This was my first month in Foodie Penpals. It was so much fun! . Essentially you get paired up with another foodie in the United States and you send them a little care packages of food. How cool is that?! I first heard about it through Molly at Hungry, Hungry Runner. I saw her post from October and was immediately jealous. Thank goodness she told me how to sign up so I could participate.

Lindsay at The Lean Green Bean is the brains of this operation. She has a great blog about healthy eating and I love reading her updates on Twitter. I have included some information below on how you can join this super fun group.

November Packages

To see the Wisconsin treats that I sent my penpal, Joanna, check out her Foodie Penpal blog post. Her blog, Brave, Real World, talks about life after graduate school. I wish I would have known about when I first left graduate school.

I got a package from Tori Marvin from Pennsylvania. I was so impressed with how much thought she put into it!

I could tell she read my blog, she knew I liked salty, crunchy things and spice. Somehow she also picked up on my weakness for blackberries and root beer. And tea, oh how I love tea!

The Dilly Beans were canned in Western Pennsylvania. I was so excited to get them and then realized I didn’t know what to do with them. Luckily, my cousin arrived and told me that you just eat them cold. Yum!! We began snacking on them immediately. When Manatee saw them, he exclaimed “Bloody Marys!” So, I am saving some for our next football game so we can throw them in our drinks.

This is another local product. It has the perfect combo of sweet and spice. It’s almost gone now. I am hiding it from Manatee. He loves spicy mustard with sun dried tomatoes. If you haven’t tried it before, it’s a great sub for crackers. I ate half of this jar with pretzels which is also very good.

Blackberry Goodness. Yum. Tory didn’t realize it but her package had perfect timing. That night I hosted a girls’ night party.

We paired this blackberry jam with blue cheese. Heavenly!! We started eating it with crackers and when that ran out, we ate them with blue corn and flaxseed chips which was even better!

 

Tory also sent me a recipe for Sleek. I just bought some bulgar yesterday and I can’t wait to try the recipe. I will definitely post it on the blog, so check back!

Now, doesn’t this sound like fun? Don’t you want to join?

Here is some information on the program:

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.

*US Residents only please at this time- hopefully we can expand soon!*

If you’re interested in participating for December, please send  an email to Lindsay at[email protected] and include the following information:
-Your full name
-Your email address
-Your blog name/address
-Your twitter handle (if applicable)

She will need to hear from you by December 4th as pairings will be emailed on December 5th!

I think you should all sign up. It was super fun and such a nice treat to receive in the mail. Check back in at the end of December to see my next package. 

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