Delicious "Mall" Pretzels: Gluten Free! (also options for Dairy Free and Vegan)

No one in my family has a gluten allergy but I like to be able to change recipes for people out there who do! I could not imagine not being able to have certain kinds of foods again! How about those HOT, Yummy Pretzels you can get in the mall!?! Many People with a Gluten allergy CAN'T have them... or I choose not to buy them that much because I can't control how much white sugar they add to them! I am going to show you how to make them and you can adjust the recipe for your dietary needs!

Since I have your attention I just wanted to tell you how I made these pretzels GLUTEN FREE! It's all because of the one ingredient, Buckwheat! You can substitute Buckwheat with MANY of your favorite recipes to make them Gluten Free! Here is a few more interesting facts about Buckwheat: Although treated as a grain, it is not a cereal or grass, but it is actually a fruit that is closely related to wild rhubarb! It is considered a superior source of protein when compared to wheat, rice, and even millet. Buckwheat does not contain gluten like wheat does and therefore you can truly count on it to be "Wheat Free"! Some other facts about buckwheat are, just one cup contains 12 grams of fiber. It also contains the antioxidant Rutin, which can improve circulation and help prevent blood vessels from becoming blocked and it's also a good source of vitamin E. *Tip- after using Buckwheat flour it can spoil easily so be sure to store it in a ziplock bag AND in the fridge for up to 3 months!!!!

Ingredients you will need:

• 1 cup of milk (Dairy Free or Vegan option: Almond, Coconut, Soy etc.)
• one pack of Active Dry Yeast
• 3 Tablespoons Maple Syrup, or any other sweetener you choose
• 2 Tablespoons melted butter (dairy free or vegan option: Earth Balance or coconut oil)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups of Buckwheat Flour (this flour is Gluten Free... if you don't need to make them this way then you can sub this part for any other flour you have but I suggest not using white for nutritional purposes. I blogged about this before Click HERE to read!

• 2 1/2 Tablespoons Baking Soda
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• And for the end either melted butter and Cinnamon/raw sugar mixture or Course salt if you want to dip them in cheese etc.

Warm up the milk in microwave or stove top for about a minute and a half. You should still be able to comfortably keep your finger in it. If it's too warm it will kill the Yeast. Add your pack of yeast and let sit for 3 minutes.

   

Add the melted butter and maple syrup to the milk and mix together. Then slowly add in your flour and salt to the mixture. 

 Kneed for about 10 minutes by hand or with a stand mixer.

Now put your dough in a greased bowl and cover with a towel and let rise for about an hour. 

Your dough should double in size!

Preheat you oven to 450 degrees. Divide your dough into 6 lumps for the large "mall size" pretzels. After making these I will tell you that I think it would be a lot better to make the pretzels a little smaller, especially if you are feeding kids. So, next time I make these I would divide the dough into 8 to 10 lumps! Now combine warm water and baking soda in a wide bottom bowl. Also get your greased cookie sheets ready right by you! Now you are going to roll out each lump of dough as thin as possible.

Form your dough into pretzel shape!

Then dip your pretzel into the warm baking soda water and throw on your cookie sheet!

I threw in a few pics of me doing this with my stomach in the way! =) 

As you can see, I set up a little station to roll, form, dip, and then place on the sheet!

  

If you are going to make these to dip in some kind of sauce you should sprinkle with course salt before baking! Then bake for 7-11 minutes! Me and my family LOVE the cinnamon/sugar pretzels so I just baked them without salt.

While they were baking I put about 1/2 cup raw sugar and 1/4 cup cinnamon in a large ziplock bag. I also melted about 4 Tablespoons of butter in a bowl.

When they were done baking, I dipped them in butter and then put them into the bag gently shook the pretzel in the cinnamon/sugar mixture!

Let cool a few minutes and SERVE!

Can you tell he is enjoying it!?!

The Avengers Homemade Hawkeye Costume: Part 3 The Quiver

Here is the, long awaited, LAST post to the Homemade Hawkeye Costume. This is how I made the Quiver, an Archers case for holding arrows. We messed around with different materials that could be sturdy enough for play but lightweight so the child doesn't get tired of holding it! I figured the best material would be cardboard! This is also cheap and you most likely have it in your home already!

