup, pour the kernels into the base of the maker, make sure the plastic top and measuring cup are securely in place and turn on the unit. Place a bowl (for 1/4 cup of popcorn kernels, use at least a onequart bowl, in front of the popcorn chute) and let the magic begin. It will take about 23 minutes for the kernels to heat up enough and pop out into the bowl. Do not place anything into the base of the unit except for the dry popcorn kernels. When the kernels have completed popping, turn off the unit. We like to keep it unplugged when it is not in use.

Enjoying the nutritious snack of airpopped popcorn is quick and easy using this unit. Great for weight watchers and those who just simply love popped corn!