When I was a kid, I hated vegetables and there’s nobody in the world who can sweet talk me into eating those leafy, greenish thingy. My father might have threatened to spank me a couple of times, after begging me to at least try some veggies, but I supposed he gave up at some point.

With fruits, however; it’s different. I’ve always love fruits and I can eat just about any fruit presented to me. Give me the sourest, the stinkiest, or the weirdest tasking fruit and I will still eat it.

I think I started to eat vegetables in my early twenties and I can’t really remember how and why, but I supposed it has something to do with pancit bihon. Pancit bihon is a food I really like but when I was a kid, I would painstakingly separate the veggies and not eat them. Maybe at some point, I got lazy and decided to just put everything in my mouth (or maybe it was just out of politeness, or in the name of manners—not sure anymore). Something like that might have prompted me to eat veggies and realize that they are not that bad at all.

Right now, veggies are important part of my diet. I don’t have to have it every meal but I often craaaave for it. I also learned how to make some good tasking salads. Preparing salads is easy because it requires too little or no cooking at all. Sometimes, if we had a heavy lunch, a bowl of salad and a few slices of bread would already suffice for dinner. Here are some of my favorite salads and these are also the kinds I often prepare at home.

calamari and rocula salad: I copied this recipe from Don Camillo, our favorite italian restaurant here in Graz

cobb salad: I copied the recipe from one of our favorite restaurants in Shanghai, Elements Fresh

mozzarella and tomato with basil salad: common quick to prepare salad and it's very good too!

Here’s what’s in them:

Calamari and rocula Salad: Calami rings, grilled or quickly fried with a lot of garlic, mixed with rocula leaves, some olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.

Cobb salad: Lettuce (can’t see in the photo because they’re under the other ingredients), cheddar cheese, avocado, hard boiled eggs, paprika, bacon, salt, pepper. If you want you can also add some slices of fried chicken breast and carrots. Everything is cubed. Salad can be eaten with any dressing but i like it most with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Mozzarella and tomato with basil salad: This is really easy, just slice the tomatoes and mozzarella cheer and topped them with some fresh basil leaves. Pour a bit or olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Add some salt and pepper to taste.