January Foodie Pen Pals

This month I participated in my first Foodie Pen Pal exchange – and it was so much fun! At first I was a tad hesitant to participate, after all I’d be giving my address to a complete stranger. But my fears were put at ease quickly as I was able to blog stalk the foodie who was paired up with me. And I’ll assure you, Lauren of Hugs, Kisses n’ Dishes is totally normal 🙂

Lauren and I quickly bonded over our shared love of Rubios – a delicious fast food Mexican chain in the San Diego area. While she couldn’t easily ship me my beloved fish tacos, she did send me many of the ingredients to whip up my own.

Additionally, she sent me some delicious dark chocolate, yummy fruit leathers, garlic gold nuggets, and my absolute favorite winter tea: Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride. I’ve been looking for this tea since October! My heart did a happy dance when I saw this tumble out of my box.

I sent my box of goodies off to Erin, a blog reader. Since she won’t be able to post about what I sent her, I took a quick picture before I boxed it up and sent it on its merry way. Her box contained my favorite peanut butter for Trader Joe’s, pickled figs from Boat Street and a sample candy pack from the local candy shoppe, Bruttles.

Are you interested in becoming a foodie pen pal during the month of February? Contact Lindsay of the Lean Green Bean at  theleangreenbean@gmail.com. Here is some information from Lindsay about the Foodie Pen Pal program:

-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. 

*Breaking news! This month we’re going to do a trial run for our Canadian friends. I’m still not exactly sure how it will work with shipping costs and stuff for you guys up North, but if you’re willing to give it a try for a month and provide me with some feedback, that would be awesome! 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. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!

If you’re interested in participating for February, 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)
–WHETHER YOU ARE A US RESIDENT OR CANADIAN RESIDENT. – this is SUPER important so I can get you on the right list!

She needs to hear from you by February 4th, as pairings will be emailed on February 5th!