Foodie PenPals!

Hello everyone!

I decided to do the PenPal thing that I have seen like everyone and their mother doing on their blogs. When I saw it I knew I had to get involved and guess what?? It is too much fun!

You are more than welcome to get involved too, if you want to just click the icon above!

Van Le at ChiEATS got my named pulled from the hat so she sent me goodies this month.  She seems like a total sweetheart and her blog is super cute. She is a Texas born girl who now lives in Chicago, Illinois AND her boyfriend went to Penn State!  How great is that?! Such a small world.

ALSO, make sure you stop by Rhonda’s blog at  Kids Running Wild to see all the goodies she got from me! I am definitely going to be stopping by her blog more often because my girlfriends and I have decided to train for a run this summer at Penn State during Arts Fest. It is only a 5k, but when you aren’t really a runner you definitely need to get back in the habit.

I used to run all the time, but I have such problems with my ankles that I stopped. I have to be determined now to fight through the pain to reach my goal in the summer. Rhonda’s blog has a lot of cool things about running. I actually am able to run about 3.2 miles right now consistently, so I just need to better my times, OR even try to run more than that by the time the race is. I have a feeling she will be helpful! 😉

Anyways so back to Van. She asked me what I might want this month for the foodie Pen Pals fun, so I asked her to hook me up with some Midwestern things because I miss the Midwest SOOO much. She did an awesome job.

Unfortunately one of the thing she sent shattered into pieces during transit, such a bummer! But the others came through okay :-).

This is totally silly but my favorite thing that she sent?? Is the Lawry’s season salt. We used to get this ALL the time when I lived in the Midwest. We put it on french fries, on chicken, on chips! Basically anything.

It might be a simple item, but it reminds me of when I was little and how my mom used to use it all the time in the kitchen so thanks Van!

I tried the salsa as well because I am a salsa freak! This one is particular is made by Rick Bayless who owns Torta Frontera. There is one located in the Chicago O’hare airport. Every time I travel through there for work I always stop and get the chipotle chicken torta. To die for! It is located at B14 in the airport (is it sad I know that?? Haha) so make sure and check it out if you are ever there, OH and don’t be surprised if you see a line.

This salsa has a very interesting, almost smokey flavor that I think would be great when marinating things as well as having it with chips.

The BBQ sauce I haven’t tried just yet, but I am sure I will love it. My whole family is a BBQ sauce family. We try all sorts of new kinds and whenever we go back to Kansas City, we end up coming back with like oh 3-16 bottles of KC BBQ sauce haha.

Thanks again Van! I loved it all and I am sorry that one of your items broke, but it is the thought that counts. It smelled amazing whatever it was haha.I hope that you got some good things from your foodie pen pal!

If you think you might be interested, definitely join. You only are committed for that one month so if you don’t like it or get to busy, you can just not do it the next month. I already can’t wait to se what I get next month!

Have a great Monday!

If you haven’t joined the Foodie Penpals action yet, I hope you’ll sign up for May – it really is fun! You should do it!

Here are the basics you’ll want to know about the program:

• On the 5th of the month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email.
• 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.
• 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.
• Foodie Penpals is open to US, Canadian residents & UK residents.

Ready to sign up? Visit Lindsay @ The Lean Green Bean to sign up from US & Cananda.