Faced with a child who'd rather eat fried worms than green veggies, or who regards mac and cheese as the base of the food pyramid, what parent hasn't resorted to cajolery, bribery or even outright threats to enforce a healthier diet?

Enter Missy Chase Lapine, food writer, culinary instructor, nutrition coach and mother of two. Exhausted by family dinners that involved more battling than eating, Lapine devised a plan -- outlined in her 2007 best-seller "The Sneaky Chef" -- to hide the healthy foods her kids resisted inside the foods they relished.

While we don't normally condone deceit, the idea struck us as rather inspired. So we asked Lapine about her system and why she thinks it would work for the rest of us as well.

Q: Can you describe your Sneaky Chef method?

A: It's based on the premise that the best way to get healthy foods into a picky eater is to invisibly mix them into foods that the child already likes, so you're going with the flow.

Q: How do you accomplish that?

A: It's easy. You process the healthy foods -- fruits and veggies mostly -- into a smooth, creamy puree that you add to recipes.

Q: How can you get kids to eat healthier if you're hiding the good stuff?

A: Sneaking isn't a substitute for teaching good nutrition. You still have to lead by example. What sneaking does do is relieve the pressure.

So when your kids are sitting there enjoying spaghetti and meatballs with eight hidden vegetables and two whole grains, you can relax and put out the broccoli. But you're not trying to shove it down their throats. One of the biggest benefits of the Sneaky Chef method is peace at the table.

Q: There's a whole spectrum of eaters out there, from kids who generally eat well but resist certain foods to those who eat only a few "kid basics." Would your system work for all of them?

A: Definitely. You can always find three to five foods that your child will eat. So you take those foods and use them to camouflage the healthy foods you'd like your child to eat.

Q: Can't kids sniff out the healthy stuff?

A: I tested the recipes on dozens of kids across the country, and not one of them was suspicious. Even after the book was published, no parents ever said that they'd gotten caught. What's key is blending the right color, texture, and taste so that the healthy foods are undetectable.

Q: What sorts of foods are best for hiding?

A: They need to be bland, and the color should blend nicely with the color of the original food.

If you put something green, like spinach, into something red, like tomato sauce, the end result will be brown; not very appetizing. So for tomato sauce I mix in purees that are orange or white.

The most versatile foods I've found -- and most of them are cooked before they're pureed -- are sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, broccoli, cauliflower, peeled zucchini, white beans, and spinach especially baby spinach, which hasn't had the chance to mature and get that earthy flavor. Cauliflower is the most difficult ingredient I use because it adds the most taste and will shine through if you mix in too much of it.

Q: Have you had any spectacular failures?

A: I tried to use beets. They made everything a beautiful pink, but they had an incredibly strong odor that I couldn't hide. I tried green beans and asparagus, but I couldn't get them to puree smoothly -- they were too stringy.

And it was a challenge to hide green vegetables in anything, so ultimately I mixed the green puree -- which is spinach, peas, and broccoli -- with something red like ketchup or tomato paste, and then put it into brown things like ground meat.

Q: What advice would you give folks who want to experiment with their own recipes?

A: Start small and see how much you can get away with; add a little more puree each time. Reference a color wheel to see what hides well in what -- opposites usually don't blend well. Always taste the food before you give it to your kids. And remember that kids eat with their eyes, so you want things to look as normal as possible.

Q: Do you have any tips for making over desserts and other foods high in fat and sugar?

A: I combine refined and unrefined grains. For any baked good that calls for white flour, I replace two thirds with an equal mixture of wheat germ and whole wheat flour. I also cut out half the sugar in my baked goods, and it doesn't throw off the flavor. And I use my fruit and vegetable purees as fat replacers -- they substitute for half the fat in anything baked.

Q: Any tips for getting kids to try healthy foods in their natural state?

A: Choose foods kids are likely to enjoy straight up. I've found that any food that makes for a fun eating experience is a good candidate.

Take a whole artichoke. Peeling the leaves, scraping the flesh against the back of your teeth, dipping -- into a low-fat dip -- all that is fun. Edamame is another one. You nibble on the pod to get the soybean out.

Q: What about easy ways to make healthy foods palatable for picky eaters?

A: Put them in an ice cream cone. A wafer cone has less than 20 calories, and it makes anything more fun. I've even gotten my kids to eat broccoli in one, with a few sprinkles on top.

Q: You hear conventional wisdom, like the notion that kids just need to keep trying foods and eventually they'll accept them, or that if kids help shop for a food they'll be more willing to eat it. Do you agree with these ideas?

A: They're both pretty good strategies. But with so many kids today overfed and undernourished, we need all the help we can get. The Sneaky Chef method is a way to shortcut the whole process and get your kids eating vegetables tonight, right this second, without a fight.

Q: Are your own kids on to you?

A: Let's just say they think they are.