Foodie Pen Pals: November!
Do you ever have a workout that is just beyond awesome: one that is fun, challenging, and leaves you feeling great after? That’s what I had yesterday. I managed to leave work in time to attend my favorite Step class, and despite the fact that the routine was completely new, I was hitting almost every move and keeping up very well. At the same time, my heart was pumping thanks to the drills the instructor dispersed throughout the combos she taught us.
I was so hungry all day yesterday, and had to buy a Kashi bar from the gym vending machine (the cheapo in me hates doing that) to fuel up before the class began, but I know that I owe my great experience to the fact that I had a balanced snack beforehand. I’ve struggled through too many group fitness classes because I didn’t eat enough beforehand, and it felt great to know that thanks to my smart choice to snack beforehand, I had one of the best workouts I’ve had in awhile. Have you ever had a great workout that you attribute to proper fueling beforehand?
The main purpose of today’s post is to talk about Foodie Pen Pals! Lindsay and Allie have done a great job starting this program and organizing it each month. Here’s some more details, courtesy of a email I recently received from Lindsay:
- “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 theleangreenbean@gmail.com 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 received a November Foodie Pen Pal package from the fantastic Tara of A Daily Dose of Fit. She’s a certified personal trainer and in my eyes, a certified fine-taste foodie as well, based on the contents of the cute package she sent me!
Tara took the time to write me a sweet card, in my favorite color of pen, explaining each item she sent me.
As I pulled item after item out of the box, I could hardly believe my luck. Tara sent me so much great stuff!
- Garden of Eatin’ (LOVE the name) Sesame Blues All-Natural Tortilla Chips
- Sweet Fire Salsa (made with PICKLES!)
- PB&Co Smooth Operator travel packs
- Raw instant breakfast cereal travel packs
- Buckwheat
- Nature’s Path Organic Bar (Mmmaple Pecan flavor)
- Dark chocolate covered mix of almonds, milk balls, peanuts, and espresso beans
Thank you so very much Tara for the wonderful food! I am love anything interesting made with pickles, and blue tortilla chips are the best! The bar is going to come in handy for a pre-workout snack sometime soon, and the PB will travel well when I head to Florida this Christmas for the week! The most exciting part of the package for me is the buckwheat, because I plan to incorporate it into the recipe I’m using for the Great Blogger Cookie Swap!
I encourage anyone who is interested to participate in the Foodie Pen Pals program! I’m going to be skipping out in December because of my commitment to the Cookie Swap (my wallet can only handle so many shipping charges!) but I will be back and ready to go in January!
Have you ever had any kind of pen pal? In 2nd grade our class had pen pals in Alaska, and my pen pal’s name was Caitlin too. Pretty sure that’s why they paired us together! We bonded over our love of the Spice Girls.
