With my father having to be on a new no/low sodium diet, and both of us having diabetes, shopping for food that we can eat that tastes good has been something of a challenge. Since I am familiar with steaming vegetables, and cooking certain types of rice, I was put in charge of preparing the meals.

Friday – when dad and I were out shopping – I saw this awesome steamer/rice cooker at one of those large club warehouse stores. Saturday, dad went off on his own, and purchased it. Last night I used it to cook our whole me, rice, chicken, and vegetables.

I created a marinade for the chicken – using a few tips from my Twitter friends. Everything turned out very good. On the spur of the moment, I decided to create a healthy dessert for us. I put a few blueberries, and sliced strawberries in individual bowls. On top of each small pile of fruit, I put less than a serving size of plain Greek yogurt. I also sprinkled just a little bit of cinnamon, and splenda on top.

I have never eaten Greek yogurt before. One of the first things I noticed about it was its texture. It definitely had a different texture than the type of yogurt I was used to. It was also very tart. But I thought it tasted very good. While I was finishing throwing this dessert together, I started thinking more about the texture of the yogurt. I thought that if someone did not know better, it would be very easy to mistake it for whipped cream – the homemade kind. Then my mind took that thought a little further…

I realized that my father would definitely think it was whipped cream on top of the fruit, so I decided not to tell him it was Greek yogurt. I would just let him dive right into it. I did, however, tell my mother about my little creation. When it came time to eat the dessert mom, and I just started eating it – both of us were really enjoying it.

As expected, dad dove right into his dessert. Of course he was expecting the creamy, goodness of home made whipped cream in his mouth, and not the tart taste that ended up there. I looked up, and across the table, at dad – to see if he was enjoying his dessert. The look on his face was priceless. He had the same look on his face that babies do when you give them a lemon slice to suck on.

Dad put more cinnamon, and splenda on his fruit, and yogurt, but he still really disliked his desert. I think he was going to eat quite a bit of it – to keep from hurting my feelings. I took pity on the poor man, and told him he did not have to finish it. He looked so relieved.

He was very good natured about me not telling him that he would be eating yogurt, and not whipped cream. As for me, I was rather proud of myself for actually being able to trick dad that way.