Matteo's famous salad

The College

2010 started in a different way for me. After one year being basically at home (which doesn't mean that I didn't have a lot to do), I'm going out every day now because of my Master in Journalism and Media Communications. I'm loving to be back in College and I'm enjoying the classes and also the fact of meeting different people. My course is a part time one, so most of my colleagues are Irish. Besides that I'm still collaborating with the German magazine Kochen ohne Knochen (I'll have two articles in the second issue) and writing my column for the Brazilian website.

I'm also loving the new house and the neighborhood. Now I feel like really living in Ireland!

Our street

On the other side, I'm not baking because I still don't know how the oven here works and I'm not cooking as much as before because I don't have the same free time anymore. But we still have some delicious meals around. I don't know if I wrote it here before, but Matteo is also a good cook. And he has some specialties. One of my favorite ones is his beans salad. I'm not a salad-person but I really enjoy this one! I know that most of vegan people are not that interested in find salad recipes around the internet, but you should try this one. As he says, the recipe is very flexible. There are four ingredients that are mandatory: beans, onion, tomatoes and olive oil. The rest is up to you! I love the version that also has salad and chickpeas ;-) And don't forget to eat it with your favorite bread too.

Matteo's "famous" salad

My way to eat salads

Most of the people thinks that all vegan and vegetarian people love salads. And it is not like that. Some do, others don't. I grew up without eating a lot of vegetables. My family hadn't this habit. We used to eat vegetables like potatoes, carrots, broccoli, just cooked with other food, never in cold and traditional salads. So I just started to try to eat salads after becoming vegan. So when someone asks me "But does vegan people just eat lettuce?", you can imagine my face (and answer)... I think even after becoming vegan, I could count the days in my life I have eaten salad.

I am definitely not the kind of person that asks for salad in a restaurant. I just do that when I really have no other option. So, you may be asking, what do you eat? The rest of the food! I love all kind of pasta, risotto, lasagne, rice and beans, everything cooked with potatoes, salted pies... and the list goes on.

But my life is changing. In November I decided to start a diet. I won some extra weigh after turning on the 30s and it's time to say goodbye to them. So I talked with one of my best friends, Clarissa, who is vegan and is almost a nutritionist. And the first part of this diet is about change some habits to have a healthier and more balanced diet. Yes, I still can be healthier! So she asked me to start eat more vegetables, with salads, not with the food. So I did it. It's not that easy and it's not that good too. But I am eating green salad and tomatoes every single day.

These last days, I decided to add some fried red tofu to the salad. I know that everything fried is good but not healthy. But you don't need to use oil to fry the food. Just let it in the pan for some minutes (around 8) and it will taste a lot better. So this is the (best) way I figured out to eat salad! Yesterday I did the same with vegan sausages. I know I won't do it every day, but it's helping a lot to keep the new (and good) habit.


And the other great option is eating tomatoes and lettuce with the sandwiches at night! This is really amazing. Vegan cheeseburger is better like that. You know, we don't eat food at night, just have a meal with sandwiches (the opposite of Irish people that eat sandwiches at lunch time and food at night).



I can say that I am starting to enjoy the salads and I'll try more options. This is an habit that I will keep (we'll keep because my husband is eating too)! Thanks, Clarissa, for the great job. I am doing my best here!