Afternoon Snack: Ants on a Log & Carrot Sticks

A snack blast from the past. "Ants on a Log" is a snack from many people's childhood, including mine. It involves filling celery sticks with peanut butter and covering with "ants" or raisins. To this snack I added chopped dates in addition to the classic raisins. I also had some carrot sticks. Just a simple snack, healthy and satisfying.

Chickpea Noodle Stew

My soup/stew of the week: Chickpea Noodle Stew! Another "throw a lot of things in the pot" stew, so again, I apologize for not having a concrete recipe.

Ingredients:
diced onions, carrots & celery for mirepoix
one can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
vegetable stock
olive oil for sauteing the mirepoix
garlic, 2-3 cloves, minced
salt, tt
elbow macaroni noodles (or any noodle at all)
vegetables (I used frozen broccoli and peas)
vegetable stock (1.5c/2c)
water

Instructions
1. Saute the mirepoix on low heat with olive oil and some salt until onions are soft and translucent. (do not brown the onions; looking for soft, maybe yellowish from oil, but not brown) This may take 5-15 minutes. I kind of wanted some texture from the carrots so I started adding other ingredients faster than I might for other soups.

2. add garlic & chickpeas

3. add vegetable stock and water

4. bring to boil, add some noodles. I just tossed in what looked like a good amount. My initial plan for this dish was something more brothy but the amount of noodles I added made it more of a stew than a soup. Still delicious, but next time I might back off the noodles a little more.

5. as noodles are nearing done time, add in some vegetables. I added chopped frozen broccoli and frozen peas. I also added more salt, but I'm a salt fiend.

6. Done! Scoop into a bowl and enjoy.

Carrot Cake, aka Marvelous Return of the Food Blog!

Whoa. It's been a while! Well, I hope to update more than once a month. I'm going to aim for once or twice a week. I started school again and my schedule is overwhelming to say the least. I am still eating, though!

To start us off, above is a picture of carrot cake a co-worker brought for me. It was from a wedding of some sort. Very thoughtful. The cake was scrumptious. I really enjoy carrot cake and this slice did not disappoint.