How’s that title for setting up a blogging smorgasbord?
LUNCHES I’M LOVING
First up is a filling, quick meal I can prep ahead of time. It requires three ingredients (well, a few more if you consider the ingredients necessary to make tuna salad). Apologies to my vegan friends – it would be hard to recreate this with an egg substitute.
What you need:
- Hardboiled eggs
- Tuna filling
- Crispy quinoa
The crunch of the quinoa is unreal (I top the hardboiled egg with tuna filling and then dip that into the quinoa and it’s both delicious and a very fun, interactive way to play with my food as an adult).
I love everything about this meal/snack/appetizer.
Second is a walnut-fruit smoothie. Why walnuts, you ask? A few weeks ago I read a book all about hunger cravings and they mentioned a study where participants were fed identical smoothies except one smoothie had walnuts added. Apparently, they are one of the best nuts for satiety. They are also doggone delicious.
Here is what I use:
- 1 ripe banana
- A handful of frozen fruit (usually strawberries and/or raspberries)
- A few heaping teaspoons of chia seeds
- A few heaping teaspoons of ground flax
- A few heaping tablespoons of chocolate protein powder
- A few heaping tablespoons of plain Greek yogurt
- A heaping 1/4 cup of walnuts
- Water (sometimes I use a combo of water and vanilla oat milk)
Blend. Enjoy. The walnuts make the smoothie creamy and filling and downright decadent. I’m a huge fan. Sometimes I add a bit of avocado as well. Yum. And the Magic Bullet blender continues to delight.
WEED KILLER
Switching gears. I need your best recipes for…weed killer. We have flagstones at various places on our property and it drives me to DISTRACTION dealing with the weeds that grow up through the crusher dust/pavers. I’ve done the Dawn dishsoap + salt + vinegar concoction before and put it into a spray bottle. The internet tells me this will kill everything. IT DOES NOT. If you have a tried and true home weed killer (or an environmentally friendly one that can be purchased), please let me know. Also, how do you dispense said weedkiller? I think I need to upgrade from a reused kitchen spray bottle and get something more like this:
The weeds are coming and I want to be prepared. Help!
*For the record, I think weeds and wildflowers are great and a critical part of local ecosystems (three cheers for pollinators). The only place I don’t want them is in between my flagstones. The rest will escape unharmed.
GIVEAWAY WINNERS
Thanks to everyone for sharing your little (and big) joys with me. I count it a privilege to join you in celebrating happy things.
Drumroll for the winners!
- Maria who writes at Vegan Husband, Omnivore Wife won the “Grand Prize” and selected Atlantic Blend coffee and the Dark Mint chocolate.
Annie’s name was selected next and she chose the second bag of coffee.
Which means Ashley will receive a bar of dark chocolate.
Your turn. What are your go-to lunches lately? Any weed killer suggestions that are sure to knock my socks off (or, better yet, kill the darn weeds on my walkway)? What is the last thing you won as part of a giveaway or draw?
Header photo by Eilis Garvey on Unsplash
Jenny
Well, I haven’t been having any luck in these giveaways lately, but once years ago I won a GARMIN in a blogger’s giveaway! It was amazing. Then another time I won some protein powder.
Our yard is turning into a jungle with all the weeds, but the one area we don’t tolerate them is when they grow through the cracks in our brick driveway (well, not cracks- the spaces between the bricks.) We don’t even try to kill them (tried that years ago) – now we just weed whack the driveway.
Hmm. Walnuts have always been one of my least favorite nuts, but I may have to re-think that!
Elisabeth
Gah! It was completely random. The only solution is for me to host more giveaways, right? Though a Garmin! That’s amazing and the perfect giveaway for you <3
We can't really weed whack these weeds because the crusher dust would all get dislodged...but I am very tempted by the thought of blow torching them. My hatred of these weeds runs deep and I feel like burning them might feel cathartic? If I'm ever feeling angsty, I can take it out one some weeds in my walkway?
Karen A.
I’ve heard a blowtorch is excellent for killing weeds between flagstones and in sidewalk cracks. They make specific kinds of blowtorches for this purpose.
Elisabeth
This sounds like a BRILLIANT solution and it had never once crossed my mind. I have a landscaper contact and I am going to write her for suggestions!
Daria
Thanks for the lunch suggestions! I love eggs as a snack, but they will not fill me up for lunch unless I have, like, four LOL
Elisabeth
Yeah, I’ve been having 2-3 eggs with the tuna and quinoa. One is definitely NOT enough for lunch (but it’s a nice snack).
Coree
They do take forever so might not be worth it given your space.
We have a long-handled hook thing that hoicks out the weeds and I’ve started paying T a £ a row to do it. But my plan is to literally salt the earth? I’m going to get a cheap big bag of salt and brush it between the pavers.
Elisabeth
Okay, the salt idea sounds cheap and easy. Also, the weeds are completely contained within a border so I don’t need to worry about the salt spilling out into other areas and killing grass etc.
Allison
I don’t like tuna at all, but I love hard boiled eggs (although I forget about them sometimes) and crispy quinoa. That smoothie sounds really good – we got Angus a Ninja smoothie blender but we don’t have one. That might have to change.
We have the weed dragon from Lee Valley – I got it for Christmas for my husband one year partly for the joy of giving him a little blowtorch and partly because I thought it might be useful, and it is very good for getting rid of the weeds between our patio stones.
