Foodie Pen Pals: May Reveal

This month, I started participating in a fun program started by Lindsay over at The Lean Green Bean: Foodie Pen Pals! Lindsay started the program last year as a way to connect food bloggers and readers across the country, and since then it has grown to include over 800 participants and has even spread over to the UK. Whoa!

So what exactly is a Foodie Pen Pal? Well, it’s simple: On the 5th of every month you are paired up with two other participants, one to whom you will be sending a box and one from whom you will be receiving a box (sending and receiving from different people allows everyone to connect with more people each month, making it even more fun!). You are responsible for contacting the person you are sending to in order to check for food allergies or dietary restrictions – and then comes the fun part! You send them a box of foodie-friendly goodies; these can be homemade treats, specialty food items from your hometown, or even fun things like seasonal cupcake liners. The options are endless!

Boxes are sent out by the 15th, and on the last day of every month, participants reveal what they received from their Foodie Pen Pal on their blogs. The whole program is a great way to “meet” new people with a passion for food, discover great new blogs, and try out some foodie-friendly items that you might not have known about before.

This month I received a box from Jen, a New Yorker sharing her fitness journey on her blog, A Runner’s Story. Jen sent me a box stuffed full of all sorts of fun things, including some gorgeous red quinoa, tri-colored quinoa pasta (I see a summery gluten-free pasta salad in my future!), and quinoa-based crackers (I swear I didn’t even tell her how much I love quinoa…she just hit the nail on the head!). She also threw in some wasabi rice crackers, which I can’t wait to top with a fun, summery dip, awesome granola made by Bear Naked, and my personal favorite: tomato-basil flavored hummus chips made by Simply 7! I may or may not have immediately ripped into and devoured half the bag at 10 am…while at work…I have no shame.

If you are interested in learning more about becoming a Foodie Pen Pal (remember it is open to bloggers AND blog readers!), you can read all of the rules and sign up on Lindsay’s site (or simply click the button at the top of this post to go straight there!).

Now, if you will please excuse me, while you sign up to be a Foodie Pen Pal, I am off to plan birthday festivities for a certain man in my life who is turning 25 tomorrow.

{Quick shameless plug} This weekend is the Take Steps for Crohn’s and Colitis walk! My family and friends are joining me in raising money for digestive disease research, a cause that hits very close to home. You can still help us reach our fundraising goal of $1,500 by visiting our team page and donating! Every little bit helps and means the world to me.