[1] The latest sweet treat to cross our desk: Cookie Pop Popcorn with Oreo pieces.

[2] From the bag to the canister (both photos © Snax-Sational Brands).

This may be a first for THE NIBBLE: Our Top Pick Of The Week is a junk food, a sugary snack.

Snax-Sational, a snack food company, recently sent us samples of Cookie Pop Popcorn: a blend of popcorn and Oreo cookie pieces:

The popcorn kernels have a sugary “creme” coating that tastes like Oreo stuffing.

It’s a purely sweet treat: The sample we received didn’t have a salted popcorn profile. But there’s no reason you can’t toss some salt in the bag and shake it.

Salt or not: Cookie Pop created a sensation in our office, with every coming back for additional handfuls.
 
 
IS IT REALLY JUNK FOOD?

The popcorn-Oreo blend is 150 calories per serving size of 1-1/4 cups. The total carbohydrate is 19g with 12g of total sugars.

The snack is low in sodium and made with non-GMO corn. It has 1g of protein per serving.

And yes: Popcorn is a whole-grain food with these benefits.

It almost sounds like Cookie Pop Popcorn is a good snack choice, but make no mistake:

This is junk food: glorious, sugary junk food. It’s also a fun food, waiting to garnish cupcakes, ice cream and hot chocolate.

If you need a sugary jolt, treat yourself to a bag. Just pace yourself.
 
 
THE BIRTH OF A SNACK FOOD

The concept for Cookie Pop Popcorn came about when the founder added crushed Oreos to another snack food, popcorn. He thought he had a hit on his hands.

You can purchase all of them on SnackPop.com.

There’s also a store locator on the website.
 
 

Green garlic—also called young garlic or spring garlic—may look like scallions. But they are the immature, spring version of the cured bulbs available year-round.

Harvested when young, green garlic looks like scallions (a.k.a. green onions). The bulb has not yet begun to separate into cloves (photo #1).

At this stage in its youth, the whole plant is edible. It has a sweeter, milder flavor than fully cured garlic bulbs/heads (photo #4).

If left in the ground to to grow, the bright green tops die off after the bulbs underground have rounded out into the bulb/head.

When the mature heads are dug up and hung up to dry, the papery cellulose layers around and between the cloves of the bulb form a protective layer that enables the heads to stay in storage for up to a year.
 
 
DIGGING IN TO GREEN GARLIC

When garlic is young and green, the whole plant is edible, like a scallion. It has a sweeter, milder flavor than when the garlic bulbs are fully cured.

Green garlic often looks so similar to green onions and spring onions, that the best way to identify green garlic is simply to take a sniff. It will smell of garlic rather than onion.

Another giveaway: Green garlic leaves are flat (photo #1); scallion leaves are tubular.
 
 
USES FOR GREEN GARLIC

Use green garlic raw or cooked, wherever you’d like subtle garlic flavor. Prepare it as you would a scallion, and use it in:

 
Try green garlic in a stir-fry, chopped up with eggs, or sautéed with greens. For a quick (and delicious) kitchen project, use green garlic instead of basil in your next batch of pesto.

Use it wherever you’d use regular bulb garlic or green onions, or use it in recipes specifically designed to grilled, or pickled. Add it to a frittata, a soup, or pair it with other spring treats like asparagus. Put green garlic in pasta, a rice bowl (don’t forget to pick up pea shoots),

Our personal favorite is a saute of asparagus, green garlic, morels, ramps and spring peas. Made with butter or olive oil, we can eat an entire batch of it on noodles or grains.

 
WHAT ARE GARLIC SCAPES?

Scapes are the curling shoots of young garlic plants (photo #3). They will grow into green garlic.

For decades they were cut off in the fields and thrown away, to allow the garlic bulbs to grow larger, before growers realized that chefs and foodies were eager to buy them.

The curling shoots have more intensity than green garlic, and it’s best to blanch them first. This unleashes a milder, sweeter flavor.

Just dip the scapes into salted boiling water for 30 seconds, then place them in an ice bath. You’re ready to roll.

Use garlic scapes the same ways you would green garlic.

How about some Potato, Nettle & Green Garlic Soup?
 
 
FOOD 101: SCALLIONS, GREEN ONIONS & SPRING ONIONS

While many people use the term “green onions” for scallions, we prefer scallions. Why?

There are also spring onions, different from green onions.

Spring onions look similar to scallions a.k.a. green onions. It’s easy to confuse them.

Sometimes the easy way to tell them apart is from the bulbs: If the ends are very bulbous, it’s a spring onion. But some varieties have smaller bulbs.

[1] Green garlic: not scallions, a.k.a. green onions (photos #1, #2 and #5 © Good Eggs).

[2] Some varieties of green garlic have purple at the base.

[3] The first form of garlic to emerge is garlic scapes. They will grow into green garlic, and finally garlic bulbs/heads (photo © Vicia Restaurant | St. Louis).

[4] Scapes and green garlic will eventually turn into garlic bulbs/heads (photo via Domain Image [site now closed]).

[5] Green garlic and nettle soup. Here’s the recipe from Good Eggs.

Another source of confusion: In the U.K. countries, including Canada, spring onions are called green onions!

Here’s more about them.

________________

*Another tip: Save the infused oil from sautés and drizzle it on fish, poultry, meat, pasta and anything else you like.

[1] While waiting for spring produce to appear in another 6 weeks or so, try make winter grain bowls from the infographic below (photo © Good Eggs).

Many people got onto the grain bowl bandwagon several years ago.

We’re late to the game, unless you consider our regular outing for a Sofritas Bowl at Chipotle—brown rice, black beans, salad, salsa and sofritas (shredded tofu braised with chipotle chilies, roasted poblanos and spices) a grain bowl.

