Oriental Salad with Ramen Noodles

I love this "salad" and it is a very popular potluck item. I made this several weeks ago for book club and have been craving it every since. Yes I love to read and love my book clubbers! I work nights and don't always feel great and finding foods that settle well with the stomach are very limited. I was working Wednesday night and thought about making this and my mouth started watering. I sent hubby to the grocery store while I slept and when I got up I made this salad for dinner. It is super easy and delicious and it lasted 4 days of eating it two times a day. I love to cook and very rarely follow a recipe. I love to make it my own and add my own preferences. I am posting the original recipe and will tell you how I changed it.

Oriental Salad with Ramen Noodles

1 bag of cole slaw

1 bag of broccoli slaw (I don't like cole slaw so I do two bags of broccoli slaw)

1 pkg. Oriental Ramen noodles (I like 2 packs)

1 small bag of slivered almonds

cashews or peanuts (optional) (NOPE)

Dressing

1/2 cup canola oil (I use lighter flavor olive oil)

1/2 cup sugar *see note at bottom

1/4 cup cider vinegar

2 TBS. soy sauce

Season packet from the Ramen noodles

Preheat oven to 300-degrees. Line a cookie sheet with foil to save on clean up and spread out the almonds and crushed uncooked Ramen noodles. Bake the noodles and almonds for 12 minutes until they are a golden color. Let them cool.

Place both bags of broccoli slaw into a bowl. I go ahead and add the toasted Ramen and almonds as I don't really care if the noodles get soft. If you are taking this to a potluck don't add them until right before serving. Now to mix up the yummy dressing! 

I put everything into a Ziplock twist top container so it is easy to shake. Add the oil, sugar, cider vinegar, soy sauce, and the season packs. Put lid on tight and shake really well so everything mixes evenly. Pour and toss. I would do the dressing a couple hours before so the dressing can soften the broccoli some. I make a double batch of the dressing. The noodles and broccoli will absorb a lot and I like my salad dripping! I added boiled and chopped chicken into the salad this week so it was a complete meal for me.  

**I try to watch the sugar intake (even though you can't tell by my chocolate cake recipe) so when I made it this week I tried making it with Splenda. Spenda isn't my favorite sweetener but it is the best for cooking/baking. Sweet'N Low is my favorite for drinks. Anyways, I made it with Splenda (about 4 big spoonfuls) and it was okay but was better after adding 2 spoonfuls of sugar. So all in all I cut the sugar down from 1 cup (for the double batch) to 2 spoonfuls! I am happy with that.

*Also..sorry for the dark pictures. I am still working on getting the lighting and camera setting just right! Still needs some work....