Animation Night Cookies

Hey all! Its been a while, hasn't it? I've been soooo busy with stuff for college, my job, my internship and most of all, me-time! I'm learning a lot about myself but most importantly I'm learning how to truly live my life and I'm so proud of myself and so happy to be surrounded by such amazing friends that are helping me get to my dreams, and accepting me for who I truly am. Those same friends are the ones who I made these cookies for! I rented a bunch of DVD's and these movies probably took about three hours, not including drying time overnight. They love them!

I've used a similar recipe before for my Christmas cookies but this time I used a total of five cups of flour which consisted of four cups of cake flour mixed with one cup of all-purpose and they were so soft! A few cracked, but I found that if I let them cool on the pan and firmly placed my spatula underneath the main structure of the cookie, it could come out perfect. The first batch (all square cookies) I over-cooked a little but I let them sit for a day before icing them whilst the two cookies at the bottom were under-cooked a little and then frosted within an hour of cooling. The under-cooked ones were my favorite! Kind of like lofthouse style cookies!

 I totally forgot to pop a lot of the air bubbles but I think they turned out fine - plus these were super fun! As you can tell - I'll be doing MANY more sugar cookie batches.

Extra-soft Sugar Cookie Recipe:
2 C. Medium-Hard Coconut Oil
1 & 1/2 C. Powdered Sugar
4 tsp. Vanilla Flavoring
4 C. Cake Flour
1 C. All-Purpose Flour
4 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt

Makes about 2 dozen medium-large cookies.

Cream your sugar and coconut oil together with your flavoring, sift together the rest of the ingredients and then wrap in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge while you spray a baking pan and preheat your oven to 400 degrees, and then roll out your dough to about 1/4-1/2 an inch thick, then cut into preferred shapes and bake for about 5-7 minutes or until cooked to your liking, try not to let them brown as they will continue to cook afterwards. Let them rest, then get to icing!

That recipe is right here -

http://shinsveganloving.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-very-zombie-christmas.html

As for the cookies above - here's their movie list!

Top: "My Neighbor Tototo", "Coraline", Ponyo"
Bottom: "Spirited Away" (Soot Sprite and Round Cookie), "Howl's Moving Castle", Inuyasha
*Not Pictured: "Princess Mononoke"

Enjoy!

The Other Bobinsky Bento (Coraline Bento) w/Popcorn Flour

I'll be honest - the mouse is much better for this bento since I didn't use so much nori. But I also feel that the last of the seasoned nori that I used gave a nice "tattered" and faded look to the otherwise pristine Other Bobinsky. I added strawberries sprinkled with stevia instead of sugar because it represents a substitute or something that's not quite "right" when you really look at it. I also had placed some Indian potato burgers in this bento with homemade popcorn flour. I felt that it gave a great circus-type feel here and I was so glad that I did.

For this - all you need to do is air-pop some popcorn (to make it fat-free) and place it in a coffee grinder if you want super-fine granules. I used a blender to make it fluffier, and you can use this in just about any recipe!

Other Bobinsky Bento Ingredients:

Strawberries

Stevia

Corn Tortillas

Seasoned Nori

Popcorn

Indian Potato Burgers

Collard Greens

Crinkle-Cut Carrots

Enjoy!



The Other Father Bento (Coraline Bento)

When I was making this bento I felt very devilish, and since I had been hinting at making some raw vegan carrot cake this was the result. He looked so sad and I even felt a little bit like the Other Mother what with constructing him from the garden veggies. In this bento I also went ahead and made some zucchini presents that are shaped like boxes, filled with tomato and garlic and stuck together with broccoli sprigs with a carrot slice tag. In it are plenty of other green veggies, golden raisins, blueberries and lots of other veggies.

I somehow felt complete when I stuck the raisins and his frown on. The nose was pretty fun too!

Do you like to bake in the kitchen? Or are you more of a "get it ready-made and go" type of person? Personally I prefer to bake and know what's going into my food...plus its fun to play with it before!



The Other Father Bento Ingredients:

Raw Vegan Carrot Cake

Zucchini

Tomatoes

Carrots

Sweet Potato

Broccoli

Celery

Spinach

Gold Raisins

Raw Nori

Blueberries

Orange Mini-Bell Pepper 

Enjoy!



Mr Bobinsky Bento (Coraline Bento)

Sergei Alexander Bobinski (aka Mr. Bobisnky) happens to be my favorite character from the book and movie "Coraline". How couldn't you love him? He's strong and athletic, handsome, blue and quite kind to Coraline - plus he loves vegetables (namely beets)! So, instead of me telling you what went into making this super fun I decided to call up Mr. Bobinsky himself! Take it away Bobo!

How do you feel about Mr. Bobinsky?

Bobinsky: Oh hello, Ms. Shine! What is it that I am to be taking away? This "benuto"?

Me: "Be-n-to" and yes, Mr. Bobinsky! Tell us how you really feel about it!

