August Foodie Penpal - Reveal Day

Last month I heard about Foodie Penpals - a fun food exchange that is run by Lindsay of The Lean Green Bean.

Participants sign up the month prior to participating on The Lean Green Bean website. By the 5th of the month (in this case, August), all the participants are assigned a penpal for whom they create a box of food products.

The boxes are to be filled with fun food-related items, 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.

By the 15th of the month, all the participants mail their boxes of goodies to their penpals. On the last day of the month, each participant posts about the goodies s/he received from her/his penpal!

This month I'm so excited to share with you what I received from Caitlin from Washington D.C.

Here's what I received this month:

Now a close-up of the items. Delicious homemade cookies - one version has dairy and the other does not have dairy (for Sophia). These were very tasty...and thankfully Caitlin included the recipe so we can make more batches of these cookies.

There's an Asiago and Roasted Garlic Mix which can be mixed with sour cream or cream cheese. I chose to use a fat-free sour cream. This all-natural mix created a wonderful dip for vegetables.

My favorite beverage in the morning is hot chocolate...and what should be in the box but a delightful canister of Chocolate Mousse Hot Chocolate. This is a very rich mix that is blended with a cup of hot milk.

When the hot chocolate is done, the reusable container is a ready-to-use bank with a slit in the top of the can. Very clever!

There are two Iced Oatmeal Cookie bars - one each for Sophia and Olivia - that I'm saving for when we go to Lake Itasca next month. When we are on one of the hikes we plan to take, they can snack on the bars. I'm sure they'll enjoy them.

There are two bags from Bob's Red Mill - one is 13 bean soup mix and the other is an eight-grain hot cereal. I haven't had the chance yet to try the soup mix. That will be good on a chilly, fall day.

We tried the other bag (with the hot cereal), and thoroughly enjoyed it! With the variety of different grains, it's a delightful change from oatmeal (which we have about once a week during the colder months). Sophia, Olivia, and I each added different items our bowls of the hot cereal. 

These were the different items I put out on the "hot cereal bar" - hot raisins that were plumped in boiling water; sucanat sugar (dried cane juice that has a high level of vitamins and minerals in it, unlike white refined sugar); dried bananas; and a cinnamon-maple-apple topping from Vermont.

This was such a fun experience, and I'm looking forward to participating again next month!

So, if you enjoy sampling a variety of food, like sending gifts to people you haven't met, and receiving packages in the mail from someone you get to learn more about through a letter, recipes(s), and food...then check out Foodie Penpals!

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If you're interested in seeing what I sent, below is a picture of what I sent to Meredith at What's Cooking. Check out her blog to see what each of the items are and what she thought about what I sent to her.

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