Coming Soon -Guardians of the Galaxy!

This blog has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser, but the opinions expressed here are mine alone. #OwnTheGalaxy #CollectiveBias

I have mentioned before that our family are big fans of all the Marvel movies. Well, the latest movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, is no exception - we've already gone to the theater to see it twice, and we are really looking forward to buying the DVD - which is coming soon to stores ( tomorrow!).  One of our favorite family activities is having a movie night, and we have some great movie snack ideas to share with you!

First up is our Guardians of the Galaxy Popcorn Mix with Honey-Coconut Caramel Sauce:

This was so much fun to make!

I used natural microwave popcorn for this recipe, and it took two bags to make this batch, which I poured into a big bowl. I added:

* 3 handfuls of pretzel sticks to represent "Yandu's arrows" (Yandu is that creepy blue guy who whistles and his arrows do his evil bidding)

*one handful of Darkside Skittles, to represent the "dark side" in this movie - Ronan and Thanos

* one handful of star-shaped sour gummies, to represent Peter Quill, the "Star Lord"

I didn't want a sugar overload with this popcorn mix, so a corn-syrup or mashmallow-based sauce was definitely out. I created a super easy Honey-Coconut Caramel Sauce that can be made in the microwave, and only contains two ingredients!

Honey-Coconut Caramel Sauce

Print Recipe

4.8 from 4 reviews

This caramel sauce is perfect for popcorn, and doesn't contain any sugars - it's made of just two ingredients: honey and coconut oil!

• Author: Beneficial Bento
• Prep Time: 1 minutes
• Cook Time: 2 minutes
• Total Time: 3 minutes
• Yield: 0 about ⅓ cup sauce 1x
• Category: snack recipe

Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• ¼ cup honey
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

1. Place honey and coconut oil in a microwave-safe bowl.
2. Microwave on high heat for one minute.
3. Stir, and microwave again for one more minute. The sauce should be bubbling.
4. Stir down the bubbles until the sauce is smooth. It will be very thin, but it thickens when it cools.
5. Drizzle immediately over popcorn and toss.

This is a really light sauce that I created just to drizzle over the popcorn to hold all the ingredients together - it's not meant to thoroughly coat the popcorn. There's enough sweetness from the candy in this mix, and I didn't want to over-do it. The coconut oil in this sauce makes this really fragrant and sweet, so not a lot is needed to add a great flavor to this fun popcorn mix. We'll definitely be munching on this for our Guardians of the Galaxy movie night!

I couldn't stop at just a sweet treat for our movie night - you know I had to make something healthy to go with it 😉 I came up with  a veggie relish tray with Infinity Stone Dip - complete with glowing Infinity Stone:

I tried really hard to show the glowing infinity stone in the dark, but it was nearly impossible to capture in a photo. But it did look really cool! Here's how I made it:

1. Take a small purple cabbage, and cut out the center with a sharp knife. A smaller knife works best for this task.

2. Find a relish tray that has a section to hold the cabbage. I thought this one looked kind of like an exploding Infinity Stone - I found this at Wal-Mart for only $6.88! (I added a small piece of cabbage to elevate the cabbage head a little, but I ended up not using it in the finished photo)

3. Fill the hollowed-out cabbage with ranch dip. I made mine with 1 cup lite sour cream, 1 cup nonfat plain greek yogurt, and one package of powdered ranch dressing mix. Add veggies to the tray.

Now the thing that makes this really stand out is the glow sticks! I also bought these at Wal-Mart ( and they are non-toxic). I made a little sign ( which is hard to see in the photo) that says "Infinity Stone Dip" for the center, and I added a ring of glow sticks around the edge of the cabbage. I'm so sad that I couldn't capture how awesome it looked in the photos, but everyone was pretty impressed 🙂 It would be perfect to have out on a table near where you're watching your movie - it looks fantastic in the dark!

Now we're all set for our Guardians of the Galaxy movie night - can't wait to pick up the DVD tomorrow! The DVD comes with some really cool features - collectible character O-sleeve ( 5 to choose from), a music zinepack, and a 64 page magazine with cast and crew interviews and behind-the-scenes photos. I'm one of those "behind-the-scenes" fans - my favorite thing about buying a movie that I love is watching all the bonus features and blooper reels 🙂

We were also lucky enough to pick up an awesome Lego set with this promotion. The set we got  is the Knowhere Escape Mission, and I have to say, Legos have come a long way since I was a kid! We were especially impressed with the Groot in this set. Groot has ball joints in his arms and legs and his fingers all move individually. My son loves making stop animation vidoes with legos, so he made one of Groot and Rocket  so you can see some of Groot's cool features:

We found this Lego set in the Lego aisle at Wal-Mart, which looks like this:

Some of the other Guardians of the Galaxy merchandise we liked is the Mix Tape CD (it has Peter Quill's favorite music from the movie), and the Disney Infinity figures - if you buy a Groot, Drax, or Rocket figure you will get a $5.00 Wal-Mart gift card!

You can find all the merchandise here at wal-mart.com.