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!

April Foodie Penpal Reveal

My foodie penpal this month was Amanda all the way from California! I am always super excited to be paired with someone who is so far away because I can't wait to see what they send that I can get here and the new things I get to try!

I got my package with plenty of time to be able to enjoy everything and try it before I put my post together.

Of course I have to start by talking about my favorite thing which is the chocolate wafers. They are delicious and something I have never seen around Massachusetts!! I highly recommend them to anyone who comes across them.

I started doing foodie penpals because I wanted to try new things and get out of my comfort zone. That being said there were three things in my package that I was a little apprehensive about. First being the somersaults because they were salty pepper flavored and I do not like anything even remotely spicy which usually also includes pepper. I tired them and they were just too strong for me, my husband however has been enjoying them so win for him!! The other two things where the LaraBar mainly because they have nuts in them and I am not a fan of nuts but I figured I still needed to give them a try. One was apple pie the other was cherry. I tried them and they were actually ok, the texture is actually what got me but then again I have texture issues with lots of things. I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't mind the nuts so much, but still not my favorite things those nuts.

I did however thoroughly enjoy the fruit leather. It made a great snack while in my classroom at work! And who doesn't love chocolate? This chocolate actually had espresso in it too!!

I have to say thank you to Amanda for sending me all these goodies and forcing me to push the envelope and at least try things outside my comfort zone and new to me foods!! And of course thanks to Lindsay at The Lean Green bean for starting and running this great program.

And now it's time for some details about Foodie Penpals.  In case you’re a new reader, here’s a reminder of what the program is all about:
-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 May, please CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions.
You must submit your information by May 4th as pairings will be emailed on May 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!

March Foodie Penpal Reveal!

My foodie penpal for March was Robin (@robinlourie) from Texas! Please make sure to check out her blog as well.

After my first experience with foodie penpals this month I was even more excited and had a hard time waiting til my packages arrived. Wouldn't you know that it would arrive on a day that I come home to change into workout clothes and run back out the door. Needless to say I was a little late that day cause I couldn't pass up being able to atleast open the box but definitely did not have time to sample. So my waiting continued until I was back home 2 1/2 hours later and let me tell I enjoyed every minute of my mini sample session. 

the first thing I tried was Annie's organic honey wheat pretzels. Not only where they delicious but I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that they are shaped like bunnies and carrots. Let's face it I am just a kid at heart!

I also immediately tried the dark chocolate with orange peels. Which was amazing!

Everything else was more things that I could bring with me as snacks. Which is exactly what I did, packed some for snacks with my lunch for the next day.

I love these natural fruit leathers. I brought one with me to work to have as a late afternoon snack and it was great!

I also really enjoyed these crispy cheddar crackers. And the best part was that it fit right in with my classroom because the children got cheese-itz for snack (mine of course were a little better for me though).

A few days later my husband and I went to a place called Purgatory Chasms where you can go down into the rock chasms and do slight rock climbing. The cliff crunch came in very handy as a little something to bring along with us while we were out exploring! I have to say I had never had the crunch granola before and it was really good. I will definitely be stocking up on those!

Robin also sent me a reusable snack taxi (or as I like to call it snack bag). I thought it was really interesting, you can put all your favortie snacks in it that you would normally put into a ziplock bag. The best part is that when it gets dirty you just throw it in the washer. I had to laugh though when I saw it and read that it was from a company in Massachusetts. Someone mailed me something from Texas that originates from my own state I thought that was awesome just how far product can travel.

I will 100% admit that not one of these made it into my mouth for the fact that I made the mistake of leaving my goodies on the counter in the kitchen and my husband decided they would make a good treat for him. But who doesn't love skittles?

For all the goodies I was sent there are only two things that I have not gotten to try yet. Robin sent some amazing teas, green tea tropical and Honey yuzu. 

 I am sure I will get to those soon.

The other thing I did not try is honey. It is local from Texas, but I usually only use honey in baking or cooking so I will be using it soon I am sure.

 

The last thing I got from Robin was a chocolate chip cookie recipe.

I couldn't wait to try it out but unfortunately I had to wait until the weekend. But come Sunday I was baking away in the kitchen and as the title of the recipe states they were the best ever chocolate chip cookies!

I can't thank Robin enough for all the thought and effort she put into sending me a great foodie penpal package. I enjoyed immensely!! And also would like to thank Lindsay for putting this whole program together and making it so fun and easy!