Materials You Will Need:

• A tube of cardboard from wrapping paper.
• Black strong tape, Gorilla or duct
• Hot Glue
• Black fabric or something you want to use for the strap.
• A small piece of black Velcro
• Stapler
• Needle and Black Thread (if using fabric)
• Black spray paint (or whatever color you want the quiver)

What I did first was removed wrapping paper from its cardboard roll . Then I cut the roll in half, giving me two equal halves (pictured). You want your Quiver a little larger then one of these so you need to combine them together to make your holder a little larger. If you are only making two arrows... You actually don't need to do this step because they will fit in one of the halves of cardboard. 

To expand the holder I cut a straight line down the length of both rolls. Eyed how much more cardboard I wanted to use to expand and then cut the excess cardboard from one of the rolls. The second picture on the right shows that I added about a three inch width section to expand the cardboard. I then used my tape to hold it in place. You could also just use a stapler for this part. Then I hot glued the rest of the edge, down the line.

   

*The next step is to spray paint the cardboard... Since my son is dressing up as Hawkeye, we used black.

*Now you will be making the strap. I chose to use the same fabric I bought for the finger glove, simply because I had it.... also I love the look of leather that it has. However, you could use anything you want for this, example black elastic or even black duct tape folded in half (get creative). 

I cut two pieces of the black fabric. One about 19 inches long and the other about 5 inches. I folded the fabric in half, it made it about 1 1/2in. wide, and simply hand stitched the three edges together with black thread.

   

I measured the lengths of the fabric specifically for my son... many different children from our neighborhood have put on the quiver and it works for them too. However, just incase, before you do any stapling check out if you are making the straps so the Quiver fits on your child. 

*Tip, you want the Quiver kind of tight on your child... you don't want it to be hanging and swaying when your child is running.

Then fold about an inch of fabric in to the top and bottom edges and staple the two different lengths of fabric to the cardboard.

   

This picture is just meant to show you both straps. I actual hot glued one edge and din't like how it turned out so I'm telling you a better way to make it! However, now you should have one LONG strap and one shorter strap stapled to your cardboard.

I then sewed a piece of velcro onto the ends of the straps. Depending on what you used for the straps...You can also hot glue the Velcro on.

*Now you will cover the end with the shorter strap because that is the bottom of the Quiver and we need our arrows to stay put! Like I said above, I did this before adding the straps and I now think I should have done this step last... It works really well if BOTH straps are STAPLED to the cardboard before the bottom is taped on!!! 

Cut out a bit of cardboard from your leftover piece. Make it kind of fit into the bottom, filling in the circle. Then use your strong tape and tape down the whole thing, basically covering the whole bottom. You can make it look clean by covering the bottom side view with one more piece of tape around the bottom just so you don't see all of the little pieces coming together.... (pictured above in the side view).

   

 Here is a picture of my son with the Quiver on from the front. It is great that the velcro connects at a lower point and it's very comfortable to wear!

 The length of the strap holds the Quiver in a good place and makes it easy of him to pull out his arrows just by reaching back! 

There you have it, a nice lightweight and comfortable Quiver for your little HAWKEYE or Archer!

I just wanted to add something fun about this Quiver. My son loves to dress up! He sometimes will just wear this Quiver to hold his swords because of the easy access to pull them out over his shoulder! So this is a fun item to add to the costume box even if you aren't going to make the Bow and Arrows!

To see the whole costume page click HERE!

The Avengers Homemade Hawkeye Costume: Part 2 Armguard and Finger Glove

It was so much fun to look at Hawkeye pictures and create the different equipment he is wearing to fit my son! In this post I will show you how I made the Armguard, which in definition is a protective covering for the wrist and/or arm from being scraped by the bow string & the Finger Glove, which is used to protect your fingers from the string while also allowing the string to slide smoothly off your fingers. Obviously, for the PVC bow, you don't really NEED these but you look REALLY cool wearing them and it's part of the costume if you want to look like Hawkeye! 

