foodie penpals Archives

Lean Lena May 30, 2014

Food Favorites Lately

Hey guys! TGIF!

Who’s got plans for this weekend? I am planning to blob by the pool for most of it with errands and workouts in between. Exciting!

Anyway. Today’s Five on Friday is all about food – my five latest likes! Here we go!

{ONE} Foodie Pen Pals

I got yet another box in the mail as part of this awesome program. This time I got paired with MyThy. She sent me a super wonderful Asian themed box and a letter on 3 pages!!!

I absolutely LOVED everything in my box: Cream Wafers, Mixed Fruit Chips, Cracker Nuts, Chocolate Milk Candy, Fruit Chews and assorted teas.

The letter was so wonderful, too! It was great to read about my Foodie Pen Pal and the treats she sent me.

These are all long gone – except for the teas – I’m still working on them.

Thank you so much, MyThy!

{TWO} Chicken and Veggie Skewers

We buy them at Giant – ready to go on the grill. They are pretty cheap and can make a quick and easy summer night dinner. I usually don’t need a side for these because they’re pretty big.

Giant sells them both “raw” and marinated. I have to say, I really like the way Giant marinates them, so I usually buy those.

{THREE} Chicken Lasagna

I’ve never tried chicken lasagna before – until one night we had a lot of leftover crockpot chicken. It’s a great way to use it up! So delicious and better for you.

{FOUR} Jumbo Salads

Just take whatever salad goodness you have in the fridge and throw it into a jumbo salad bowl 🙂 I had lettuce, broccoli, mushrooms, cucumbers, tomatoes, pepitas and feta in this case.

{FIVE} Breakfast Sandwiches

No secret to my regular readers – I love breakfast sandwiches and don’t take sweet breakfasts very well. Oh yeah, and I don’t eat cereal – just don’t like it.

So! I’ve been addicted to Walmart’s Ciabatta Rolls.

I toast it, add cream cheese, ham and egg – and that is how you make a super power breakfast in my books 🙂

Do share: what is your favorite food of the week?

Have a great weekend, guys, and stay fit!

Filed Under: breakfast, dinner, Five on Friday, Foodie PenPals, healthy snack ideas, lunch Tagged With: breakfast, dinner, five on friday, foodie penpals, good food, healthy breakfast, healthy dinner, healthy lunch, healthy snack ideas, lunch, salad 10 Comments

Lean Lena April 30, 2014

Foodie Pen Pals Reveal Day – April

Hey hey! Happy Wednesday 🙂 (man, I’m good at rhyming 🙂 )

How is your week going, guys? Ready for Friday yet? I am! I’m tired…

Anyway, Friday never comes soon enough 🙂 While we’re waiting, let me tell you about what I got in my latest Foodie Pen Pals box.

I was paired up with Sara this month. After a quick exchange of details about our food preferences and dietary restrictions (Sara is vegan) the boxes were finally sent off! Sara and I both got our boxes on the same day 🙂

Here’s what I got in my box of goodies:

Hazelnut cream filled wafers

Aren’t they gorgeous?

Omnomnom

These little guys are perfect healthy snack if you’re craving something sweet as cinnamon is a natural sweetener.

Sweet cinnamon roasted chickpeas

Now this was gone within seconds of me opening the box:

Sunflower seed almond butter

Oh and so was this (because, you know, it was just pure coconut):

Coconut snack bar

Larabar? What Larabar? I didn’t get no Larabar!

ALT Larabar that wasn’t there 🙂

Oh by the way, the bag of extremely delicious multigrain snack chips was also not there. No idea what happened to it – must have been lost in transit 🙂

My Foodie Penpals Box

Thank you so much for a wonderful box, Sara! I hope you enjoyed mine as much as I enjoyed yours!

Now time for you, guys, to check out my previous FPP posts to see just how awesome this program is. Here you go:

Convinced to try it yet? 🙂

Have a great rest of your week, guys! And don’t forget to get yourself a foodie penpal – so much fun!