And now it's time for some details about Foodie Penpals.  In case you’re a new reader, here’s a reminder of what the program is all about:

-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. So, I'm going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!
If you’re interested in participating for April, please CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions.
You must submit your information by April 4th as pairings will be emailed on April 5th

Spintastic

I have many friends who have taken spinning class and honestly there is a pretty even split between those you love it and are addicted to it and those who just don't like it. I normally do Zumba on sunday mornings which I absolutely LOVE! But this week our instructed is on vacation so the class was not being held, in an effort to find something to replace it I started looking at the class schedule at the Y. For both yesterday and today the only offering that I was remotely interested in was spin class. I opted to do a swim routine yesterday and do spin today. 

Since I decided to take spin I decided I would ask for some input from others as to their experience so I would have a little heads up as to what to expect. After posting this on both facebook and twitter I pretty much got universally that I would have a sore butt, bring lots of water and a towel. So I prepared myself as best I could the night before and went to get a good nights sleep. A few people suggested I should go get a gel seat cover but unfortunately I did not have time so I just had to hope I would be able to take it for the hour class.

Fast forward to this morning. I arrived early in hopes that I could let the instructor know I was a newbie and get help setting up my bike. However the 8:30 class I was there for the door got unlocked to the studio at 8:25 due to some printer issues apparently so everyone rushed in and got their spots. I ended up in the last row which secretly I was happy about cause I really didn't need anyone watching me attempt this.

 I actually did very well setting up my bike. It ended up not being that difficult but then again I know the basics as far as how much bend in your legs and how far you should be leaning to the handle bars so that was good. It wasn't until we were about a minute into the warm up song that the instructor asked if there was anyone new. I was the only one therefore the spot light was on me, literally because I was directly under the ceiling light! ironic. She said it looked as though I had done well setting up my bike and that most importantly just go at my own pace. 

I am sure glad I listened because let me tell you had I kept up with everyone else it would not have been pretty. I did well until about 25 minutes in. I was keeping good pace and doing well with the sitting/standing intervals. But then I started getting these waves of nausea. I couldn't drink anymore water for fear of it becoming more than just nausea, but I pressed on.

At about 47 minutes I got an extremely strong way of nausea so I really dialed it back. Everyone else was standing and I was lowering gear, go figure! But I didn't give up just because the resistance was lighter didn't mean I wasn't still getting some kind of workout so I was ok with this.

I did recover after a few minutes and was able to step back up to the challenge for the remaining 5 mins and then we started our cool down. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the cool down not only meant going slower but also doing upper body stretches while riding. Then for the last 2 minutes we got off the bike and did leg stretches. I love that this was included in the class!!!

I had started a little earlier than the actual class while I was trying to setup my bike so I got in an extra 3 minutes! I was very happy with 27.1 miles considering the longest I have ever gone on any stationary bike is 12 miles which means I more than doubled that!! 

The best part is that the instructor did such a good job of alternating between sitting and standing my butt doesn't even really hurt that much! I will definitely be visiting a spin class again!

Foodie Heaven!

So I was just surfing the net one night through twitter of all things. I came across a blog someone had written about a Foodie Penpal. Well I thought 'are you kidding there is such a thing as someone basically being your penpal but sends you food, I think this is going to be amazing.' I looked into the program and found out that anyone can be a part of this. but get this I found it on February 4th and they give out the pairings on the 5th but lucky for me I slipped in just in time. (If you are interested in the program all the info is at the end)

We got our pairings on Sunday February 5th. I was paired with Kelly from NY (Ironic since the Superbowl was that day and we were playing the NY Giants). The person who got me was Alexandria from Illinois. I was super excited and couldn't wait to get started. After a day or two I got an email from Alexandria asking for my address of course and if I had any dietary restrictions and if there was anything that I really liked or really didn't like. For those of you who know me know the list of things I like is probably shorter than what I don't like so I had to be methodical about this. I said I had no dietary restrictions but that I really didn't like anything with nuts or anything spicy, as in I don't even like to use pepper on my food. I sent my email off and now started the waiting game of receiving my package!

Now just a little side note about Kelly (who I was sending food to). We were both first time Foodie Penpals so it was fun to go through the experience together. We actually hit it off and have become email penpals in a sense! :-) She is actually a blog reader so I offered to post a guest post for her which will be included a little later on.

