Animals are my friends, and I don't eat my friends!

Motto:
"I can't count the times that upon telling someone I am vegetarian, he or she responded by pointing out an inconsistency in my lifestyle or trying to find a flaw in an argument I never made. (I have often felt that my vegetarianism matters more to such people than it does to me.)”
― Jonathan Safran Foer

How the times change! When I was trying to adopt a vegetarian diet for the first time, nothing that makes this so trendy right now was present, and all that you got were fruits, vegetables, maybe making your bread if you were skilled enough, and cereals. That's it. And when I say cereals, I do not mean Cornflakes, but wheat, corn, rice and barley.

Back then, 30 years ago, the waiters in any restaurant would just laugh if you asked for a vegetarian meal. What you take for granted today was something that did not exist. I remember going on a holiday once, and the only vegetarian option was margarine and bread. I ate bread and butter for a whole week, breakfast, lunch and evening, as I was too stubborn to give up. Looking back, I believe that my parents tested me to see how long it would take until I quit. I did not.

At some moment, companies started to do meal products for Lent, based on soy, and that was quite new at the time, only small steak-like and cubes, two types, yet, my diet became quite diverse then. I could use them in soup, casseroles, or with rice. Or in one of my favourite meals, made by my grandma, vegetarian cabbage rolls (sarmale de post). By some alien magic, vegetarian pate appeared on the market. Oh, that was and it is still amazing. It was only one kind, the normal one, not like now when you can get vegetarian pate with mushrooms, peppers, spinach or god knows what else. It was an interesting journey for me, as I did not eat most fruits until I was 12 or vegetables until age 16 when I became a vegetarian.

Today I am a bit moderate, eating a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet, with fruits, vegetables, dairy and eggs. I do not eat many eggs, and while I mostly avoid meat, I like a nice piece of salmon now and then.

I plan to live for 125 years (yeah, I know), and I learned some cool tricks in half a century of practice. Some ideas? My special salad with no salad, when you cut one avocado and one mozzarella, add all kinds of pinenuts, nuts and sunflower seeds, all cut in small pieces. You can even add some Quorn cubes for fun (if you live in the UK you know what Quorn is, some kind of mushroom fake meat).

Another quick one, boil two bags of spinach, drain, add a sauce made from water, fried mushrooms cut small, a bit of whole flower as sauce, and add a few fried eggs on the top.

Basic rice: whole rice boiled, with a bit of salt, turmeric and a few drops of extra virgin olive oil.

Basic soup: a handful of rice and black lentils (one of the best life-enhancing foods, on par with turmeric, bee pollen and ginseng), to boil in water, one carrot, one potato, some passata or real tomato, salt, olive oil, add parsley cut very small at the end. I always put a drop of turmeric in it for a nice colour.

What are your most liked easy-to-do recipes?

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