Bobinsky: Well let me first say that there are no beets in this bento. How can you have a strong Bobinsky bento without beets? They make you strong and able to aerodynamic! *lifts up small car and throws it* Do you see what I mean Ms. Shine? Otherwise this bento is fantastic and looks like Mr. Bobo himself! Those little mice are made of Russian Miysniy Bitki, yes? So inventive with the brown and white rice covering, cranberries (red, like beets), noree eyes, almond ears and soba noodle tails! The kale that surrounds it all added with the red grapes, cherry tomatoes, masa sheet, red and orange bell peppers and blue onigiri me are amazing! The tortilla you used for my shirt is eeehh, how I would say in my Mother tongue, vyglyadit krasivo. More tortilla for the eyes, some nori and boom! You've got a Bobinsky - eh? Ey, where's my badge from Chernobyl - I was there for the cleanup after the-

Me: Oh, lookie here we're out of time so soon! Thanks for visiting Mr. Bobinsky, I think that its time for you to go back to the Pink Palace!

Bobinsky: But I haven't even told you about my wonderful Mouse Circus improvements yet! Come with me - you must see how they go "Oompa peep" now! Halfway there I must say! *grabs Ms. Shin's hands*

Me: Maybe some other time - woah! See you next time and I hope that you enjoyed this segment of Coraline Bentos, everybody! If you need the list its at the bottooooooom - The tutorial for the mice is coming soon!

Mr. Bobinsky Bento Ingredients:

Kale

Cherry Tomatoes

Red Grapes

Red and Yellow Bell Peppers

White and Brown Rice Onigiri

Miysniy Bitki Meatballs

Almonds

Dark Blue Masa Sheet

Nori

Cranberries

Corn Tortilla

Enjoy everyone!

Miss Spink and Miss Forcible Bento (Coraline Bento)

This is a simplified version of Miss Spink and Miss Forcible (although she looks a bit like Ms. Endive from Chowder due to her green hair). As I only have three technical characters to go, I'm finding it very easy and exciting to make these characters in so many different ways. These two ladies are on some freshly brown bread that are encrusted with toasted almonds and wheat berries and are made out of my masa sheets from this morning's tutorial. In the bento are some fruits and three pieces of celery. The letters are made from a sweet potato that I cut from my new mandoline (there will be a product review by Friday)

If you could be a character from Coraline, who would you be and why? Personally I'd rather be Coraline or Wybie because they're both very strong (even if they don't show it all of the time) and hey - who wouldn't love to be around a bit of adventure despite the other horrible implications. Hehe.

Miss Spink and Miss Forcible Bento Ingredients:

Sweet Potato

Whole Wheat Sandwiches, Raw Strawberry Jelly and Flax Peanut Butter

Masa Sheets

Cherry Tomatoes

Red Grapes

Strawberry

I hope that you guys enjoy it - up next is a tutorial on Russian meatballs for Mr. Bobinski's Russian Mouse Circus because even mice like something other than (vegan) cheese! ^^

Wybie Bento - Coraline

I tried to make this as simple as possible because and so I made some single-serving toast (coming soon - I promise!) with two mini dried mushroom burgers. The burgers are excellent although they do have a bit of oil in them I put them on a napkin for a while to de-oil. Added in are just some cherry tomatoes, carrots and kale with a sprig of cilantro for color.

What's your favorite macabre-style film?

Wybie Bento Ingredients:
Nori
Kale
Corn Tortilla
Mushroom Burger and Bits
Single-Serving Toast
Carrots
Cherry Tomatoes

Hope that you enjoy! The recipes for the burgers and toast will be here by Tuesday after I've finished the "Mr. Bobinski" bento.

Coraline "The Other Mother" Soboro Bento

Hi again guys! I promise that I haven't abandoned you, but I've been working extra hard with volunteering for charities, making up some surprises (for you guys!) and cooking. But when I could crawl away from the self-beatings and trekked the desert of tiredness I was able to snag a few pictures and recipes down for you guys. I hope that you can forgive me for not having the greatest carving or nori art here but I was really smart with this idea. Notice her sweater? Yep, that's a little piece of apple that had been exposed to the air for about four hours...I dunked it in a little rice vinegar to keep it from becoming gross but allowed enough air to hit it to make the sweater look "knitted".

Coraline #2 Bento Ingredient List:

Soft Tortilla

Nori

Jamaican-style Soboro

Black Rice

Radishes

Carrots,

Jalapenos

Tomatoes

Cauliflower

Apple Slice w/ Rice Vinegar

Cilantro

To make the soboro all you have to do is add your favorite crumbles (or lentils, or beans, ect) and combine them with chopped onion, peas, allspice, curry powder, sliced cabbage, black pepper, minced garlic, carrots, water and cinnamon until it has all come together and it is no longer liquidy. Let cool and then place in your bento to enjoy!

Coraline Bento

I love this bento so much - its a bit conflicting though...on the fact thatI carved a few cucumber, carrot and radish flowers I feel amazingly good. On the part that I presented the salad it looks a bit disappointing butI love Coraline so it doesn't matter as much, right? I'm sure that Coraline had to deal with similar things at some point in the movie... like how the Other Mother made great pancakes but Coraline isn't into the whole "sew buttons onto my eyes" thing. I don't think I can blame her though, can you? Which character from "Coraline" should I make next? ^^

Coraline Bento Ingredients
Tofu Salad
Cucumber, Carrot and Radish Flowers
A Carrot Dragonfly Barrette
A Blue (Vegan) Egg Sheet
Black Rice
Herbs
Two Flour Tortillas
Nori
Radish Eyes
Blueberries
Salad
Cranberries

I hope that you like it as much as me!