Broccoli

Many children shy away from green vegetables, especially broccoli. Its dry and crisp texture is unappealing to youngsters. Cooked broccoli doesn't win their hearts or stomaches, either. One of the ways parents can get their children to eat vegetables, besides forcing them down the kid's throat, is to hide the vegetables within something the children already like.

Enter macaroni and cheese...with broccoli. The bud-filled florets and stems are bathed in delicious cheese and surrounded by the noodley goodness that children devour without a thought. The greenery of the broccoli is visible, but barely able to be tasted because the cheese overpowers the broccoli's flavor. The texture is still present, but barely.

Broccoli in macaroni and cheese is healthy, tasty, and easy to make. Cook the macaroni and cheese as directed. Use one bundle of broccoli for an 12 oz box of macaroni. Cut up the broccoli. Choose the florets, the stems, or both, depending on your tastes. You can also use frozen broccoli. Steam the broccoli until it's soft, then mix it with the noodles before you mix in the cheese. Mix in the cheese and stir it up. Enjoy!

Italian Sausage

While broccoli finds an audience with youngsters, sausage finds and audience with an older crowd. The sausage can be sweet or hot; either way, it adds flavor and protein to the carb-filled macaroni and cheese. Children generally don't appreciate sausage or simply can't fit it into their mouths unless it's a thin sausage.

When making macaroni and cheese with Italian sausage, it's best to add the sausage after making the macaroni and cheese. This preserves the flavor of the sausage within the fats and juices of the sausage. If you bake the sausage with the macaroni and cheese, the juices will leak into the noodles and change the flavor of the noodles. Of course, you may desire this, but we advise against it.

Also, do not mistake breakfast sausage for Italian sausage. Breakfast sausage has a completely different taste that may ruin your meal.

Prepare the sausage however you like, then cut it up into chunks or slices. Mix the sausage with the macaroni and cheese and serve. Enjoy!

Hot dogs

Hot dogs may fall in the same family as sausage, but hot dogs are far more popular than sausage, at least with youngsters. They're already accustomed to the porcine taste of American ballpark tradition, so why not merge that with another American tradition: macaroni and cheese!

People have enjoyed hot dogs for years and years. Some people like them without the buns. Chop them up and add them to macaroni and cheese, and you've got a delicious meal ready to go.

While boiling or microwaving hot dogs can be sufficient, the best way to ready them is to let them roast over an open fire. If you do not have access to a fire, an oven is sufficient.

Red peppers

Red peppers can add a little pizazz to normal macaroni and cheese. Like broccoli, red peppers can be a hidden healthy surprise within macaroni and cheese. The red pepper is crisp and fresh and adds a little zest to the cheesy taste of the dish.

Unlike broccoli, don't steam the red peppers before mixing them in with the macaroni and cheese. Instead, warm them slightly. You want to retain the crispness of the peppers--that's what makes a pepper a pepper. Peppers get mushy when cooked, and the mushiness of the peppers combined with the mushiness of the noodles in the macaroni and cheese is bound to gross out someone.

Why not green or peppers? Neither pepper will look very appetizing in the mix. Broccoli's florets don't get as covered in cheese as the sides of the pepper pieces will.

Chop the red pepper into small pieces and warm them up in the microwave. Mix them in with the macaroni and cheese. Enjoy!

Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are perhaps the most traditional of all toppings/additives. Many people who make their macaroni and cheese from scratch put a thin, breadcrumb topping on the macaroni, presumably to prevent the heat of the oven from scorching the thin noodles. They add a bristly texture to the dish, possibly drying it out a little if you used too much cheese and ended up making cheesy noodle soup!

Dry some pulled bread or use store-bought breadcrumbs. Scatter them in small, crunched up pieces on the top of the macaroni and cheese. Do this before you bake it if using an oven or after if making it on the stovetop.

You can also season the breadcrumbs with garlic, parsley, basil, and other spices. Cumin can add a little pizazz; black pepper can add some bite. Don't use Emeril Lagasse's "Essence"--you will regret it.

More cheeses!

Mixing cheeses can be a very interesting way to alter the flavor of your macaroni and cheese. You can sharpen or sweeten the taste, or make the cheese melt creamier.

Try Italian cheeses like asiago, mozzarella, Parmesan, and Romano together. Try combining a number of cheddars: regular, sharp, and white. If you're feeling particularly snazzy, try the jacks: colby, pepper, and Monterey. Once you've graduated from those, move on to Mexican cheeses like Queso Blanco and Dutch cheeses like Edam and Gouda.

Avoid Feta--it does not go well without another taste to counteract it. Likewise, avoid Limburger and Swiss--they are simply too strong for macaroni and cheese.