Foodie Pen Pal August Reveal!

This is my first time joining in on the FPP craze. M started it, she joined several months ago and gushes about it like crazy, so I was intrigued... but it took me a while to sign up. I finally did, and I had a great time putting together a package for my person, trying to find tasty things that are healthy and not processed. And I eagerly awaited the arrival of my own package.

Well, sadly, it never came. I'm still hopeful it's just late, but we'll see.

So I'll show you what I sent my person!

Maple almond butter, because I've now jumped on the nut butter bandwagon. Unless I start working out constantly nut butters will remain a very occasional indulgence (although it's likely I'll be back to working out constantly, my first stint back on the elliptical went much better than I expected!).

I sent my very favorite Chocolove Chilies and Cherries in Dark Chocolate. I love the spicy and sweet together, and the dark chocolate makes it not too sweet. I really wanted to send Lake Champlain chocolate to my person in CA, but sadly Wegman's does not carry it, and I forgot to ask Clint to grab me some from the Coop last time he went up to Hanover, and I didn't have time to get down to WH where their Whole Foods carries it. Maybe next time!

I sent a recipe for my favorite pumpkin cookies, along with flaxseed meal and Penzey's special cinnamon blend, two ingredients for the recipe.

And the day after the package I mailed across the country arrived at my persons' door, some friends and I indulged in some things that are probably a FPP person's dream come true:

Nutty Butter.

From left to right: cookie dough nutty butter, oatmeal raisin cookie nutter butter, lemon bar nutter butter, and chai (nut) tea nutter butter. We really went nuts for these nutty butters. (and the ever-present white wine, of course, it's traditional).

Despite my non-ideal introduction to FPP (what with my lost package and all), I'm very excited for the next month! I've even stocked up on items from my favorite foodie fun store (now, that place really deserves its own post) in preparation!

How can you join the fun?

Here are the details:

-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. 

Little side note: this is like the month of unreceived packages- you may be aware that the Lilly Pulitzer Endless Summer Sale recently occurred and you might be wondering why I haven't posted about it yet! Well, I'm waiting til my items arrive. Yeah, it's been a week and a half, and I'm still waiting on several (5) items. That, and other very exciting posts, are coming soon!