So I was very excited to have received my package yesterday! It didn't give me a lot of time to try it but hey I think I did pretty good for 24 hours.

One of the things I was most excited about in doing this whole foodie penpals program is that I really wanted to expose myself to new foods and figured what better way to do it than to have someone send you food items that you most likely have not had before. I am happy to say that there was nothing in my package that I had tried before so I very happy about that!!

I do better with lists so I am go to list what was in my package.
1.) Double chocolate chunk organic granola
2,) Chai Spice organic hot cereal
3.) Chocolate chip cliff bar
4.) Oven-Dried Mango
5.) Feng Shui organic rice crackers
6.) Chai green tea
7.) Dark chocolate candy bar with freeze dried raspberries
8.) Gluten-Free organic chocolate chip cookies

So of all this amazing stuff I have gotten to try everything except that chai spice hot cereal, chai green tea, candy bar and cliff bar. I have plans for them all in the comings days though.

Everything else has been tried and enjoyed. I discovered that the double chocolate granola is delicious in my yogurt, YUM! The dried mango was better than I expected. I am not a big fan of mango in general but dried mango is a little sweeter and was a nice add to my trail mix as a snack. The rice crackers were just something I tried tonight because I found them interesting. The flavor is mild and I think they would be better if I treated them as an actual cracker and ate them with something else like cheese or something of that nature. The thing that I was most excited about was the gluten-free chocolate chip cookies and I promise it wasn't for the obvious reason of them being cookies.

I am a pre-kindergarten teacher and one of the children in my class has been having a lot of issues as far as determining her allergies and her mom decided to take matters into her own hands and started trying different things and as it turns out she seems to have a reaction to gluten as well as milk & eggs. All of which these cookies did not contain. I was able to bring them to school today and she got to share them with me and have a little treat. It was so great to be able to share something with her when recently she hasn't been able to have much at school because of her new diet. Her mother was also very happy that she really like the cookies and took all the info on the brand. I though that was an amazing extention of the Foodie Penpals program!!

I also can't thank Alexandria enough for taking my dislikes into account and of course her lovely hand written card that she included. Everything was just great!

 In the end it was a great expierence, so much fun shopping for someone else as well and getting to hear their feedback! I can't wait to do it again next month!
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Post from Kelly!

I am ecstatic about my first Foodie Pen Pal experience. I was lucky enough to have Aly send me a fantastic package of goodies which included the following: 

 

- Trader Joe's Smoky and Spicy Peach Salsa-which I am loving with my homemade quesadillas, and on the multigrain chips that came in my package as well.

 - Single Serve Freeze Dried Apples-My first experience with freeze dried fruit and I am a fan!

- Aly's Homemade Trail Mix with Various Kashi cereals and dried fruit (which she makes in her dehydrator!)

- Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Orange Sticks-Such a good sweet treat, my hubby loved these too

- 2 different types of Granola bars which I still have yet to try. 

- Last but not least some of her homemade fruit leather.

And of course a lovely handwritten note on Vera Bradley (squee, my fav!) stationary.

 

I am not too picky but I did mention that I follow the WW plan and like to eat healthy and clean and Aly took that, ran with it and sent me an incredibly enjoyable package of food!

  

I am glad to have started participating in the program and am so excited about next month!

I am even happier to have found a new buddy that I can swap food/fitness and life ideas with.

Thanks Aly!!!!

-Kel

......................................................................................................................................................................

If you would like to join us in all this fun here is a little more info!

And now it's time for some details about Foodie Penpals. Here’s what the program is all about:

-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! (Only if you are a blogger)
-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. So, I'm going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!

If you’re interested in participating for March, please send  an email to Lindsay at theleangreenbean@gmail.com and include the following information:
-Your full name
-Your email address
-Your blog name/address
-Your twitter handle (if applicable)
-WHETHER YOU ARE A US RESIDENT OR CANADIAN RESIDENT. - this is SUPER important so you get on the right list!

You must submit your information by March 4th as pairings will be emailed on March 5th!

***PLEASE NOTE: if you send an email, you WILL GET A RESPONSE within 48 hours. If you don''t....please re-send your email or contact Lindsay via Twitter (@LeanGrnBeanBlog). Last month we had a few emails get lost as spam so we're trying to avoid that!

Birthday Surprise!

