My 17 year old is still somewhat picky but is willing to try new foods. The weekly community outings have encouraged him to try new foods at restaurants in the area.

Last night while adding things to my Amazon Fresh cart he told me, “Kraft Macaroni and Cheese only. I don’t like Annie’s Organic.” That surprised me because he has been eating it for a few months now.

Our son has his staples that he rotates through, but we will regularly ask him to try to 1 or 2 bites of something new. Sometimes he'll indicate an interest in having more and sometimes that's enough. But I think regularly asking him to try just a bite or two of something (knowing he's got a full plate of stuff he likes) allows him to take the risk. Sometimes we discover new stuff to add to the rotation, other times it's clearly not a winner.

Yes.
This is information that I wish that I had with My Son.
That is to add something a little different into the foods that he likes.
I used to be so afraid that My Son would stop eating when I started adding spices, but I only added a little, and it worked.

In our son’s case, it took years for him to be comfortable to try new things he used to despise when younger. He couldn’t tolerate bananas , he would gag on them, now he will even ask to eat them for snack. I used to make the mistake of expecting him to eat the whole thing, however, things got better when I changed my strategy. I started cutting the banana in small pieces and I gave him a fork and I sat next to him while eating. He would throw things he did not like on the trash can. To this day, we give him his favorite cookies as a reward for eating bananas or oranges, etc. Currently, I can put his snacks on the same plate and he will start eating his least favorite first. Going through puberty also helped since it gave him a bigger appetite and now he’s willing to try new things. Still, there are some things he really dislikes like tuna fish, he doesn’t eat pasta, nor pizza, or ice cream since they are dairy products and he is lactose intolerant.

I attached a picture of the things he eats now.

Being patient and persistent can help, I know it’s a struggle but it’s a blessing when they are finally willing to eat more.
Have a great evening!

Sometimes seeing other kids eating things can help. But allowing them to smell, play with food has in research proved to be effective in introducing them to new foods