Effect or Affect?

I took a fit assessment yesterday and it felt odd being tested on something like that. I remember doing that stuff as a kid. Jay gets tested too in middle school and he hates it. He's not out of shape, but I think the fact that he's tested on how fit he is freaks him out. Oddly, it's for a grade. He hates running like I do and he cracked me up when he told us that he knew how many laps he had to go to get a good grade for a boy and stuck with that. That's my boy...do enough to get through it. He does seem to like lifting weights now...just like his dad. I can't imagine what the kids that aren't close to being fit do with that test though. It seems kind of unfair since they don't completely make choices for themselves and the point of PE is to teach them about being fit, not judge them for not being fit. Anyway...

This always gets me to thinking about the choices I make as a parent and how they effect or affect my kids. I actually think both of those words work here. I don't force the kids to eat everything I eat. I can't say I do everything right either. I remember being forced into the "happy plate" club as a kid and well...those were some pretty ugly meals by the time I got done with them. I do ask what they like and try to give them choices too. I don't plan all the meals here because I don't think that's right either. They are people and deserve an opinion. I believe we don't argue about food with the kids because they are given the upper hand to choose meals and snacks sometimes. It's all about power!

I like making build your own meals for the family because, well, they're fun and they give us all options. This night, Tony made a meat sauce (he was craving it) so I popped open another jar of Barilla I got from BlogHer Food.

I can honestly say, I love these sauces! They are very velvety, thick, rich and full of flavor. They aren't greasy or watery at all like some store bought sauces can be. This one was the Montanara Sauce with huge chunks of mushrooms. Max doesn't like meat sauce and loves mushrooms, so he and I ate this.

As luck would have it, I happened to have a spaghetti squash hanging out in the fridge waiting for me!

This was a layered masterpiece of roasted portabello mushroom, roasted eggplant and oven roasted broccoli all over spaghetti squash with Montanara sauce and nutritional yeast!

As for the roasted eggplant, I got the idea from Kath and it is amazing. I'm not a huge fan of eggplant (it was on sale and I'm a produce whore when it's cheap), but I sprinkled a good amount of garlic powder and onion powder with some salt and pepper on it and then baked it at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, flipped it and cooked it another 20-25 minutes...WOW!

I did the broccoli the same way and it was perfect. The bushy part gets all crispy (like kale chips) so the textures in this meal were amazing!

So, the question is, what did the kids eat from this? Well, Max ate the squash, sauce and broccoli. Jay ate none of it. As a kid, I would have probably eaten the broccoli, sauce and mushroom, but I don't know that I would have jumped at the eggplant. I've only recently started playing around with it and this (along with the BBQ eggplant) have been my favorites so far. While Jay didn't eat any of what I ate that time, he has started putting tomato on his sandwiches which I think is pretty huge...especially since most people seem to have issues with the texture of tomatoes. He has been a champ and tried more these days. He loves veggies in his fried rice and he eats a good amount of fruits. Like I said, pressure doesn't help, but I do think that setting an example does.

Do you like things now that you didn't like as a kid? Did you're parents set an example with foods? Were you part of the "happy plate" club? Like I said, I'm not an expert...I'm curious to know thoughts on getting kids to eat more well rounded meals. What worked for you and what didn't? Jay has a huge texture issue with things (he gets that from Tony too). Max and I LOVE texture to our food though. I guess we are all different.