Filed Under: dessert, Foodie PenPals, healthy snack ideas, new experiences Tagged With: dessert, foodie penpals, good food, healthy snack ideas, new experience 8 Comments

Lean Lena March 31, 2014

Foodie Penpals Reveal Day – March 2014

Hey guys! Happy Monday!

I am sure you already know what the Foodie Pen Pal program is. NO??? Well, you better head over to the blog of the wonderful Lean Green Bean and check out the Foodie Penpals page there to see if it interests you enough to participate.

I am sure it will because if is loads of fun! It is free to register and all you do is you send a box of goodies to a random person you get paired with and he/she sends you one in return. Foodie goodies that is 🙂

So here is what I got from Jen in my March box.

Individually packaged nut/cranberry mix. Love these babies! It is so easy to lose control when you’re eating nuts – this solves the problem, just grab and eat one package 🙂

Herb blend – we’ve tried it on steaks so far – works great! And – it contains no salt, sugar or preservatives!

Chocolate covered espresso beans – these guys have been my afternoon life savers lately – awesome “pick-me-ups” when you get sleepy at work in the afternoon 🙂

Justin’s!!! I love their everything!

Thank you so much, Jen, for a wonderful box!

Check out the posts about the previous Foodie Penpals boxes that I got:

Stay fit, friends, and have a wonderful week!

Filed Under: Foodie PenPals, healthy snack ideas Tagged With: foodie penpals, good food, healthy snack ideas, new experience 3 Comments

Lean Lena February 28, 2014

Five on Friday – Foodie Penpals Reveal Day – February 2014

Hey, guys! TGIF! I am tired of this week! I am ready for the weekend – bring. it. on.

Did you have a good week? Busy? Crazy? Not so bad?

Anywho. This is Five on Friday again – the day when I am sharing five things I’ve been loving lately, want to own, own and want to dis-own, etc. 🙂 Anything in the amount of 5 that excites me this Friday 🙂

This week I am sharing five wonderful things I got in my Foodie Penpal package in February. I was paired up with Lindsay from Oklahoma and she’s been a wonderful Foodie Penpal! Thanks SO much for the wonderful box of goodies, Lindsay.

Here’s what I got:

{ONE} A whole bunch of hot beverages.

Chai tea, green tea latte and savory vegetable tea. I am a big tea drinker. I think I have like 500 various tea bags at home. I am not so big on instant coffees though…Oh, but that green tea latte! Oh. My. God. I love that stuff, I am totally addicted now!

I loved it added to warm milk, but I think it would be great in smoothies, too.

Anyway, Amazon failed me on this one – the only place I could find more of this particular brand was eBay. YEY! 20 bags shipping my way 🙂

{TWO} A whole bunch of snacks

I got an orange bar, a dark chocolate bar filled with cookie spread (YUM!), roasted seaweed snacks, Justin’s peanut butter with honey, and snapea crisps. The crisps I got before – from Magdaline, and they are just great – either as a snack or in salads. I was so happy to sea a pack of those in my box 🙂

Oh and this cookie spread filled bar was heavenly good! Best 200 calories I ate in forever! 🙂

{THREE} Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar

I haven’t tried it yet, but Lindsay shared an idea of adding it to home made salad dressings. I’ll definitely have to try that!

{FOUR} Lemon-Mint Water

I didn’t particularly like this one… just because I like my water either plain or infused with fruit/veggies. But guess what – my fridge is like a Bermuda Triangle – whatever goes in there disappears at some point because somebody in my extended family drinks/eats it. So, this one is gone – that means someone liked it and drank it. Thanks, Lindsay! 🙂

{FIVE} Harvest Grain Blend

I have yet to try this one, but I am sure I’ll love it because I love all the ingredients.

All in all, check out what a great box I got from Lindsay!

Thank you again, Lindsay!

Do you want to try Foodie Penpals? Then head over here and register to do it next month!

Now, it’s your turn! What’s your Five on Friday? Link up below or just comment.

Have a great weekend, my friends, and stay fit!

