Broccoli Pasta and assorted goodies

The name is rather uninspiring but Broccoli Pasta is one of our favorite dinners. I like to use the colored noodles but just about any will work. While the noodles are boiling I saute a chopped up onion in olive oil. At the halfway point before the noodles are done I throw the broccoli in with them. Five minutes later every thing is done. We drain the pasta and broccoli, mix it together with the onion, and add a bit more olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and there you have it. Tonight I sprinkled a little bit of nutritional yeast on top also. Everyone in our house loves it.


I also tried out two recipes from La Dolce Vegan. I made Mom's
Chocolate Pudding and Staphine's White Diamond Cookies. The pudding was excellent. While it was cooking it seemed such a light color that I thought the flavor would be very bland. It tasted just like the pudding cups. The recipe was very quick and easy to follow. I ended up with 4 of those little ramekins. I'm pretty sure I spent under ten minutes from start to finish on the pudding. Then it just had to cool in the fridge for a minimum of two hours. I do recommend leaving a gap on whatever you cover the pudding with. There was a bit of water from the condensation around the pudding but it drained off and didn't ruin the flavor or texture.

The cookies were not that great, I'm sad to say. They didn't have
enough chocolate flavor or peanut butter flavor. They had a cakey consistency and the white chocolate chips didn't really do much to jazz up the final product. I suppose the recipe could be tweaked but it doesn't really seem worth it. There are so many great chocolate, peanut butter, or chocolate peanut butter cookie recipes out there that I wouldn't bother wasting my time.


So, we had the old stand by, a new favorite and a dud.

I have no idea what the hell is up with the layout.

Aloo Gobi Potatoes & Cauliflower

Still on my quest for the greatest Indian food I tried out Sara Kramers take on it from La Dolce Vegan! I used her recipe for Aloo Gobi.

In her recipe she calls for a 1/2 cup of water or broth. I used water and I also ended up having to double the amount. The recipe had a definite spice from the hot pepper and the cayenne but it lacked the complex background flavors. If I were to make this recipe again I would not use water and hope the broth would boost the richness. I would also use less cayenne.

I also made La Dolce Vegan's Quick Vegetable Rice. Usually I use my rice maker to make rice but I followed the directions and did it on the stove in a saucepan. I think I would use broth in this instead of water also. It only calls for water in the directions but it needs that little bit of a boost in flavor. Other then that, it's a quick and easy rice recipe. I like the spices that are included.

All in all, nothing was amazing but it was good enough.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'd heard rave reviews of La Dolce Vegan's coconut chocolate chip cookies and had to try them out. We are definitely coconut fans over at my house.

These cookies have a very mild coconut flavor. It almost taste like you have used some coconut oil instead of the shredded coconut that the recipe calls for. The recipe tell you to roll the dough into balls and bake. I found that they stay a little to round for my taste. In the second batch I flattened the balls a bit. That made them the flatter more common cookie shape, when baked.

Either way the cookies had a great texture. Slightly crispy on the outside and chewy inside, my favorite. I would make these again.