Foodie Penpals: Treats With a Twist

Round two of Foodie Pen pals! I participated last month and had a blast packing up a package of goodies and receiving one in return. The rules are simple: You sign up at The Lean Green Bean, fill out a forum, and on the 5th of the month your receive your match up for whom your sending to. Bloggers and readers are both welcome to participate. Your then responsible to contact that person, in 72 hours, asking what their foodie preferences/dietary needs are. [Take note: The person who your matched to send a package to is NOT the same person you will be receiving yours from.] Then you hit up your local grocery stores and shop for your foodie![Spending limit is $15] You then mail out the package by the 15th with a handwritten note, recipe, or any other hand written thing you can think of. At the end of the month, you then post about the goodies you received. This month was a little different because the host who put this all together, Lindsey, felt that it would be best to not have reveal day on the weekend. Which is why I’m doing reveal day today. [Don't pay attention to the date.. it lies! It's 2 o' clock in the morning here on October 1st. Yes, I know. I should be probably catching some Z's.]

I was matched up to send a package to a lady named, Sarah Force. Her last name is bad ass. Force! “May the Force be with you”. Okay, I’m not a Star Wars fan but I had to. She lives in the suburbs near Chicago. Which is very cool! I expressed my love for the city to her and explained that I’ve rode there by train from South Bend to Chicago a couple times with friends/family. Ah, the memories. She’s a non blogger so I asked her to send me a guest post but unfortunately I never received one. Oh well, sometimes life just happens. I sent her some local goodies from Modoc's Market which were Ethiopian Harrar Coffee, Kim's Gourmet Popcorn, Vanilla Chocolate & Chocolate Walnut Fudge and a booket explaining the history behind the local business. She likes supporting locally, so I wanted to give her some local goodies. I also wanted to test her taste buds and get her some vegan products since she had no food preference whatsoever, but alas local items in this town are expensive and I ran out before I could.

I was super lucky to have Melissa Karras, at Treats With a Twist send me a package this month. I didn’t even have to read her blog to know that this was going to be a good month. Though I did and I was thrilled to find out that she makes her own homemade granola! I was already going to suggest to the person who’s sending to me that I’ve been wanting a healthier, vegan granola so this was perfect! She loves to bake and actually makes healthier alternatives to high calorie favorite treats. She has a lot of yummy looking recipes that I could easily make a vegan version of! She actually sometimes cooks/bakes vegan! So if you haven’t already. Check out her blog! I personally adore it!

The package couldn’t have came at a better time. After a long day at Bowen. I came straight home and took a very long nap. I just felt so drained. When I eventually woke up though, I found this sitting on the table.
 
My package came! Needless to say.. my mood improved drastically right then and there!
 


She send me a lovely card explaining.. wait hold up. Trader Joe’s!? She sent me goodies from Trader Joe’s! My love. My grocery store affair. I cannot even express my excitement when I read her card and find out that she bought me items from my favorite grocery store! Trader Joe’s was always my go-to grocery store when I lived in California. Unfortunately, I’m now in Indiana finishing up school early and the nearest TJ is over in Indianapolis which 2 hours away. I’d be lying to you if I told you I hadn’t thought about driving down there just to go to the Trader Joe’s. Luckily, Melissa had the opportunity to go to one and I’m so happy I now have Trader Joe’s items in my life again! She also included some coupons for soy yogurt which is such a nice gesture and much appreciated considering I’m running out of my own and soy yogurt here is a little pricy. Now onto the items!

 Melissa’s Homemade [Vegan/Gluten Free] Spiced Apple Pie Granola: Melissa is a fantastic granola maker! Hands down, the best, in my opinion. I’ve honestly just been eating it straight out of the jar. This granola is so well put together. Everything is well mixed and the taste is far better than any other granola I’ve tried. This granola is semi-sweet so it’s not overpowering like all the store-brought ones. She even emailed me the recipe so I can make my own! 
  
Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Nibs: These are perfect for me when I have that dark chocolate craving but don’t want to test my luck with only having a couple pieces of a bar. Look how cute and little the nibs are!
  
Trader Joe’s* Sugar Chocolate & Coffee Bean Grinder: I’ve been adding it to my oatmeal and Ezekiel toast with nut butter. I can’t really taste it a whole lot. But I don’t care. I actually just enjoy using it! Easily Amused? Maybe.
  
Trader Joe’s* Legendary Nut & Berry Mix, Trader Joe’s* Golden Roasted Milled Flax Seed with Blueberries: So far I’ve just used both of these in my oatmeal as well. I love this flax seed! I’ve always wanted to try a flavored flax seed since I’ve only had just the plain ol’ flax. So this was a very nice change up especially since it has added blueberries-my favorite! And who can go wrong with trek mix? So yummy!
 
I don’t know about you but I think I was really lucky this month! Thank you Melissa for the best package I could ever have asked for! I wish I could have you every month! Just kidding.. well.. sorta. Anyway, I'm ready for October! I'm signed up and already anxious to see who I'll be paired up with!