Hi Leanne here, with some lazy-cooking/staying-at-home rambling.

As a family we have been slow to venture into the frozen chips section of the supermarket… but a few months ago I was strolling through the freezer section and spotted the McCain shoestring fries.

I generally try to avoid big supermarkets, because when I do go I feel burdened with the role of mothering (it takes so long etc. etc.) … and thus find myself buying the easiest to make meals I can think of for the upcoming dinner following said experience.

Which I find is hamburgers. And with the addition of these fries, I’ve elevated my go-to ‘post supermarket shopping meal’ to a whole other level of happiness for my children.

And … I do have a range of take-away-burgers-at-home in my repertoire now … that I’ll share with you today.

I started out cooking what I liked to present as a McChicken. I bought those bulk packs of chicken burgers … having grown up on chops/sausages/steak with three veg I personally quite like them (also I used to work at Maccas in my youth). But they weren’t quite up to scratch for the gourmet palettes of some of my inner urban darling children!

So I explored steak sandwiches (reminiscent of Grill’d when they first opened - but now sadly scrapped from the menu). Ciabatta rolls, sizzle steak, beetroot, Gouda cheese slices and some rocket, tomato, cucumber. Everyone happy.

Then … I found the sandwich pickles (pickles sliced longways!) and moved on to beef patties with pickles and mustard (yes, hello Grill’d again).

Then … most recently I stumbled across the southern style crumbed chicken fillet at Coles (they also have them at Woolies but I like the Coles ones better). In the section with the fresh popcorn chicken etc.

And I think this rounds out my hamburger-at-home range perfectly. Because hello KFC.

Most excitingly with this meal, the fries and chicken fillets took the same time to cook. I dumped them on a separate tray each and popped them in the oven. Then I cut up half an iceberg lettuce, got out the mayo … and toasted the rolls for a minute at the end. Excellent minimal effort cooking if I do say so myself!

Now I just need to pull out the babywipes Clive keeps to clean his bike (and perhaps sprinkle them with some 4711 perfume) and fold them up into little squares … and we’ll have the whole takeaway-burger-made-at-home experience perfectly down pat!

Hi all,

As things drag on I think it is important for us all to remember that not everyone has jobs that they can do from home. And not everyone’s job falls into the ‘essential’ category. And it is pretty obvious that if you can’t do your job, then you aren’t getting paid .. and then you most likely will be struggling to cover your living expenses … I am pretty sure that hardly any of us living in this neck of the woods (or anywhere else in Australia for that matter) can sustainably live on Jobseeker or any equivalent income (oh, don’t get me started).

If you need some help then please know that you are not the only one, and that there are lots of food services that you can access locally. Some have pre-prepared meals, some deliver, some require you to collect. Some allow you to choose pantry staples and fresh food that you like. Some are more prescriptive. But they are all there for you, no questions asked.

Here are some local services with their numbers you can call:

• DIVRS - 9480 8200

• Reservoir Neighbourhood House- 9462 4611

• Encompass Care - 0422461847

• Salvation Army Preston - 9471 9111

• Northern Community Care Works - 9484 4788

• Work for the Soul - 9478 0888.

Note that there are also some food services that are on the street. Smith Street Community Pantry on the corner of Smith Street and St Georges Road, Thornbury is a good example. There are also weekly walk up food relief efforts under the housing commission flats in Collingwood, Fitzroy and Richmond if you live near those.

Also … we are thinking of you. And hoping that everything can get back on track for you and your family soon.

And remember that if you need help with anything else we are only a phone call or email away.

Cheers Leanne

Alphington CWA are running a little pick-me-up fundraiser this week, full of neighbourhood good vibes in the form of yummy food - scones, brownie biscuits and lemon 🍋 slice.

Order by this Friday 19th. Pick up on Sunday 22nd.

Email here to order.

Lovely to pop into work today to see a great big food delivery from Camberwell Rotary.

If you’d like to donate too then you can drop food off anytime to us. If we are open we have a cupboard inside. If we are closed you can drop off in the dark grey roller shed just inside the back gate. If you have any issues just give us a call 📞.

Andy generally takes all the donations over to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre on a Thursday.

Not sure what to donate? Here’s a list …

If you came to our last morning tea Kalimna may have sent you home with a home cooked meal. We’ve been contemplating how we can reinvent community lunch 🥙 in corona times.

We had some potatoes kindly donated by Gordon Jones Potatoes 🥔 that came our way via Miranda at Melbourne Farmers Markets that we used to make potato and leek soup.

We’ve got lots of young families in our playgroups and older people who live alone, or care for others (and all those in between) who appreciate a meal cooked by someone else every now and then.

Following this, last week I had an inspiring conversation with Miranda and a bunch of lovely people from Cultivating Community - in relation to possibilities around ongoing community food provision.

Cultivating Community is an organisation that ‘runs food and gardening programs to lay the foundations for healthy communities’. They support public housing tenants across a number of sites to build and maintain community gardens, they provide education experiences through their school food garden program and run workshops on all sorts of garden related things.

And they are increasingly hanging out in the ‘hood with Carys on site four days a week at Alphington Community Farmgate building up the productivity 🥕🥦🥬🍅 of the gardens down there.

Our meeting was looking at how we can collaborate on a regular basis in our immediate neighbourhood to use and distribute some of the produce grown by them, or sourced by Miranda from the producers at the market.

It is really a privilege to work with such creative, go-getting, caring, community minded people!

I’ll update you on the progress as we develop the plan. Happy times.