An InLinkz Link-up

Filed Under: Five on Friday, Foodie PenPals, healthy snack ideas, lunch Tagged With: five on friday, foodie penpals, good food, healthy snack ideas, new experience 4 Comments

Lean Lena January 31, 2014

Five on Friday – Foodie Pen Pals Reveal Day

Hey guys! Happy Friday to you!

I hope you had a wonderful week or just happy that the work part of it is over if you didn’t.

So, traditionally on Fridays I post about five things I am loving lately. This time this post happens to fall on the same day as my Foodie Pen Pals Reveal Day, so I am going to tell you all about that in the form of Five on Friday post! 2 in 1. Behold!

This month I was paired with Andrea from TN! After a quick exchange the boxes were on the way. Before I knew it – mine has arrived:

The box was sooo big!

So, here we go – things I got in my wonderful box!

{{ONE}} PB2

If you live in the woods (like me), you’ve never heard of such a thing as powdered peanut butter 🙂 PB in my family is a sensitive subject – because everyone is addicted to it. We try not to buy it because it disappears faster than we remember that we’re trying to eat healthy. The only time I buy it is when I need it for cooking (seriously!)…But before I can even start thinking about cooking with PB – it disappears.

So – this thing here is a perfect solution to my problem! Those PB addicts will not eat powder (I know that because it has been sitting in my kitchen cabinet for 2 weeks now and nobody touched it).

{{TWO}} Bob’s Red Mill – Hot Cereal

Another first for me and look how wonderful it is to have it for breakfast!

{{THREE}} Sweet Potato Chips

I LOVE sweet potatoes! In any form and shape and size.

Omnomnom!

This is how much I got to have of them before they vanished…mysteriously

{{FOUR}} Wasabi Peas

These had to be donated to the husband – turned out to be too spicy for me. He was very happy!

{{FIVE}} Pot Holder and Bag Clips

Even though you don’t have to send anything but food, Andrea was so kind to include these wonderful presents for me!

All in all, look what a great box I got from Andrea:

Have you ever participated in Foodie Pen Pals? No??? You gotta do this! Head over here and register!

Check out the pervious boxes I got from my Foodie Pen Pals:

Stay fit and have fun, guys!

Filed Under: Five on Friday, Foodie PenPals, healthy snack ideas, new experiences Tagged With: five on friday, foodie penpals, good food, healthy snack ideas, new experience 4 Comments

Lean Lena October 31, 2013

Foodie Penpals Reveal Day – October 2013

Hey, guys!

I am finally back here from my week of being down with a bad cold, and it is that time of the month again – Foodie Pen Pals Reveal Day.

This month I got paired up with Noah, who is a professional cross country skier and a member of the US ski team. I am very thankful for this program for giving me a chance to get to know so many wonderful people from all over the United States!

Without further ado, here are the goodies I received from Noah.

Always exciting to get a box in the mail!

Noah included a hand written note for me!

Pasta – always a hot commodity in my house!

Tortilla Chips – these guys disappeared within seconds from the moment I opened the box!

It was a miracle that I managed to save some for myself to eat later 🙂

OMG! These apple rings are SO good! I wish I could get a pack of those every week.

See? Perfect snack! And no added sugar.

My favorite PB – Justin’s

Exercise hydration mix!

Great box – all the way around!

Noah, thank you so much for the time and thought you put into this wonderful selection of goodies!

And you guys can now go and check out a super nice post Noah wrote about the box I sent him.

Interested in what the Foodie Penpals program is? Head over here:

Previous Posts about Foodie Penpals:

September 2013

August 2013

July 2013

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Lean Lena July 31, 2013

Foodie PenPals – Reveal Day

Hello, my friends and happy hump day!

Before we go to the Part II of the NYC adventures, I wanted to tell you about a fun program I’ve recently signed up for. It is called Foodie Pen Pals.

If you look on the left sidebar on my blog, you will see the program badgeContinue Reading

Filed Under: Foodie PenPals, healthy snack ideas, lunch, new experiences Tagged With: fitness, foodie penpals, good food, healthy lunch, healthy snack ideas, lunch, new experience, recipes 3 Comments