But after receiving the infographic below from Good Eggs, a specialty grocery purveyor in greater San Francisco, we decided to make them for weekend brunch—avoiding the high carb bagels we usually brunch upon.

The grains—the most cumbersome part of building the bowl—can be purchased already cooked or made in a pressure cooker or slow cooker.

The grain bowl in the photo has a base of farro, topped with black beans, crumbled goat cheese, kale and roasted sweet potato (substitute squash), and garnished with fresh herbs, toasted pepitas and pomegranate arils.

That’s a heap of nutrition in one bowl, plus bright colors to cheer away the winter blues.

Check out what the Good Eggs team would add to their own bowls that aren’t on the chart—such as a poached egg and veggies such as beets, cucumber, fennel, and the onion group (including scallions).

Next, start planning your own bowl! It’s a great way to use up leftovers, too.

[2] Use this infographic to combine your winter grain bowl ingredients (infographic © Good Eggs).

We like Dang Foods Asian-American snacks so much, that they’ve become a snack of choice to serve to people who drop by for tea or a glass of wine.

The line comprises creative combinations of Eastern and Western flavors and ingredients, all plant-based whole foods with nothing artificial.

Founded by two Thai-American brothers, their original Coconut Chips were toasted, slightly sweetened coconut strips based on an original recipe from their mother (the brand is named for her).

Everything they’ve made since is equally outstanding.
 
 
DANG CRUNCHY SNACKS

1. DANG COCONUT CHIPS

We love these coconut chips, straight from the bag. We also use them to garnish:

 
Fresh Thai coconut meat is sliced into strips, then toasted.

The chips have a naturally sweet flavor and are slightly sweetened with coconut sugar; but they have less grams of sugar and as much fiber as a medium apple.

The chips are available in:

 
 
2. DANG THAI RICE CHIPS

Dang Sticky Rice Chips have a new name: Thai Rice Chips.

Many Americans aren’t familiar with sticky rice, sticky rice, also called sweet rice and glutinous rice, is used throughout Asia.

It is a subspecies (Oryza sativa var. glutinosa) in the rice genus: round-grained rice and recognizable by its sticky, gluelike texture when cooked. It’s a treat!

The rice is cooked and bound with coconut milk and watermelon juice, then toasted to crispy perfection.

Like the Coconut Ships, Thai Rice Chips—previously known as Sticky Rice Chips—are irresistable. We can’t stop eating them from the bag, but also:

 
You could serve the chips with a dip—they’re better for you than potato chips. But the chips are so flavorful, there’s no need to.

Flavors include:

 
 
3. DANG BARS – KETO FRIENDLY

Dang has keto-friendly snack bars with no added sugar:

[1] Crunchy coconut chips in four flavors (all photos © Dang Foods).

[2] Coconut chips atop a banana, with PB and chocolate chips.

[3] Garnish bowls, salads, stir-frys…anything!

[4] Sticky rice chips in six flavors.

[5] Dang Keto Bars surrounding a bag of Coconut Chips.

That makes this line a double-dang treat of a line that you should try, soon.

Here’s the company website and the store locator.

You can also subscribe for regular deliveries.

[1] Salmon skewers atop a chopped salad of greens with apples (photo © RA Sushi Bar & Restaurant).

[2] Top a salmon fillet with ponzu sauce, sliced scallions and sesame seeds (photo © McCormick).

[3] Something light: lettuce cups with fresh or pouch salmon. See the recipe below (photo © Chicken Of The Sea).

[4] Make the salad exciting, like this mesclun mix (photo © Burpee).

Not everybody is heading out for a festive dinner on Valentine’s Day.

A reader writes: “My partner and I are on reducing diets, and will be spending Valentine’s Day at home. What can we make that’s special, yet low in calories?”

A piece of poached or broiled salmon—pink for Valentine’s Day—served with a couple of steamed green veggies and salad, is always an easy choice.

You can upgrade the salmon with shellfish: lobster, shrimp, scallops.

But it’s just as easy to make this “standard” healthful dinner more special:
 
 
1. Serve a different vegetable. Think beyond asparagus, broccoli, green beans and kale to serve vegetables you don’t eat often:

 
 
2. Vary your green salad. Save the romaine for regular dinners, serve arugula and baby spinach.

Or, buy a bag of specialty greens, such as:

 
To take it further, you can add a garnish of edible flowers.
 
3. Re-format the salmon. If you frequently have grilled salmon, do something special with it, as in photo #1, or:

 
 
4. Toast the occasion. For 90 calories, you can enjoy a flute of champagne or other sparkling wine.
 
 
5. Dessert. You know the options: berries, fruit skewers, a slice of melon with a squeeze of lime. You can use a small heart cookie cutter to cut harder fruits into Valentine shapes.

You can have a cup of lemon sorbet for 130 calories (depending on brand), or half a cup, plus a berry garnish.
 
 
RECIPE: SALMON LETTUCE CUPS

Ingredients Per Serving

On the side, you can serve a favorite condiment, like vinaigrette or flavored olive oil (basil, garlic, etc.).

Or, choose an international condiment, like:

 
For A Condiment

Preparation

1. PREPARE the lettuce leaves: wash and pat dry. Set aside.

2. WRAP the broccoli in damp paper towels and place on a microwave-safe plate. Microwave on high for 1½ minutes.

3. HEAT the rice according to package directions.

4. PLACE all ingredients except the salmon in a bowl, and toss to combine. Taste and season with salt and pepper to taste.

5. DOUBLE-stack the lettuce leaves so you have two cups of two leaves each. Spoon the vegetable mixture into the lettuce cups and serve immediately. Top with the salmon and garnish with the herbs and seeds.