Smooth Operator

The work of a covert nutritional operative is never done. Through the help of my friend, nutritionist Liz Weiss, I now have a brilliant new method for getting real fruit and yogurt into my children, particularly Henry, Mister "Yuck! Can-I-have-pizza-instead?"

"Many of those grocery store smoothies don't have real fruit in them," advises Liz. "Try making a homemade smoothie and putting them in the store-bought smoothie bottles." I like the way her mind works.

I visit Liz's web site (mealmakeovermoms.com) to get a healthy smoothie recipe, then carefully fill a few empty store-bought smoothie bottles with my new concoction.

When Julia and Henry arrive home from school, I casually suggest a smoothie for a snack and they eagerly grab the little bottles.

But after just one sip, Henry runs to the sink and dramatically spits a nearly microscopic lump of (scream!) fruit into the sink. The jig is up.

"There's something IN these smoothies," he says accusingly.

"I like mine," Julia counters.

Foiled by mystery lumps! The next day I inform Liz of my failure.

"You didn't strain the smoothies, did you?" she asks.

"No," I confess meekly, finally realizing that the name "smoothie" should have clued me in.

"The key is strain and straw. The strainer makes them completely smooth and the straw encourages kids to drink more," Liz explains. Nothing gets by this woman!

It takes about two weeks for Henry to get over the trauma of finding fresh fruit in a smoothie, but once he does, I put Operation Strain-and-Straw in motion.

"Strain-and-straw, strain-and-straw," I chant as I pour the mixtures into their bottles. This time around, the undercover smoothies pass the test.