Put that stuff in early, and he'll think that's how it is supposed to, Cashmere. That's my theory. My kids are decent eaters. Both Ben and Chris have particular picks. Dh is is extremely picky, so they come by it naturally. My rule of thumb is I give the kids one spooonful of everything I've cooked, and they need to try it, each time, because tastes change. I mostly try to cook things they like, though, because of Scott's pickiness. If any of my children had a true aversion like ita's egg aversion, I wouldn't press it. Ben comes close to an aversion with salad, but it doesn't actually sicken him, he just really doesn't like it. When we have a salad, you would laugh at the one inch piece of lettuce I put in the bowl.

eta...

When I say I mostly try to cook things they like, I do not mean I custom cook, though. My meal choices are generally limited to healthy stuff the family will eat without fuss. But everyone gets the same menu.

Me and my sister completely changed tastes from the time we were kids. She was a ridiculously picky baby. At one stage all she'd eat was orange juice and pork chops, whereas I'd eat anything. We were the kind of family who weren't allowed to leave the table until a certain amount of our dinners had been eaten though, and at least three times a week it was spicy, spicy food. Then when we hit our teens, I got really picky and she hasn't stopped eating for a good ten years now. And I'm not big on really spicy foods, but she'll put chilli on anything and everything.

Annie's even makes a microwaveable mac & cheese that comes in single-serving packs, for people like me who are (1) lazy and (2) would eat a whole pot of mac & cheese if not faced with portion control.

Most mothers I know have/develop a sixth sense about illness, particularly in their children. Maybe it harkens back to a more primative age, when we were more in tune with our other senses. My mother swears she could always smell a fever on me. I thought she was nuts, until I realized I could smell a fever on my own kids. Similarly, they smell "wrong" to me, when they first get home from school, but after they're home and hour or so, they smell "right" again. I can tell from the droop of their eyes if they have an ear infection, with nearly 100% accuracy.

My mom's phrase, when detecting illness in her children, was "You don't look right around the eyes." She was always correct, too -- we were sick.

I read recently that your tastebuds change thoughout childhood so bitter things really DO taste more bitter, etc. It explains kids so often hating broccoli and adults losing much of the taste for candy.

Any kid I'm with I explain that to, "This is science. Your mouth changes. Every time you're served something you should take at least one bite to see if you like it now." They always do. One of them likes broccoli stems now (though not the 'trees').

And I LOVE Kraft Dinner to this day. Annie's tastes like grown-ups trying to get something over on me.

Oh, I love any kind of mac & cheese -- I'm an indiscriminate mac & cheese whore. It's like pizza that way. Or beer. Or coffee.

My favorite is when I make it homemade, from elbow noodles with melted velveeta and then baked in the oven.

Velveeta+onions+ground beef=heaven

Velveeta+onions+ground beef=heaven

With macaroni? Or just by itself? (Cause that sounds kinda good, too.)

Leif and I made homemade pizza this weekend, we made two wheat crust pizzas. One was a large pepperoni and the other was a medium thick crust, pepperoni, onion, green pepper and mushroom. It was yum.

I saw Annie's mac n cheese at Albertson's and I kinda wanted to try it, but my big splurge was Kasha Go Lean crunch. Annie's was close to $3/box. I ended up getting Kraft mac and cheese instead (20 boxes/$10)-- I didn't get 20 boxes.

Also they had very small red and yellow peppers 3/$1 so I got a bunch of those.