Elisabeth
Weed Dragon. I mean, that alone should be enough reason to buy it. I am going to the Lee Valley website now to look it up!
Okay – I looked it up and I feel like the mini one would be enough (it’s not a lot of weeds, they just drive me crazy!). Maybe I could combine the two. Get a bag of salt (per Coree’s suggestion) and then have the weed dragon for the rest.
I can’t speak to the Ninja, but I think it’s a lot like the Magic Bullet. I basically use it daily now and LOVE. IT!
I feel like hard-boiled eggs are tough because you have to think of wanting to eat them in advance. When I think of it and make them, I just love my past self for doing the work and having them in the fridge, but I tend to forget about them as an option.
NGS
I won a Kindle once. It was pretty awesome. I used to dedicate a lot of time to giveaways, though, and I just don’t anymore. I also won like ten pounds of blueberries and it was a real challenge because we had a tiny freezer, so I was desperately trying to use all the blueberries before they went bad.
FIRE! Karen is correct. The answer to killing weeds in cracks is fire. We have a weed torch for this very purpose.
Elisabeth
A Kindle! Okay, I need to up my giveaway game I guess. Also…blueberries? I assume this was a local giveaway. I’m chuckling to imagine myself packing up TEN POUNDS OF BERRIES to ship through Canada post.
I can get on board with the fire suggestion! This is my new go-to plan for dealing with weeds this summer.
Steph
Ohhh! I need to get on the toasted quinoa train!!
What is tuna filling? Plain canned tuna? Are there spices? I’m a condiment/sauce gal and very curious about all things flavor/food. 🙂
Elisabeth
Tuna filling – mine had a squirt of mustard, a sprinkle of nutritional yeast, a spoonful of Greek yogurt, a spoonful of mayo, a spoonful of relish, salt and pepper all mixed with a can of tuna. You can sub avocado for mayo and yogurt too! I bet there are TONS of great and more inventive recipes online.
The toasted quinoa is SO. GOOD. (Full credit to my best friend Joy for mentioning this to me; she tried it first, thought I would love it and I DO!)
Sophie
Ooh I like that idea of adding walnuts to smoothies! My current smoothie breakfast is banana, Greek yoghurt, teaspoon peanut butter, baby spinach leaves, avocado if I have some, and milk, and I think walnuts would go very well with that combo and so better at keeping me full until lunch.
Elisabeth
Yes! It really helps it feel more filling. There are tiny flecks of walnuts left when I make mine and I like the little texture element, too.
Congrats on starting a blog! I’ve just visited and left a comment <3
Beckett @ Birchwood Pie
Believe it or not I’ve been on a sandwich kick. Usually I eat leftovers for lunch but for some reason sammies are doing it for me right not. My weed solution is that all lawnscaping stuff is my husband’s responsibility;-) As a single lady I did enjoy pouring boiling water on the cracks in my patio to kill stuff off.
Elisabeth
Sandwiches are just delicious! I think a great sandwich is one of the best food items in the world.
My problem is my husband doesn’t mind the weeds and they drive me crazy. So, fair enough that I take on the responsibility.
My neighbour swears by boiling water, but I’m kinda terrified of burning myself. Also, there are quite a few weeds. Maybe I should be preventative and pour boiling water over all the cracks at the start of the year and do it weekly. But that would be A LOT of work in the bad flagstone pad…
Gigi
Our yard guy just weed whacks them. But if they get too bad before he comes, The Husband will use a salt solution that seems to do the trick. Turns out the squirrels LOVE the salt solution because then they come along and lick all the bricks.
Elisabeth
I actually spoke to our former landscaper yesterday and she said salt is bad for the blue slate flagstones we have. Oops. So I guess that ISN’T going to be my solution.
That’s adorable about the squirrels by the way <3
Ricki
Hi Elisabeth,
I’m a new reader who loves your blog! I just wanted to tell you that the weed killer you used will work if you use very strong vinegar- at least 20% – the supermarket version is only 5%. I ordered mine online, along with that big bottle you mentioned- and it really worked! Just be careful you don’t spray too close to any plants you want to keep! Thanks for such a beautifully written blog😊Ricki in New York
Elisabeth
Hi Ricki! I bought stronger cleaning vinegar but it definitely wasn’t 20%. I will look what I can find online!!!
Michelle G.
Those eggs look delicious! I pretty much like eggs in any fashion. I could eat scrambled eggs and toast for every meal. As for weeds, I have no idea. They’re unstoppable. They’ll grow anywhere and everywhere. Yet, any flowers I plant and coddle will die if I look at them wrong.
Elisabeth
Eggs are the perfect food to me. Filling, light, delicious, and SO easy to do a wide variety of dishes with them.
My houseplants are NOT looking good right now. Why couldn’t the same be true of the weeds?!
Lisa’s Yarns
I am no help on weed killers!!
The crispy quinoa sounds so good! I need to make her. I get a bagged salad from Aldi that has crispy quinoa. It’s so good! I was making the chickpea salad for lunches, but confession/TMI – it gave me awful gas!! So this week I had taco salad using ground turkey for the taco mix. I thought I was over salads but this one has been good/hitting the spot!!
Elisabeth
I am just loving the crispy quinoa.
Chickpeas upset my tummy too, but it doesn’t “hurt” so I still eat them because I know they’re good for me. I’ve given that recipe a rest for a few weeks, but I’m getting a hankering for it again…