Sometime in early February as I was perusing the most recent of my Real Simple subscription, just as I opened the page in the back chock full of beautifully colored smoothies ranging in hues from orange, purple, pink and green, my four year old hopped on my lap to see what I was reading.  "MMMM.  What are those Mom?" he asked.  "Oh, those are smoothies, don't they look yummy?"  "Yes, they do.  Can I have one?"  Trying to control my excitement, I calmly asked "Well, what color would you like to try first?"  "Green!" he says.  (This is a child who's not had a green ANYTHING in his food since he adamantly denied pureed green beans for the final time back when he was 8 months old...one who snubs green jellybeans for crying out loud.)  Could it be that I'm finally going to redeem myself as a decent mother....one that gets their child to eat fruits and vegetables?  It seemed too good to be true...I mean, there was no way he was actually going to drink something with apples or strawberries or (gasp!) SPINACH!  No way, I thought,  but nonetheless, I got my booty over to the market within 5 minutes of him going to bed to pick up some goodies for our morning smoothie.  Andddd, he LOVED it....and he loved the subsequent smoothies we made.  Every morning thereafter I would show him the magazine spread and ask him what color he wanted to try.  We had orange (mango, banana, carrot), purple (blueberry, acai & spinach), pink (raspberry, strawberry, banana) and this lovely green one.  If you can get your hands on that February copy of Real Simple, I highly recommend you do.  We don't actually make the recipes they had, it's more about the colors the kids like to choose from.   Words can never express my gratitude for what Real Simple has done for not only the health of my little ones, but also alleviating the sense of failure I was feeling as a mother!    IMPORTANT NOTE:  DO NOT LET YOUR CHILDREN SEE WHAT YOU ARE PUTTING INTO THE SMOOTHIE---TRUST ME-- YOU WILL LOSE THEM IF THEY FIND OUT!