Pantry Raid Pasta

Named thus because I had no idea what to make for supper, so I grabbed whatever was in the cupboards and fridge. We’ve all had days like that, right? Tell me I’m not alone in my lack of planning and frantic last-minute searches through the cupboards!

Ingredients

250g fusilli pasta, cooked

2 tomatoes, diced

2 baby marrows, diced

1 tin tuna, drained and separated with a fork

a large handful of grated cheese

400ml pasta sauce (I used a packet of Royco sauce and thickened it with a spoonful of flour)

To make

Mix all the ingredients in an oven-proof dish. Sprinkle the cheese on top. Bake at 190°C for 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese is golden brown.

To my surprise (and delight) it turned out to be rather delicious. Who knew I could cook without following a recipe?

As expected, the girls ate everything except the veggies. Sigh.

What are your go-to meals?

Princess Lessons: Love, Love, Love

Beauty and the Beast is probably my favourite of the classic Disney princess films. Of all the princesses, I relate most to Belle – the bookworm and the dreamer.

Image credit: fanpop.com

One of the most romantic gestures I can think of is the Beast giving Belle that amazing library. I get breathless just thinking about it. All those books! (I hope Belle did all the reading she wanted before she became a mother, because children have a negative impact on a parent’s recreational reading.)

Probably Belle’s most impressive quality is her heart. She is devoted to her father and gives up her freedom for his. She turns down Gaston in a remarkably graceful manner. She feels compassion for the Beast and becomes his friend, then falls in love with the man inside.

Image credit: hellogiggles.com

Another thing that makes Belle so cool is that she shows us you can be a beauty and a brain. Poppet and Pixie are both gorgeous and smart – biased mother alert! – and I don’t ever want them to feel that they should play down their intelligence in order to impress or be accepted.

Beauty and the Beast shows us that a person’s outward appearance does not necessarily reflect what is in the heart. Gaston, the village hunk, is also the village jerk. The Beast has a good heart but he has to learn to love.

I want my daughters to look deeper than the surface when choosing friends. I want them to value the person’s heart above their appearance, reputation and social status. I want my daughters to have hearts that are filled to overflowing with love and compassion – hearts like Belle’s.

What do you like most about Belle?

Princess Lessons: Don’t Lose Your Voice

Image credit: http://www.douxreviews.com

My cousin and I used to be just a teeny bit obsessed with The Little Mermaid when we were kids. We rented it from the video shop just about every weekend, scripted our own play version of it – in which I was Ariel, she was Ursula, and my brother was Flotsam and Jetsam. We knew all the songs by heart and probably drove our parents crazy singing them all the time.

Hold on. This is all sounding very familiar. (Can anyone say Frozen?) Ahem.

The Little Mermaid still holds a very special place in my heart, and my daughters also see the magic in it. Poppet has, on occasion, lamented being born a “mortal and not a mermaid”. I’m pretty sure that Ariel had a lot to do with my desire for red hair, a desire that was cemented when I discovered The X-Files.

What lessons do I want my girls to take from this tale?

The first is quite obvious: listen to your father. If he forbids something, don’t do something stupid in a flash of temper. Give him time to mellow. Allow yourself time to cool down. Then, in a rational manner, present your case. You’ll (probably) wear him down eventually. Ariel could have saved a lot of trouble if she’d bypassed Ursula and worked harder on winding King Triton around her little finger.

(Dear reader, calm down. I’m not actually advocating that my girls manipulate their father to get their own way. Though that bit about everybody chillaxing – that I did mean.)

On a more serious note, there’s the matter of Ariel’s voice. She tries really hard to get Prince Eric to fall for her, but she has no voice. When Ursula shows up with the voice, Eric goes gaga. This isn’t about not speaking, because my girls are physically unable to stop talking. Trust me, we’ve tried.

I want them to know that their beliefs and opinions are part of what makes them so special, and they shouldn’t have to hide part of themselves to find a boyfriend. The world will tell them to play dumb, or to wear skimpy clothes, or to adopt another’s opinion, or to be someone they are not, all in order to catch a man.

But I want them to know that the right man won’t mute any of their qualities – the right man will help them blossom and grow and shine. I want them to know that who they are is enough even without a man.

(And also, there’s a whole host of fathers and uncles and grandfathers ready to break the kneecaps of any boy who tries to persuade them otherwise.)

What lessons do you get out of The Little Mermaid?

Princess Lessons: Choose Wisely

Sleeping Beauty is one of the few princess movies we don’t have our own copy of, so I haven’t watched it as often as, say, Frozen. Pixie is convinced that Aurora is actually Barbie, and I can see why she thinks that. I’ve given up correcting her.

Image source: disney.wikia.com

We all know the story of Sleeping Beauty, right? Evil fairy gets upset at not receiving an invitation to princess’ christening, curses baby, baby grows up and, like all teenagers, sleeps forever. Along comes a handsome prince with true love’s kiss, and all is well once more.

The most important lesson, obviously, is to choose wisely when drawing up the guest list for your child’s christening. The crazy aunt you don’t invite probably won’t show up and rain down curses on your family, but will she leave her secret millions to your princess in her will one day? Doubtful.

Another lesson is to choose your babysitters carefully. Flora, Fauna and Merryweather seemed responsible enough, but then they got into a fight about a dress and led Maleficent right to Aurora.

Then there’s the message that parents really don’t want to hear: you can’t protect your child from everything. The king and queen thought that by getting rid of all the spinning wheels in the land, they had removed the threat. But all that did was to ensure Aurora’s curiosity when she finally saw a spinning wheel for the first time.

I think as parents we want to shield our children from all the dangers in the world, but that’s impossible. There is only so much we can do but in the end they have to make their own choices, learn their own lessons and fight their own battles. We should teach our children, but not wrap them in cotton wool. I don’t want daughters so sheltered that they have no idea how to cope with a world that doesn’t coddle them or cater to their every whim.

How do you find the balance between protecting your children without being overprotective?