When I was young and blissfully naive Pretty Woman was just about my favourite movie.  Something inside made me hanker after an escape from mediocrity and a dashing multi-millionaire who would give me everything my heart desired.  Then I grew up and realised that if a man buys you everything he’s also buying you.  I can’t accept the Third Wave view that Vivian is a feminist goddess, this is a story about the power men with money have (and use) over women with none. As Edward says “You and I are such similar creatures, Vivian. We both screw people for money”

However old and bitter I get though there will always be one stand out line in the film that makes me think about myself and which I quote frequently in my head when I’m forced to get the family diary out or (under extreme protest) write a to-do-list.    Vivian’s comparing her attitude to planning ahead with Edward and comes out with the wonderful line “I would say I’m a kinda fly by the seat of your pants gal, you know moment to moment”.

This doesn’t mean I’m disorganised.  Bills get paid, work gets done, clients are happy etc etc but life to me needs flexibility.   A to-do-list list means rules, limitations and becomes a straight jacket to life.  I’ll get everything done but with a fluidity that allows me to stare at the jazzy little daffodils in the garden or to say yes to that second cup of coffee.

The only time that I can come a little bit unstuck is when catering for the quite frankly bizarre eating habits of a 4 year old.   The fridge and freezer are always full of umptiousness specifically designed to appeal but every now and then I’m sideswiped by the desire for pizza.  Until recently this was when my failure to have pizza dough ready to go in the freezer showed  up my lack of planning, that was until I discovered unleavened pizza dough.

This is both yummy and deliciously easy to make.  A first rate pizza can be achieved even with a starving and screaming 18 month old attached to your legs and best of all you know exactly what you’re feeding them unlike the horrors of the frozen supermarket finest.

Ingredients for the unleavened pizza dough (to serve 2 starving children or 3 adults)

• 130 grams of plain white flour
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil
• 80 ml of milk

Method

• Pre-heat your oven to approx. 220 degrees
• Mix the flour and the salt
• Add the milk and oil
• Turn out into a floured board and kneed for approximate 5 minutes
• Stretch or roll the dough into a pizza-ish shape on a floured pizza stone or a non stick tray to approx. 3mm thick (nice and thin so it goes crispy in the oven)
• Cover with your favourite toppings (in our house this is strictly limited to passata and grated extra mature cheddar!)
• Pop in the oven and cook until the base is crispy and the cheese melted (about 10-12 minutes).

Kick back & feed your kids something they’ll adore without the guilt!