Do you ever get sick of cooking? Here are 5 ideas for family meals from shops nearby that are more around the $40 mark (so you can share your non-cooking love across a couple of businesses over the week) than the $100 mark. These are tried and true recommendations from locals.

1. Lasagne from Flour + Salt. It has a lovely smoky bacon flavour apparently. Then make your own salad and/or garlic bread.

2. Shepherd’s pie from Bean Counter. You could microwave some peas to go alongside?

3. The family pack from Rooster Bar - chicken, chips, gravy, salads and a drink. Surely every family has had it at some stage! Or you could just buy the chicken and make your own salad/vegetables.

4. A meat pack from Spitaki (pork is good) and then dips, bread and other bits and bobs from Oasis or A1. Make your own salad (or if you are feeling extra exhausted you can buy that too!)

5. Roast of the day and potatoes from the deli in FoodWorks, East Ivanhoe. Make your own veggies.

Bon appetit!

We’ve heard good things about all the Bean Counter options!

Many of our lofty intentions from lockdown 1 flew out the window didn’t they? And rightly so. Personally I found I had more than enough on my hands with working full time, the 3 more boring c’s (cooking, cleaning and caring for others - namely my gorgeous children) … and then obsessing over the news (yikes). Not one second left to repaint my house inside and out …

This time around I am only setting goals about me! About not letting all the things get out of hand. Which takes me back to those cute animations we made a few months ago.

Eating well, sleeping well, exercising, spending time in nature, keeping connected and making time to do the things I love. These ideas are resonating even more in lockdown 2.

So, this week we had some of the posters (above) of the animations (below) printed. A3 size. If you are passing by ACC you can pick one up for your fridge, or toilet door. We’ll have them out somewhere (I’ll update you where when we find a place!). Or if you live in the ‘hood just email us and we’ll do our best to drop one on your doorstep.

A cute and gentle reminder about the things that make us happy.

We’ve made a little video of our Honestly project. It has been so interesting to read the letters each week from people in our community talking about their life in 2020.

We hope you have enjoyed them too!

Letters to the neighbourhood in the year 2020

Remember a couple of weeks ago we had a post about Adi who runs that delicious french bakery Little Bertha? Well … when we were chatting out on the corner, he told me that during corona times some of his staff have been working at Fareshare.

Fareshare is an organisation that rescues food and uses chefs to turn it into meals.They have been going flat out recently. In May alone they produced over 500,000 meals to feed people impacted by Covid-19.

This is the food we have been delivering to people in our community over the last couple of months. And I can vouch for it. In times gone by I have had their vegetarian lasagne (delicious), chicken and vegetable satay (delicious) and beef curry (also delicious) - we’ve sometimes had it for our Community Lunches (coming our way via SecondBite).

So … if you know someone who could do with a yummy free meal or two, and are independent enough to get around, here’s a link so they can order and collect the meals themselves, from Gelato Messina’s warehouse in East Brunswick.

Students might like it. Families might like it. Anyone who is feeling financial pressure or a bit overwhelmed in any way by the ongoing corona times might like it!

If you are keen, the Gelato Messina website is encouraging you to order a couple of meals - so that you have some variety during the week. Note that each ‘meal’ serves 3-4 people (they are very generous), and comes frozen and vacuum sealed. And note that when you go to order, there is a $1 fee, that you can override with a code. Just follow the instructions.

So … don’t be shy. No one has to give any reason for accessing this food at this time. It’s just a good community thing in these strange and crazy days!

Our book library was back … and then it disappeared again … and now it is permanently back. Hooray.

And it has been restocked with lots of books for kids and adults.

Pop past and check it out!

And, while on the subject of books, have you read anything you’d recommend lately? It would be great to get some suggestions together for a community post about good books. So, please comment with your recommendations if you are reading on Facebook or Instagram … or send us an email by clicking here.