March Foodie Penpal Reveal!

It's that time again to reveal my foodie penpal package for March! It came from Marie all the way from Ohio state. I can't thank her enough for her thoughtfulness, she really listened to my likes and dislikes.

I opened the box and the first thing I saw was this...

The color immediately caught my eye because I have a new love of lime green with it being the lymphoma awareness ribbon color. Marie sent this to me because I had told her and she checked out my blog that I was a cancer survivor. This it from her school. They do a dance marathon every year called Buckeyethon to raise money for Nationwide's children's Hospital hematology/oncology department. I was thrilled to learn about such a great thing Ohio State does and of course all the goodies inside!!

The first thing that I pulled out was a yummy jar of peanut butter. peanut butter is one of my all time favorite foods so I was thrilled.

But this wasn't just any ordinary peanut butter, this one was packed full with even more portein than normal and it is all natural! And boy is it yummy. Marie also sent me the recipe for the traditional Buckeyes which I plan on using some of this peanut butter to make!

Next out of the bag were these little gems...

The thought behind these yummy Dessert Delights was that I told Marie I love baked goods but that I was trying to stay on the healthy side of things. These are great I did try them and then ended up giving them to my friend only because chewing gum aggravates my TMJ which I suppose I should tell people about but I always forget. either way they tasted great and I love the thought and idea behind them.

Then last but certainly not least was this...

It isn't just your normal run of the mill hot chocolate though. It is a nutritional supliment which according to Marie's note has added protein in it. I think this will be great to save as a recovery treat after one my road races or long training days! Marie if you read this could please send the brand name and maybe the nutritional information?

Thank you again Marie for this package. You really did an amazing job thinking about lots of different things about me. And also thanks to Lindsay over at The Lean Green Bean for creating this program and running it so well for all of us!

Now for the fun part how you all can get involved...

-Just head over to Lindsay's Blog and click on the link to sign up.

-On the 5th of the 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 can choose 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 Penpals is open to US, Canadian residents & UK 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. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada! 

***If you’re in the UK, please contact Carol Anne from This Is Rock Salt at rocksalt@thisisrocksalt.com to get involved.

September Foodie Penpal Reveal

This month my foodie penpal was Sara from Sarathlete. She did a fantastic job of putting together a great package for me. It's funny because when I opened the box it was all covered/wrapped with purple tissue paper...

my first thought was 'oh I love it.' my second thought was 'I don't remember telling Sara purple was my favorite color.' Then I went back and checked out her blog again which has lots of purple and so I came to the conclusion that it just so happens that we both like purple. But it was a nice surprise in the box none the less and made me even more excited to see what was under it.

The first thing I spied were theses.

 I am a huge fan of Trader Joe's but I had never had theses so I couldn't wait to try them. I LOVE CHOCOLATE! Of course as soon as I ate them I was in love. The funny thing is that my husband is now just as excited about foodie penpal boxes as I am and he does not like chocolate. However I am pretty sure he ended up eating more of these than I did. (yea they are that good)

Next thing I took out was...

mini milk chocolate peanut butter cups! my two favorite things all together. There was only one problem (sort of) you would think that at this point sending anything like this to the New England area in September the likely hood of anything melting would be pretty small however something happened and they were all melted together. But have no fear that did not stop me! I ate the whole package anyway. Don't worry not all at once. Even all squished together they were still delicious!! Definitely something I will be getting again.

Then I took this out...

The cocoa almond butter from Trader Joe's is one of my favorite chocolate flavored nut butters out there. I love to use it in the morning with my breakfast. This couldn't have come at a better time because I just finished the jar I had and was in need of some more!

Now I was getting to the last few things in the box and the next thing that caught my eye was...

Trader Joe's peanut butter chewy coated & drizzled granola bars. I was so excited to see these for three reasons. First because I LOVE peanut butter. Second because I really like granola bars and I like trying new ones. And third because I like to have little snacks with me and these would be perfect. I have to admit I am always a little weary of sending a whole box of something in case they don't like it. However Sara was right on the money sending the whole thing because they are delicious and I still have some left even after using them for snack while at work. This was a great find!!

The last thing I pulled out of the box was...

GHIRARDELLI! It is hard for me to find a Ghirardelli chocolate that I don't like. It takes some getting used to for me to like the dark chocolates so I am working on these but I am sure they will be delicious.

One of the cool things Sara does is in every foodie penpal box she sends she puts in one thing that is vegan but she doesn't tell you which one it is, she asks that you guess. Well I was very thorough and really study all the ingredients of each thing she sent me. When I was sure that I had the right thing I emailed her back and told her that I thought the Ghirardelli chocolates were vegan. As it turns out I was correct! It is always good to know about new things that are vegan. Although I am not vegan I try to be as educated as possible so that I am sending people things they can eat.

As I am writing this and looking back on everything I got I see the theme Sara was going for Chocolate and Nut Butter. I approve this theme 100%.

Thank you again Sara you did a fantastic job and I have enjoyed everything! And of course thank you to Lindsay over at The Lean Green Bean for putting this whole program together and managing everything too!

Now, after reading that don’t you want a penpal of your own?! Here are the details!

-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 September, please CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions.

You must submit your information by October 4th as pairings will be emailed on October 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!