In a pinch Red Velvet Popcorn

So the holidays are in full swing and I used to be a baking fool around this time of year. Three kids later and my old self is so far gone I wonder if I'll ever see her again. Before children all my goodies would have been done for the year by Halloween, along with all my presents purchased, wrapped, and under the tree. (Yes, I am an A type personality just in case you were wondering.) Yeah, not so much anymore...now juggling the life of a full time professional parent it gets a little hairy this time of year. The new me is more, "HOLY CRAP! Where did the time go?" as I try my damnedest to fit everything into the same amount of time. It's not like I don't try, but my problem is is that with three kids I"m lucky to find extra time for all the 'extras' that used to be so easy before.
Welcome to the holiday Thunderdome!

So this year I'm looking for quick and easy, fun and fast recipes so that it looks like I put a million and a half hours in and it really actually took me less than that to make something stupendous! So without further a du I give you In a pinch Red Velvet Popcorn.

*GASP!* Yes, I did not make my Red Velvet from scratch.

I do actually have a very awesome Red Velvet Cupcake recipe (that I will post in January) that three out of three Southern Michael's have told me that, "It is THE BEST Red Velvet they've ever tried!" I'll take their word for it, but in a pinch I needed something quick, easy, and relatively cheap. Also, if you don't want to use popping corn, you can grab two bags of microwave popcorn and use that instead.

Ingredients:

1 Cup of Popping Corn or 2 bags of microwave popcorn

Red Velvet Cake mix - Make as directed

White Almond Bark

So the original instructions that I saw called for microwave popcorn, the Red Velvet cake mix, and white chocolate chips with Crisco. Along with using a double boiler, and my immediate thought was, "Double Boiler?! Thank GOD for microwaves!"

Instructions:

Go ahead and pop all your popcorn and set aside.

We are huge popcorn fans in our house!

So with this, to make it the best way, you have to kind of sift thru the popcorn and get all the kernels that didn't get popped out of the mix before you start. Who really likes chomping down on one of these mid bite? Not this girl! Plus it's totally tacking if you serve this to people. Take the 30 seconds to sift through the popcorn. You won't regret it.

Get the grunge out.

After that go ahead and whip up that cake mix; just follow the directions. Let it cool down a bit. You'll only need like a 1/3 or the cake mix so if you don't plan on making 3 batches it'd probably be smart to put the rest in cupcake liners and get two desserts out of it for the price of one!

I decided to go the three batches route.

Make sure it's cooled before you crumble.

So with the directions that I read it said,  "go ahead and mix all this on a cookie sheet." 0.o Obviously the person who wrote the original directions hasn't met me when they typed those out. Good LAWD I'd have this stuff everywhere if I did that! See that green bowl in the back with the lid? Shake and Make baby! That's how this mama rolls.

White Almond Bark, chopped in little pieces ready to roll.

Also, I don't have the time to pull out a double boiler, melt all this stuff, stirring, and waiting. So Almond Bark is my go too. I heated it up in 30 second increments. About a minute and a half later I had all this stuff melted. Plus there's less clean up! Double bonus! WINNING!

It's SO PRETTY!

So go ahead and crumble your cake up while you're waiting on your Almond Bark; set aside.

This is where the big bowl comes in with the lid.

So now that you've sorted your popcorn, now you can drizzle your Almond Bark on top, and then sprinkle your cake crumbs over the top of that awesomeness. Put the lid on, toss, and repeat until you run out of ingredients.

This is what the end result should look like, pretty nommy, eh?!

So after I tossed all of this together I actually DID break out my cookie sheet, and put down some parchment paper down so it didn't stick. I let it stand for a little bit, and now it is ready to share with the masses! Get some cute little holiday bags together, stuff them to the brim and share, share, share!

Side note: My sister is a huge fan of Red Velvet so I'm going to try and tackle some Red Velvet Fudge here soon....stay tuned.