vegan, vegetarian, lactose-free...whatever

Just to resist to the temptation to make a radical change in my life for a new start by cutting my hair (which I already know I would regret for sure a couple of minutes after leaving the hair dresser), I am thinking of changing something that would actually improve my life.

Let's say this something could be learning how to cook.

I do make a lot of cakes and pastries and they normally come out quite well. But I can't only be able to make cakes, pies & co. It is a "pleasure-food", but it is not a real food. It is a food good for the spirit and good for inviting friends over on a fall or winter afternoon, but it is not a real food which you could serve to other people. Let's admit it. I didn't inherited the right genes from my mom. How can it be that she is so naturally talented in cooking (even if now she doesn't cook too much either, as she lives just by herself and she doesn't often have guests) and I suck so much at that? My sister is something in between, I guess.

My main problem with food is that I don't like to eat. I am just not interested in food. I like to see it. I like to smell it (when it smells good). I like to try it if I am in a new place. But in general, food is not something to think about it for me. My eating habits are boring and totally uninteresting (according to my friends), but they work perfectly fine for me. I can go on for weeks with just boiled vegetables and some proteins for dinner. Just dinner after dinner. In the winter. During the summer I make a change. From the boiled vegetables to salad.

On the other hand, I am a creative person. And this is what actually fascinated me about food. How from simple ingredients you can produce some very tasty outcome. And I find especially fascinating vegan recipes. Not only they work well for me, as there is no milk of any sort in them, but how you can get wonderful tasty things with none of the ingredients that I consider "basics" is more than a challenge. There is a place in Washington DC, which I may consider my favorite there. It is a vegan cafe'. I had there the best pancakes I ever had (now I have learned how to make very good dairy-free pancakes too). And they were vegan. I had a great corn bread. Vegan. I had many other incredibly good things. All vegan. And it is such a relief to be in a restaurant where you don't risk to get something prepared with butter, milk, or cheese even if you specify and kindly require to the waiter to please make sure that there are no milk products in my order. I had a similar fabulous experience in San Francisco too. At another vegan restaurant. In this case, when I am in one of these places, I love eating. I feel free to eat whatever I want without being afraid of getting sick and I feel free to explore all the different incredible things that they serve.

Because vegan and vegetarian, with a bit of fantasy, can be much more than just a salad.

The thing is. I love eggs. I love molluscs (the octopus is my favorite!). I like fish. I adore the honey. I just wouldn't do well for long time as a vegan. I would live it as a privation. And being vegetarian for me it wouldn't make sense....as I already cannot have milk products....

...back to the cooking and the vegan good recipes......

I was thinking that maybe I could save my hair and myself from the grief and regret of having cut them and start learning how to cook some vegan recipes....that wouldn't be so much about the cooking itself, even if in case they come out well, I could serve them and finally invite some friend over for dinner...it would be about the challenge of learning something new which I find very fascinating.

Negative point of this plan: I want to see how I am going to find the ingredients that are sometimes necessary in vegan recipes when I will be living in Portugal in the middle of nowhere (because I am going to be living in a very small village where I am sure it will be difficult to find the necessary ingredients sometimes). I will have to start with something easy and I will have to look for supermarkets outside the village where I could find many "exotic" food products. I still dream about the fantastic vegan ice-cream cake I had in San Francisco.

I should find a good blog with easy and tasty vegan recipes to start with.