Thursday, May 31, 2012

May Foodie Penpal Reveal!

I have to start by thanking my foodie penpal Julianna! She did a fantastic job of putting together a package that stayed away from things I do not like, giving me things that are my favorite and including some of her favorites too. Please check out her blog and see what she is up to over there in California!!

I seem to always get my package on Thursdays when I have to come home from work, change and run out again so I didn't get to explore my package right away but I couldn't wait to get back so I could!

The first thing that immidiately caught my eye was the pop chips!
As you can see I couldn't even wait to take a picture before I opened them and tried them. They are really good and I was surprised just how much better they are for you than regular potato chips. Not they are healthy but if your going to eat chips anyway theses are the ones to eat, they are delicious. My husband who is a snack guy tried them too and he really liked them. I think I found a new snack for him.

The next two things that I was super excited about where the chocolate bars because I love chocolate!

The dove is already long gone. I am not a huge fan of dark chocolate but I am slowly starting to get an acquired taste for it. I am huge into baking and trying new things so I am sure I will use it in my next baking experiment.

I was very excited to see dried mango!
I had gotten them in my first foodie penpal box and found that I really like them! She also sent me some freeze dried apples from archer farms. They were delicious I always find it interesting how much they taste just like a juicy apple.

Julianna also sent me two Luna bars.
 I have never had either one of these. So of course I tried the S'mores one first! It was delicious and gave me just the right amount of energy when I ate it with a banana before my very first step class! I am looking forward to trying the Lemon Zest one too. I love to have things handy for on the go snacks!

Which brings me to my next two things. She gave me a package of Justin's All-Natural Honey peanut butter and Nature Valley's Granola thins that are dark chocolate and peanut butter, YUM!!

I used Justin's with my breakfast on a 100% whole wheat english muffin with cut bananas. It was amazingly good and it kept me full until lunch!

The granola thins are a great little snack to be able to grab on my way out the door as I am constantly heading somewhere! I like to added them to my lunch as well!

So as you can see this was a fantastic foodie penpal month and I can't thank Julianna enough for all my great goodies. I also want to thank Lindsay over at The Lean Green Bean for putting this whole foodie penpals program together and all the hard work you put into it to make it go so smoothly for us!

If you would like to join us for June's foodie penpals here is all the info you will need to sign up!
-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month. 
-Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We've determined things might get too slow and backed up if we're trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa
If you’re interested in participating for June, please CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions.
You must submit your information by June 4th as pairings will be emailed on June 5th!

*If you're from somewhere besides the US, Canada or Europe and want to participate, send me an email and I'll see if we get enough interest this month!