This was my fourth month participating in Foodie Penpals. For this month & November, I’ve been “splitting” Foodie Penpals with my sister, Ariel. We build the boxes together and share the boxes we receive. We totally forgot to document November, so this is only our 3rd FPP post. Since our box arrived at my sister’s house, I had her type up this Guest Post and snap some the pictures.

What was inside: a great variety of tea (chai, raspberry, mint, etc.), a white chocolate macadamia Luna bar, ginger chews, spearmint gum, a See’s chocolate lollipop, and tea bags to place your own loose leaf tea in it! Everything came in a festive red snowflake tin – which was perfect to store my tea in. I’ve just been sticking my teas into the kitchen drawers – now I can have them all in one place!

I really enjoyed Esther’s package since I feel like she knew me. I unfortunately gave her really vague guidelines, saying I love tea, Luna bars, chocolate, and on-the-go things. She nailed me!

I love ginger chews! I actually get nauseous sometimes and those are really handy to have in your purse.

I really can’t wait to try the different teas you got me and the little tins are so cute – they have cherry blossoms and geishas on them. She told me that she got them in Pearl River Market in NYC. I love going to NYC and I have been there before, so I will pick them up again!

I’ve never tried the Luna bar flavor, but I’m sure it’ll be delicious. The spearmint gum is always a must have in my purse and I’m always running out.  The chocolate lollipop looks promising but I’m saving it for a special day 🙂

Thanks for my perfect package, Esther!

Here’s a pic of what we sent to our FPP, who doesn’t have a blog:

For more information on Foodie Penpals, follow the link below.

This was my second month participating in Foodie Penpals and this time both the person I was sending to and receiving from were located in Texas.

My box contained:

• Laura’s Wholesome Junk Food Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Bite-lettes
• Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter (again…)
• 365 Freeze Dried Tropical Fruit Blend
• Yogi Peach Detox Tea
• Apple Pie & Chocolate Cherry Torte Larabars
• Justin’s Travel-size Almond and Hazelnut Butters

Sadly, I forgot to take a picture since I tore into the box. Things were a bit crazy around here since I was on vacation in NYC around the time of the delivery date. I went shopping for my FPP with my sister. I sent the duplicate Cookie Butter I received last month and received another one! Is this like the Christmas Fruitcake? ^_^

I have mixed feelings about Larabars. I like the fact that there are no unnecessary ingredients and I can count them on one hand. The apple pie one had: Dates, Almonds, Unsweetened Apples, Walnuts, Raisins, Cinnamon. Doesn’t get any simpler than that. They were a good snack without being too sweet or heavy. I don’t typically like chocolate with fruit (and I don’t like bing cherries), but the cherry torte bar was also decent. I ate them but I wouldn’t buy them again.

I was also confused about the “Wholesome Junk Food”. I liked eating them, but after seeing the nutrition facts, was wondering what was healthy about them? I make my own oatmeal cookies which contain only a few ingredients. These were very moist, almost like eating un-cooked dough and had a strong citrus taste. But, they still tasted good because I ate the whole container by myself.

I have yet to sample the butters and tea. The tea will most likely be drank by Dan since I don’t drink too many tea bags. The butters are great because I’ve been wanting to try them and with the hurricane coming soon, will be great shelf-stable snacks. The fruit blend I will have to approach carefully. I tried rehydrating some of them in cocktails but that didn’t seem to work well. I’ll try them in oatmeal for breakfast or baking them in oatmeal cookies with macadamia nuts. I can’t give them to my sister unfortunately since it contains strawberries.

Here is my sister’s Foodie Penpal:

This month I got my first foodie pen pal package! Thanks Jessica for sending me these treats. My mom and brother ate the chips and salsa up and the granola thins are a great pick me up for an afternoon snack! I appreciate that you made me granola too! I’m eating the oatmeal right now while braving out the storm. Thanks for the thoughtful note too. I hope everyone liked their packages too!

To see what my sister sent to her Penpal, head on over to Beyond Frosting and see what Julianne got!

For more information on Foodie Penpals, follow the link below.

This is my first time participating in Foodie Penpals! I heard about it from Not Exactly Bento and was immediately intrigued and signed up. A little bit later I was paired with 2 people – one to send me goodies and one to send to. I was assigned to Jenn from Odds and Ends with JJ — head over there to see what she got from me. Sara from Run Around Sara sent me my box.

My paint-splatter-decorated box arrived in the mail and I tore in to it.

My box contained:

• Trader Joe’s Organic Stone Ground 70% Cacao Extra Dark Chocolate
• Nestle Abuelita Authentic Mexican Style Instant Chocolate Drink Mix
• Trader Joe’s 100-Calorie Pack Oatmeal Cookies
• Trader Joe’s Cookie Butter (one of my faves!)
• Trader Joe’s Thin Mini Edamame Crackers
• CLIF Carrot Cake Bar
• CLIF MOJO Trail Mix Bar
• A Snack-sized Tupperware
• Lovely Handwritten Note

I enjoyed reading the note from Sara and her reasons for choosing each item to send me. Before sending me a box, she asked me a lot of good questions like: Any dietary concerns/restrictions or food preferences I should be aware of? Do you prefer sweet/spicy/salty or “I like it all!”? Coffee, tea, or hot chocolate? If you could eat one cuisine every day for the next year, what would it be? Do you do more baking or more cooking? Are you an adventurous eater? Favorite candy and/or type of chocolate? Something you’d like to try from Boston?

The tupperware is the perfect size for snacks without being too big so that it takes up a lot of space in my apartment. The edamame crackers have already been opened and are halfway gone. I’ve only tried one (my boyfriend is a cracker-hound!) but it tasted surprisingly very much like edamame! I could see it going well with tons of different types of dips and cheeses, though they’ve been devoured so far naked.

Everything else I’ve had before FPP except the Mexican Drinking Chocolate, Stone Ground Chocolate, and the 100-Calorie pack Cookies. I’ve never  seen the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies at my Trader Joe’s and am munching on them now as I type this. I can’t really taste the chocolate chips in the cookies and they’re a bit salty, but you get a good deal of the cookies and they taste much better than other 100-calorie packs.

I’m saving the Stone Ground Chocolate and Mexican Drinking Chocolate for a rainy day. Trader Joe’s has such a great chocolate section that it can be overwhelming. Our Trader Joe’s has the chocolate where you wait to check-out so there is never time to look at all the options.

Thanks for a great box Sara!
Check out Sara’s Blog and Jennifer’s Blog.

I took my sister with me to shop for Jennifer’s box and she loved the idea so much that she’s signed up for next month’s! The great thing about Foodie Penpals is that you don’t have to have a blog to participate.

For more information on Foodie Penpals, follow the link below.