Ramen Noodle Cole Slaw

Ramen noodles. Gotta love 'em. People all over the world eat them daily. Despite being relatively high in sodium, they are a handy food. They make an easy meal for noodle slurping youngsters and their mothers who often lack the energy to fix much else. For college students on a shoestring budget, the kinky noodles can sustain them until they can get home to mom. Before leaving for college my son, Brian, would make runs to our neighborhood grocery store when he didn't think there was anything edible in the house (which was often since I'm in charge of the food in the house.)

For extremely creative people, the dried, block-shaped noodles can serve many different uses, limited only by one's imagination. They could serve as a makeshift frisbee or as clay pigeons, if skeet is your sport. If cooked just right they could become an emergency hairpiece for a female Irish dancer needing a curly ponytail. However, this month's recipe will focus on the edible aspect of these versatile noodles. This cabbage-based salad is sure to please the most ardent noodle connoisseur.

• 1 lb prepackaged, shredded cabbage or Cole slaw
• 2 packages ramen style noodles (chicken flavor), uncooked
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 1'2 cup sunflower kernels (plain or salted)
• 3-4 green onions, chopped

Dressing:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup oil (vegetable, canola, or whatever is available)
• 3 TBSP white vinegar
• 2 packets ramen noodle flavor

Toast noodles and almonds under the broiler, separately. This takes less than 5 minutes depending on your oven, so watch them carefully and remove when brown. Let them cool and break noodles into bite-sized pieces. Combine noodles, almonds, cabbage, sunflower kernels, and green onions in a large bowl. (Hint: make sure the bowl is big enough to accommodate the stirring action. If it isn't, it's hard to to stir the salad without ingredients falling all over the counter and the floor.) For the dressing, mix sugar, oil, vinegar, and ramen flavor packets together. Pour over other ingredients right before serving and before the mixture separates. If it does separate, just stir it again.

This recipe is simple, tasty, and fun to share. It can easily be halved or doubled to accommodate different sized groups. All ingredients and amounts can be altered according to taste. Make up a batch in memory of Momofuku Ando, inventor of these versatile noddles (1958), who died on January 5, 2007 at the age of 96.

Spiritual Seasoning

Just like ramen noodles, we all have a variety of uses. But, we also have specific calls from God. No place is that more obvious than in Jeremiah 29:11-14, when God speaks to the Israelites during the time of the Babylonian exile:

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, says the Lord, I will let you find me...(NRSV)

God has a call on every one ever born. Ramen noodles were meant to be eaten, not used as flying discs, targets, or hair pieces. We are truly and legitimately more versatile than the popular noodles, and we have a lot more potential. God made us for a reason.

I have a friend who was part of a national ministry and had to relinquish her position due to a variety of factors. She was saddened to leave but the words of Jeremiah 11:29 kept coming back to her; not only in her own mind, but through so many people that when someone told her they had been given a verse for her situation, she would say, "Let me guess, Jeremiah 29:11."

Although this happened many years ago, my friend called upon God, went, and prayed to Him...He heard. She searched for Him...and found Him. She sought Him with her her whole heart...He let her find Him, just like He promised His people in Jeremiah 11. This wonderful woman of God has her first book being released later this year. God knew what He had planned for her even when she didn't understand why things happened like they did causing her to leave a ministry she loved.

So, remember that ramen noodles are meant to eaten, my friend wrote the book God put inside of her, and we'll throw in the fact that terrible cook, me, has a cooking column! God knew all of these things before any of us did. He had plans and God has a plan for your life too; you may know exactly what it is or you may still be trying to figure it out. I encourage you to follow the instructions in Jeremiah 29:11-14 and God will hear you, and let you find Him (and your calling.)

I also encourage you to visit the "Easy Eats for the Cooking Impaired" group over at Christian Women Take Root. I may not be the greatest cook, but there are some wonderful recipes provided by some real cooking women who belong to that group. We can also discuss your calling over some ramen noodle recipes if you have any you'd like to share! Hope to see you in our Easy Eats group!

 

(c)2009 Shona Neff