How to make an Armguard

What you will need:

• 3/4 inch black elastic
• Black thread and needle

All I did was measure my sons arm in three different spots between his wrist and elbow. You want the elastic right by the elbow (pictured) to be tightest so the Armguard doesn't fall down when they are playing! Leave a little extra elastic so you can hand stitch it together.

 Pictured below are my three different lengths of elastic. They will get smaller as you measure down to the wrist. Then all you do is overlap a little and hand stitch together with a needle and thread! Simple as that!

   

 After you have all three circles of elastic sewn, put them on your child's arm and then measure out a strip of elastic that will connect all three together. This will also cover up your seems.

   

 Here is a picture after I hand stitched the three circles of elastic to the long strip! I can't give you any exact measurements because each child will be different.

   

How to make the Finger Glove

What you will need:

• Very small amount/scrap of black fabric (I used some that looked like leather)
• Black thread and needle
• Black Velcro
• 3 plastic party rings
• black ribbon
• good scissors 
• Hot Glue

I went to the fabric store and found this AWESOME black fabric that looked like leather and bought the smallest amount they would let me, which was 1/8 of a yard. I also used this same fabric to make the Quiver (the carrier for your arrows), Part 3 post which you will have to check back for in a few days. So you will use most of it!

First thing I did was measure the length of the fabric around my sons wrist. I left about an inch overlap for the Velcro. Then I folded the fabric in half. I wanted a nice thick band and a good edge but if you don't care, you can just simply cut the width of the rectangle without folding over and sewing. There is also no exact measurement to the width of the band. Just eye it with your child to see what you both like!

I then hand stitched the fabric together around the three edges!

   

 You measure your black velcro to fit the band at each end and then hand stitch it on!

 For the next step you need three plastic party rings. With good scissors, be careful and cut the jewel off the top leaving a plain plastic band.

   

 Now that you have three plain rings you need to cut three long pieces of black ribbon.

 You simply fold the ribbon over the top of the ring and hot glue it down. When you have all three done, put them on your child's three middle fingers and see how they meet in the center. I then took them off my child and hot glued them together at the bottom. You can kind of see where I glued the string together in the picture on the right. The string needs to be long enough to reach your child's wrist.

   

 I then hand stitched the ribbon to the backside of the fabric wrist band. VERY IMPORTANT: you will want to try the rings and the wrist band on your child before sewing just so you get the ribbon sewn in the right spot!!!

THERE YOU HAVE IT, an awesome finger glove!

 Let me tell you, my son wears these EVERYWHERE!!! They are fun even to make for "spy gear". I know a few of my son's friends that would LOVE  Finger Gloves to wear just for play! Maybe future birthday presents!

*Another fun Idea which I might post about would be a fun dress up glove for your girly girl! You can keep the jewel on the ring and add her favorite color ribbon and pretty fabric that she picked out and make a pretty wrist bracelet. Get creative for your dress up box!

 To see the whole costume page click HERE!

The Avengers Homemade Hawkeye Costume: Part 1 PVC Bow and Arrows

May 4th 2012 was a great day! The Avengers came out in the theater. After researching the movie, we decided we were going to let our kids see the movie since they were both begging us to watch it! Yes, even my 3 year old daughter was begging to see it, she LOVES Hulk! If you ask my opinion about children seeing the movie, I would say it depends on your child. If they tend to get scared and have nightmares, it's not for them! Our kids have seen a lot of action and it doesn't affect them in that way. We also had great conversations, after watching the movie, about good and evil and about team work (because all of the Superheros, together, get more accomplished then when trying to do it alone)! One more thing, the movie is 2 1/2 hours long so you couldn't force most little kids to sit that long for a movie. My daughter fell asleep the last hour.
If you are an adult and haven't seen the movie, you are missing out! I'm not that into this stuff and it kept my interest the WHOLE 2 1/2 hours! I now want to see the other movies!

 This movie introduces us to a character most don't know much about, HAWKEYE! Marvel comics drew him with a blue and purple costume but the movie has him dressed in mostly black. My son fell in love with him! After the movie, all he could talk about was shooting a bow and arrow and dressing up like Hawkeye!

