02 Jun Seedy Almond and Ramen Salad Topper

In a glorious twist of fate, I took the afternoon off yesterday and spent it with my son. 

I needed a day off.

For those of you who are self-employed, you know how hard it is to truly give yourself a day off. It had been a rough week and I needed something to reenergize my heart, mind, body and spirit. You see, I’ve been feeling spirit-deficient lately…a combination of many things, I think.  I’m fine feeling spirit-deficient every once in a while.  I’m fine feeling however it is I need to feel whenever I need to feel it. As I tell my son–it’s okay to feel crabby/angry/dissapointed–everyone feels that way sometimes. But, when one of my VBFF’s even commented that she’d never seen or heard me quite like this before, I knew it was time to re-energize my spirit–along with my mind, body, and heart.

In that vein, my son and I did the things we love to do…..volunteer at Operation Kindness, get foot massages (yes-we both LOVE them!), lunched at Potbelly’s and then spent a significant amount of time at our local library.

Returning home, he went to “rest” and I headed to the kitchen. To comfort my soul, I needed to cook. And it needed to be comfort food.

This salad topping comes from my sister-in-law, Gail, who has been a part of my family for at least thirty years. She was at my high school graduation, for God’s sake! She is responsible for some of my favorite family dishes and has been making this one for years. It’s the recipes my niece asks for when she comes home from college. This topper is one part of a larger salad that has red and green leaf lettuces and an Asian-inspired salad dressing. Truthfully, this works well on any salad, or anytime you’re looking for a crunch. 

Ingredients

1 stick of butter1 cup sliced almonds

1 cup sliced almonds

2 pkg Ramen noodles (broken)

4 T sesame seeds

3 T ground flaxseed

Directions

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.  Add almonds, noodles, sesame and flax seeds. Stir until well coated.   Continue stirring until almonds are fragrant and mixture turns a light brown.

Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Store in air tight container.

Makes approximately 4 1/2 cups.

Once this mixture cooled, I stood in the kitchen and enjoyed a few handfuls. The process, the ingredients, the smell, the fact that the recipe came from family–it all soothed my soul. I was comforted…and content. 

We topped off our day with an hour and a half walk with our three pups, complete with a pick-up game of basketball at a court near the school, and a trip to the mini dog park where my son climbed his favorite tree.  Finally, an early bed time for both of us. Ahhhh, sleep. 

Today was a good day. And I needed it.

Heart. Mind. Body. Spirit.