Foodie Penpal Reveal

Hiya all! Happy Thursday --- one more day and we've made it to yet another weekend. Can I get a woot woot?! Is it not crazy that it's May 31st today?! We're almost halfway through 2012 - I can hardly believe it!!!

 

...and with the month end comes another Foodie Penpal Reveal.

Every month I score some awesome swag and this month was no different. I received this month's package from Denise at Crazy Mother Runner. This is what I found when I opened up my box of goodies:

~ Bengal Spice Herbal Tea

~ Honey Roasted Cashews

~ Quinoa Crisp

~Vega Whole Foods Vibrancy Bar

~ Sweet & Hot Apple Mustard

I'm pretty sure I let out a big whoopie! when I opened it because the first thing I spied was the tea. My friend, Barb, always has a box of this tea at her desk and I'm forever snagging a bag for my afternoon tea time. It's got a unique 'spiciness' about it that I absolutely love! All of the other goodies were new to me and I have to tell you that I'm loving everything so far.

I sent my package to Nicole. I was pretty excited with all the yumminess that I put together for her, so check out her site to see what I sent. You may also notice that she has an absolutely beautiful photography business --- I wish we didn't live on opposite ends of the country because I browsed some of the pics and they are gorgeous!

Do you think you'd be interested in participating in the Foodie Penpal exchange in June?? If you are, here are the deets:

-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!

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I hope you have a fabulous day and I promise that I will see you tomorrow with a recipe (finally!).

See ya on the flipside my friends,

Andrea
xo

Foodie Penpals - April Reveal

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you enjoyed your weekend. We had really beautiful weather yesterday and I got to spend the whole day with my buddy, The Hankster.

Everytime I would move off the couch, he would scoot right up there!

He came on a roadrip with me to run some errands and then we spent the entire afternoon at home. It was pure bliss.

So here we are --- another Monday, another Foodie Penpal reveal day. Seriously, can you believe it's the end of April?! I am just amazed at how fast this year has been flying by!?

This month I was paired up with Tamara from You. Naturally.  Make sure you go check out her site...she has tons of valuable knowledge focussing primarily on health and wellness. I was so excited to be paired with her because we both belong to the same Facebook group, so I'd seen her name, but never really checked out what her site was all about until the penpal match.

She hooked me up huge this month!!! I really like being paired up with someone who lives across the country because it's awesome to get some local goodies that I've never seen around here. I also really appreciated the fact that my goodies were vegan, organic and fair-trade certified. I love being a conscious consumer!

In my package I received:

• Hungry Hemp Bar with Cranberries (LOVE - this was my fave thing so far!!!)
• Enjoy Life Double Chocolate Brownies
• Camino Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter bar (this lasted about 30 seconds after the package was opened :)
• Nori Jerky
• Westcoaster Dark Chocolate Bar with Toasted Hazelnuts & Wild Blueberries
• Dark Chocolate Easter Bunny
• Savi Seeds Karmalized in Raw Sugar Cane
• Matcha Bar
• 2 Amazing Grass Drink Powders

She did a great job of getting things that were suited to me. In fact, I've really wanted to try the Enjoy Life products and Amazing Grass powders for quite some time....and dark chocolate...well if you've followed my blog for any length of time, you know that is one way to this girl's heart <3

So thank you so much Tamara for a wonderful package! I've still got some things to try and it's taken every ounce of willpower not to rip into every single item!

My penpal matching was a little different situation. I was paired with Lisa and it turns out we live very close to one another and our offices are literally one block apart! Cah-razy! I am willing to bet that we have probably walked right past one another at some point over the years!! Here's a sneak peek of the goodies that I sent out to her.

So are you intrigued? If you're interested in participating in May's Foodie Penpal, here are the deets:

-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!

Have a Happy Monday!

Andrea

xo

Adventures in Foodie PenPal-ing

When I was young, my parents sent us away to camp each summer and I made lots of fabulous friends that I stayed in contact with by exchanging letters and pictures and mixed tapes (do you remember those old cassettes that you would use to tape your fave songs right off the radio?! LOL) I've always loved mail and packages and corresponding with friends using the good ol' fashioned postal service.

A few months ago, I saw that some of my favourite bloggers had started participating in a foodie penpal program where they would exchange some fun foodie items and treats with each other and then everyone would blog about the goods that they had received. Of course, I wanted in on all the fun!

It took a few months for the foodie penpal phenom to spread to the Great White North, but I'm ecstatic to announce that it has arrived, so welcome to my first ever Foodie Penpal post. Thank you so much to Lindsay for creating this penpal party and for making the leap to include us Canadians!

Seeking out some great treats to send and receiving some fabulous treats in return was so much fun....and I haven't even mentioned all the new bloggers I've discovered in the process! I've got to tell you that the blogging world is full of some amazing people and it has been so wonderful getting to connect with so many of you <3

My foodie package came from Erin from Saskatoon.

I picked up my package from the post office last week. I picked it up before I went to work and planned to wait to open it until I got home. Well, patience is not a virtue of mine, so as soon as I got my car parked at work, I dug right in to check out all the goods that Erin sent to me.

This is what I found...

First of all,  anything that contains a bakery box of chocolate macaroons is a huge WIN in my books. There might have been 5 chocolate macaroons in this box when I received it, but by the time I got home and snapped a pic,  there were only 3. Lucky for me Derek is not a huge fan of macaroons, so there was absolutely no sharing by this girl. I ate all 5 within the first day :-D They were really, really divine! The box quickly looked like this ;)

The next thing I dug into were the Honey Bars.

Finding protein-packed bars that are NOT full of dates can be tricky, so I was thrilled with these!! So far I've only eaten the apricot one and I have to tell you that it was amazing! I had it as a pre-workout snack one afternoon and not only did it taste great, but it held me over until later in the evening when I had time to get some dinner together.

Derek has been the taste-tester of the jam. I sent him a PB & J sammie yesterday for lunch and he really, really liked it! I had a little taste great big spoonful right out of the jar and I have to tell you, I love me some Saskatoon berries. Why have I never heard of these before?!  

Oh yeah, I totally did ;)

Lastly, Erin sent me a jar of curry paste that she found at a local craft sale. I haven't tried it yet because I'm saving it for a date night with Derek when I can hopefully wow him with some yummy Indian-inspired food. I'm totally intimidated by curry, so I'm thinking this is going to an awesome way to get my toes wet!

I love that Erin sent me so many "Made in Canada" products. It was a great reminder that we have alot of amazingness right here at home! I'm always drooling over products that I run out of that I can only find in the States and sometimes I forget how many great foodie items are available right here in Ontario.

  

If you're interested in seeing the goods that I sent out to my penpal, head on over to Christina's site for a peek.

If you love what you see and you're dying to get in on the fun, contact Lindsay at The Lean Green Bean by March 4th. This is one link up par-tay you do not want to miss! She will pair you up with another participant and provide you with their deets on the 5th. You have until the 15th to send out your package and then everyone blogs about their goods on the last day of the month. Sounds like fun doesn't it?!

If you were to send out one foodie item to a friend, what would it be?

Did you have a penpal when you were young? If you did, are you still in touch?

Enjoy your day!

Andrea

xo