From the Inside Out with Rita Rodrigues
Around here we're fans of Rita Rodrigues for many years... even before she got married. Her love of cooking has made her the easiest journalist ever to talk to (for me, of course).
I hope you enjoy getting to know her better from the inside outlots of tips and goodies!
BE
Sign: Leo
Season: Summer
A color: Purple
A book:The Little Prince, Saint-Exupéry
A movie: 'Great Expectations'
A song: Wicked Games, Chris Isaak
A podcast: "Extremely Unpleasant"
An object: cell phone, connected with everyone and the world.
Favorite place in the world: There's a beach I go to every year with my husband and daughters and we stay there for three weeks and, year after year, we come away happier than we went. I can say that I live the 11 months of the year waiting for those three weeks. Time stops, there are no clocks, we only have the essential routines. The air is cleaner and we breathe more deeply. Everything is softer, slower and more beautiful.
CREATE
Who and what inspires you? Stories of brave and courageous people who have dared to think differently or simply not fold their arms in the face of conformism. And today the media and social networks show us so many cases of people like this. Overcoming them is undoubtedly an inspiration for me to overcome myself.
What do you still have to create? Everything. Life is a notebook full of white sheets. I still have so much to do, so many places to visit, so many things to see. My greatest creations have undoubtedly been my daughters, and watching them grow is a privilege in life. But I also want to see how I myself evolve. What challenges the universe has in store for me and how I'm going to live through them. But I want it to be a process of enjoyment, without rushing. I don't have a 'to do list'. I want to live each stage.
How to maintain creativity: With open arms and limitless horizons, without preconceptions or pre-judgments, just a willingness to experiment. As we grow up, we become more burdened by responsibility. We have to challenge ourselves to go outside the box to do different things and achieve results that surprise us.
LIVING
First thing to do when you wake up: Take a deep breath, stretch and drink water.
How to relax at the end of the day: Disconnect from work and the news and devote myself to my family. Listening to what my daughters have to say. Talking to my husband. Cooking for everyone.
A place to switch off: My sofa, where I can read, watch movies and series or simply do nothing.
Favorite physical exercise: Yoga and running.
How you release stress: with a run, with yoga, with meditation.
A woman who inspires you: My mother, for the woman she has always been, for the example she has always passed on to me as a hard worker, competent, professional, dedicated and demanding of herself. But at the same time she was an attentive mother, always present, very intuitive and complicit, who communicated more with her eyes than with words.
NUTRIR
Your ideal diet is... diversified. I'm becoming more and more convinced that eating a little bit of everything, without depriving myself of anything, guarantees that I won't dive into a bag of sweets to make up for any deficiencies.
What you always have in the fridge: kilos of fruit because at home we all love fruit and eat it all the time. And the vegetable drawer is never short of leeks, zucchinis and carrots.
Dinner-saver recipe: Sautéed vegetables, which go well with everything... pasta, couscous, lettuce. And if I need a more nutritious element, I can always add a poached egg on top, which is no trouble at all and gives the dish a very showy effect.
Favorite drink: Nothing satiates me like water, nothing comforts me like coffee.
Favorite snack: a well-baked bread roll without the crumb.
Favorite restaurant: I can't resist a good Italian restaurant.
Favorite cookbooks: With a lot of food stains and fingerprints, the ones from Mafalda Pinto LeiteMafalda Pinto Leite's, of course, with practical, economical, quick, delicious recipes, to repeat and repeat until you know them by heart.
CARE
Icon of beauty: Julianne Moore
An essential piece of clothing: Jeans.
What's not missing from your beauty routine: As I wear a lot of make-up every day, for me the most important thing is a good moisturizer that prepares the skin to receive all those extras and then a thorough make-up removal, which doesn't leave a trace of foundation, mascara or eyeshadow. And always sunscreen.
Favorite MPL'beauty product: I can't decide between the smell of the salt and lavender scrub and the purifying effect of detox drops.
How do you feel more beautiful? I've had my makeup done by some of Portugal's most talented makeup artists, but the feeling after a yoga class and meditation is the one that makes me feel the most luminous and beautiful. A glow that comes from within and radiates outwards.
