Foodie Pen Pals

Wow, I feel like I’ll never get back to my normal day-to-day life posts…

Last month for the 1st time I participated in Foodie Pen Pals, sponsored by Lindsay over at The Lean Green Bean, and I wanted to make sure I posted about it before the month was over (side note – can you believe tomorrow is June?)

What is a Foodie Pen Pal?  Here’s the info from Lindsay:

• On the 5th of every month, you 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.

If you’re interested in participating for June, head over to The Lean Green Bean, and 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!

My foodie pen pal was Victoria, over at Raw Vegan in College and she sent me an amazing box of goodies.  I’m currently plowing through the jar of peanut butter, already polished off the cinnamon & sugar walnuts (I’m going to try and figure out how to make my own) and devoured the cookies in a day.

I could not believe that something wheat-free, dairy-free and gluten-free could be this good.  I seriously think these may have been some of the best store bought cookies I’d ever eaten.

I haven’t tried the blueberry jam yet but I’m thinking it would be great in some oatmeal or maybe on waffles?  And I’m trying to figure out a good way to use the almonds…maybe on a salad?

Overall, this was a fun little thing to try for a month but I don’t think I’ll be participating again (you can participate as much as you want).  While I loved what I received in the mail I didn’t have the best experience with who I mailed things to (you’re not necessarily matched with the same person you receive from).  My original pen pal never emailed me back so after about 2 weeks I got matched up with another person which left very little time to shop and send before the deadline.  Not to mention shipping out my box of goodies ( I send all local Oregon products – Bob’s Red Mill steel cut oats, Cougar Mountain Oregon Hazelnut cookies and a few made in Oregon protein bars) cost as much as the treats in my package. So for now, I’m going to hold off on doing any more pen pal exchanges but I love reading about them so I’d definitely encourage you guys to try it for a month or so.

What are your thoughts?  Have you ever done something like this?