On top of spaghetti.

I was a fussy child. A very fussy child. Eventually I became vegetarian (at about 12) which allowed me to legitimise much of my fussiness into a moral standpoint. My sister (who enjoyed meat but is more morally determined) soon joined me and, since she'd had only really ever eaten meat to be polite, Mum came out as vegetarian to create a male/female split between our family's meat eaters and vegetarians.

As I grew up I began to realise that I actually come from quite a fussy family. My dad doesn't eat carrots and is allergic to citrus fruit, my brother held out for a long time against bananas and my mum isn't a fan of turnips, squash or hot curries. None of the four of us like raw tomatoes (my sister used to be given all the tomatoes out of our salads). However, because Mum and Dad were so good at eating things that I didn't like - mushrooms, peas, courgettes, rice, cooked tomatoes - it never occurred to my that they might be classed as fussy too.

I used to be quite nervous about eating out, studying the menu to see if there was anything I would eat. However, once I left school I started to realise that there were actually things that I did like that I never thought I would - all kinds of cheese (even goat's cheese or ones with BLUE bits in), asparagus, avocado, risotto. I even learned to eat olives on my honeymoon in Greece. Once every so often I'll wonder to my self whether such-and-such might actually taste ok and give it a try.

This week's experiment was spaghetti bolognaise. As a child I absolutely detested mince in all its forms - particularly when under a thick layer of mashed potato in the form of shepherd's pie. YUCK. Becoming vegetarian was an easy way to avoid having to force down anything mincey.

My husband, a life-long carnivore, is on a health kick at the moment and the other week I persuaded him to try vegetarian sausages. These went down so well that, although I've never been much of a fan of Quorn (I generally prefer my food to taste of something) I wondered whether it'd be worth giving Quorn spag bol a try. It was actually pretty good! It's a lot healthier than its meaty forefather and gives me the protein which my vegetable heavy diet could be low in. All those tomatoes make the Quorn taste of something and I managed to ignore the fact that it's really pretending to be mince.

So there we go. Another thing to strike off the list of things I really don't like. I'm pretty much just left with: tea, coffee, mushroom soup, raw tomatoes... oh and peas. I don't think I'll be trying shepherd's pie any time soon though.