We’re both salad-eaters and love dinner salads. Alas, our roommate doesn’t. I usually don’t like cooking one meal for us and another for Nonna, but, tonight I was really craving a salad and there really is no other way around it.  It wasn’t a huge departure from our dinner – I cut up some of the tri-tip for her with tomato salad – she loves tomato salad – and cooked her some rice.

It’s a bit of a psychological game, making sure she doesn’t think she’s getting different or lesser food than us. It’s also a matter of making sure she gets a variety of foods. At 88, her tastes are set and there’s no introducing a lot of new foods or flavors into her diet, although I do try and sneak them in now and again. Plus she has decided she no longer likes a lot of things she liked in the past. It’s part of the aging process and just is what it is.

As much as we try and make sure she’s eating right, she tries to get around us, as well… like a couple of weeks ago, when Victor was out of town, I gave her several choices for lunch. She said “I’ll just have a banana and a couple of biscotti.”  I said “uh-uh.” She then said grilled cheese. She got a grilled cheese – with a half of a banana – and an hour later, she got her biscotti. She had tried the exact same thing with Victor the day before. With the same result.

Tonight, while Nonna had her plate, we had tri-tip atop greens, tomatoes, avocados, and fat raw onion rings – and a few chipotle deviled eggs I forgot to bring to Easter dinner. I used a store-bought dressing –  quelle horreur ! – because laziness got to me. Not that it’s even remotely difficult to make a dressing from scratch – but laziness got to me. It happens.

It really did hit the spot and set the stage for more to come.  As the weather turns warmer and produce becomes more local, we’ll be doing salads a lot more. I can’t wait to see how creative we can get with the roomie…