   

My husband and I had been discussing how to make a bow for Brenden just so he could pretend. So one day after my husband came home from work, he broke a small branch off our front tree and pulled all the little branches off. Then he got some rope and used his staple gun to attach it to each end. Brenden LOVED it and was playing outside, pretending to shoot arrows at bad guys. Our neighbor Chris came home and we got to talking about the Avengers movie and Bow and Arrows. He has a bunch of REAL "toys" that he brought out to show us. Most of them Brenden couldn't even pick up! As we talked, Chris had a great idea to make a Bow out of PVC pipe. After the conversation, we continued to play outside with other neighbor friends. The next thing we know, Chris comes back in a half hour with all the parts to make the bow and arrows!

**This is where I take a second to BRAG about how COOL my neighbors are! I can't believe how much God has Blessed us with being surrounded by great people! I LOVE where we live and everyone around us!!!**

The first attempt with a PVC bow, we used 1/2 inch PVC pipe. We found that it was a little weak in the center and the bow ended up breaking. The instructions below are for the updated version. Which has been used and played with by many children and holds up!

Parents and caregivers, now you finally have easy and cheap instructions to make your child a bow and arrow which REALLY works and is safe to shoot! I still recommend supervision and ALWAYS with the rule of not shooting towards people!

Hawkeye PVC Bow and Arrows
 Here is what you will need:

• 3/4 inch PVC Pipe  (4 feet)
• 3/4 inch PVC Cross Connector
• PVC cement/primer Combo
• 4 1/2-5 feet braided nylon string
• Black Gorilla or duct tape
• 3/8 Oak Dowels (one makes two arrows)
• 5/8 Rubber Chair Tips (one per arrow)
• Hot glue or 2 inch squares of felt (two per arrow)
• **Optional Black Spray Paint**

First thing you need to do is cut down your PVC pipe into two equal pieces, 2 feet long each.

The next step is optional, if you are making a "Hawkeye" Bow, you will want to spray paint your PVC pipe and connector black. Let dry and then prime and cement together with the PVC glue.

After the primer and cement dries, you can add support by taping the center with black Gorilla tape or duct tape. When you shoot the bow most of the pressure is on the center, that is why this is a good idea. It also gives the Bow a cool look!

Next, drill a hole in both ends of the PVC pipe. This is where your string will be attached.

For this next step you either need two people or one really strong person. To attach the string tie a knot at one end and burn the end of the rope to prevent fraying. When you are ready to tie a knot at the other end you need to bend the bow a little. You can see an example of this in the picture on the left. Chris is pretty strong so he was doing it by himself but what I suggest is one person bend the bow while the other pull the string tight and then tie a good tight knot. After the string is attached, put a little tape over your knot and extra string, as pictured on the right.

   

We also added a little tape above and below the center of the string. This will help show your child where the arrow goes.

How to Make the Arrows

Cut the Oak Dowels in half with a chop or hand saw. The ones we got were 36 inches long, which makes the arrows about 18 inches long each!

The next step is to take your rubber chair tips and attach them to one end of the dowel. We used two, 2 inch square pieces of felt and pushed the rubber tip down over the dowel with the felt in between but you could also attach it with hot glue. On the other end you want to make a notch that your string from the bow will fit into. On the video, this is what my son calls a "scratch". You can either use sandpaper or my husband used a saw blade. 

Then for decoration you can use black Gorilla tape around the dowel. Make any design you want!

   

Now that you know how to make it, here is a fun story which goes along with this Bow and Arrow. We took it out twice yesterday to two different places because of end of school parties. Both times my son had a line of kids wanting to try and shoot it and saying things like "I've always wanted to shoot a bow and arrow!" and "Where did you buy this?" He loved showing all the kids how it works and it was fun seeing it withstand all the action of many different people, even adults, shooting it! 

Enjoy your Bow and Arrow and be prepared to have people ask if they can try it out!

I also wanted to give a BIG shout out to my AWESOME husband for making the really cool video in the beginning. I LOVE you! What would I do without you!?!

*TIP*You can find great black sunglasses for your hawkeye costume at the Dollar Store!

To see the whole costume page click HERE!