So my husband told me that we would be going away for the weekend to celebrate my birthday which was on Sunday. He would not tell me where we were going so I was in for a surprise. We left Friday morning and stopped at the Wrentham Outlets to do some shopping. It was nice to be able to walk around, look in the stores and just spend some leisurely time together. We left there and headed to our final destination!

We ended up in Brewster, Ma which is what some refer to as the heart of Cape Cod.

We stayed at a little bed and breakfast called Ole Manse Inn!

When we got there they were having a wine and cheese social for some of the guests. So we brought our things in, changed and headed out to partake in the festivities with everyone. The other couples were old than us, most of them had children that were only a few years younger than us but it was still nice to get to know who we would be sharing the B&B with for the next couple of days.

After the wine and cheese we relaxed for a little while in our room and then decided we wanted to go find something for dinner. However to our dismay we discovered that everything around Brewster closes up around 8:30 so finding food proved to be quite difficult. We ended up finding a Chinese restaurant called the double dragon. We ordered some food and went back to the B&B to eat and watch Despicable Me!

The next morning we were up bright and early so that we could be ready to be at breakfast for 9am.

This is the menu board as we walked into the dining room.

Everything was delicious! Me one of the pickiest people I know even ate the Greek Fritatta (minus the mushrooms of course). 

After breakfast we decided we would head down to Provincetown and walk along the strip and go to all the little shops. We spent about 4 hours there and it was really nice because it wasn't too cold outside and because it is the off season it wasn't overly crowded so it was a nice way to spend the day. We did come across some rather fun things though. 

 It isn't everyday you come across a pink bear!

We then went back and had lunch at place called The Lost Dog. We had a really good Surf and Turf pizza which had a white sauce with cheese, scallops and bacon...Delicious!!

Then we returned to our room to rest/nap/watch another movie. By the time we decided it was time to get up and go find something for dinner it was once again close to 10pm but this time we thought we were prepared. I had found a pub that was open until 1am and we were able to get a gift certificate through restaurant.com for it as well. We get there only to find out that they are infact open until til 1am but their kitchen closed at 9pm...apparently we are just not meant to have dinner so we go back to our room.

The next day was a little better. We again got up early to make sure we don't miss breakfast, this time we were getting blueberry stuffed french toast!

It was very good but could have stood to be a little sweeter!

We decided that since it was such a nice day outside and we were so close that we couldn't leave without walking down to the beach. So we packed our stuff, checked out, packed the car and headed out on our walk. I however miss understood what the inn keeper told us and took the wrong street, we did however realize this and was able to take a little detour to get ourselves back on track.

We walked down a little side road to get back on track and it just so happened to be next to this cemetery.

We did finally make it to the beach and had to walk about a mile along the shore to get to where we should have been to begin with. 

But with a view like this who wouldn't want to walk along the beach?

We enjoyed our walk and did make it back to where we should have started. We also made it back to the B&B, to the car and headed for home.

We decided to stop in Framingham and walk around Shoppers World just to go in the stores and it was actually nice out so we figured why not. 

We ended our weekend at Not Your Average Joe's restaurant in Westborough because they have an amazing birthday offer of a free entree and dessert so who can pass that up? All the food was delicious and it was a great way to end an amazing weekend! I think everyone should take the time to get away every now and then, it is something we all need!

Thank you to Lewis for making my birthday so special, I hope you had as much fun as I did!

Achivement Is The Best Motivation!

So I have been on my "health kick" for quite sometime and even with a few weeks that were lacking I have been able to keep on my path for the most part. But every little bit of motivation helps even the slightest thing helps even something as small as feeling a new muscle!

But I had what I consider to be a huge achievement this weekend and it is a huge motivator for me. I have been able to wear smaller clothes but nothing significant until now. I decided I really needed a couple of pairs of new pants so I went shopping. I decided to try on a pair that I figured it was pretty slim (pun intended) that they would fit. I was SHOCKED that not only did they fit but they fit great!! 100% comfortable and moveable. I am so excited that I have managed to keep myself on the straight and narrow long enough to start to really see some drastic results. I am now wearing pants that are 5 sizes smaller than they were 8 months ago!!

This is my new jeans on top of an old pair of pants...look at that difference!

It had been such a huge source of motivation for me to keep doing what I'm doing. If you had asked me at any other part of my life if I would ever wear clothes this size I would have said it would never happen. Now I have managed to do it which means I can keep going and make even greater accomplishments!!

I can't wait to see what my next adventure will bring!