Monthly menu plan - August/September

So many things I love about this time of year. Salads are starting to make themselves known again. The jasmine is out. And asparagus is finally back! Woo hoo!

Week One:
Monday - Macaroni and cheese with broccoli, cauliflower, peas and corn, with a garden salad
Tuesday - Lemon, lentil and spinach soup
Wednesday - North African beef, barley and bean stew with sweet potato mash
Thursday - Huevos rancheros
Friday - Sweet potato and salmon cakes with dill yoghurt and salad
Saturday - Roast chicken
Sunday - Chicken and pea risoni (using left over roast chicken)

Week Two:
Monday - Cauliflower and lentil pilaf
Tuesday - Creamy potato and silverbeet soup with salad
Wednesday - Italian sausage and red wine risotto
Thursday - Spanish tuna pasta bake with salad
Friday - Chickpea pilaf with haloumi
Saturday - Pancetta wrapped salmon with potato salad and rocket salad
Sunday - Tuscan peasant soup

Week Three:
Monday - Silverbeet and chicken barley risotto with peas
Tuesday - Spinach and ricotta cannelloni with chunky lentil sauce, with garden salad
Wednesday - Creamy sweet potato, onion and pumpkin soup with garlic croutons
Thursday - Vegetable, bacon and risoni soup
Friday - Spinach and corn pasties with salad
Saturday - Rack of lamb roast
Sunday - Beef and red wine stew with mash

Week Four:
Monday - Pastitsio with salad
Tuesday - Spinach impossible pie with green salad
Wednesday - Tomato and basil soup with croutons and salad
Thursday - Sweet and sour pork
Friday - Baked potatoes with the works
Saturday - Zucchini pasta with rocket
Sunday - Ratatouille with polenta

Baby booties

How adorable are these baby booties, eh? So teeny! And tiny! The perfect gift for Tyger's favourite teacher, who is calling her soon-to-be born little one 'Peanut'. So much cuter than 'Bump', which is what poor Tyger got stuck with. Sorry about that, Tygs.

Welcome soon to the world, Peanut!

Project Details
Pattern: Saartje's Booties by Saartje de Bruijn (free pattern on Ravelry!)
Yarn: Left-over partial ball of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino
Needles: 2.75mm
Notions: 4 buttons

This is a great, quick and easy knit - in fact, I think I spent more time sewing them together than I did actually knitting. I made the newborn size in a gender neutral colour, with cute red buttons to brighten things up.

Ravelried here.

Calling on Mr Abbott: More bicycle infrastructure funds, please!

Dear Prime Minister Tony Abbott,

As an Australian family who are committed to leaving a safer, better, greener world for our daughter, I was rather dismayed to discover that funding for bicycle paths was not included in the 2014/15 Infrastructure budget. We need more people on bikes now! Reasons for this include:

1 -  63% of Australians are inactive.

2 -  Inactivity costs us a staggering 13.8 billion every year (in health and associated costs).

3 -  59% of Australians want to ride a bike but they're concerned about cars and trucks.

4 -  Separated lanes will overcome that concern.

5 -  If 59% of people take up riding we'll save at least $8.1 billion - every single year.

6 -  $7.5 billion will buy 7500 kilometres of separated bike lanes and paths.

7 -  It will transform Australia into the most bike friendly and physically active country in the world!

8 - Once word gets around that Australia is the most bike friendly country in the world, the tourists will flock like crazy. Everybody loves a country full of cute bike riders. Just ask the Danish and the Dutch!

So on behalf of bike riders everywhere, I humbly ask that you reconsider the Infrastructure budget, and find some money for bikes. $7.5 billion should do the trick in not only making us the envy of the world, but will do wonders for reducing obesity, pollution and a huge range of lifestyle cancers (how much do we spend on that each year, huh?)

Yours sincerely,
Jorth

PS Imagine that you did spend the money on creating safe bicycle lanes for one and all. Every time a cute bike rider pedalled past, you could think "Hey! I did that!". I'll leave you with that thought, Tony.

You can follow the Bicycle Network's Please Tony campaign here.