Did you ever want to try a new food you heard about on a blog from another area of the country? How about creating a recipe with local ingredients you’d like to share with the big wide blog world?
Lindsay at www.theleangreenbean.com came up with a great idea for foodies to share their favorite snacks, regional ingredients and local legends. Lindsay calls her project, Foodie Penpals.
How Foodie Penpals works is quite simple but lots of fun! Sign up monthly and Lindsay matches your name with a foodie to send your gift pack to and someone else will get your name to send you a package. Names are assigned on the 5th of the month and you have 72 hours to email your contact to find out likes, dislikes and possible allergies. Spending limit is $15.00 and you should include something written (that’spart of the penpal part). Lindsay asks that you mail your package out by the 15th to give your foodie penpal time to sample your gifts and create a blog post. Everyone posts about their pack on the 30th. Lindsay hosts everyone’s blog link on www.theleangreenbean.com .
My foodie penpal package for April came from Molly Harlow at
http://hungryhungryrunner.com/ . Molly is trying hard to live a healthier lifestyle, as she says, “90 percent of the time”. Good for you Molly!
Molly’s gift pack reflected her perfectly. It included:
Pop Chips: sweet potato and parmesan garlic
Trader Joe’s Candied ginger
Delysh Blueberry Pomegranate Trail Mix
Uncle Sam Cereal (original toasted Whole Wheat and Flaxseed)
Emergen C
The trail mix was the first to go (in my belly)! Delysh creates chunky granola type trail mix with plenty of fruit! Very tasty!
I tried the Sweet Potato Pop Chips and my boyfriend sampled (ate the whole bag!) of the parm flavor. I do have to say that the texture is like Pringle’s, but a bit more crunchy. Not bad overall.
Candied ginger is one of my favorites and I was pleasantly surprised to see it in the pack. Candied ginger is versatile for snacking, cooking and baking. I plan to use it as some of each!
The Uncle Sam cereal reminds me of total, which I used to eat daily back when I ate breakfast. Was that the ’80’s or ’90’s? Anyway, I thought I’d try using it in a cookie. Yummy AND good for you!
Here’s the recipe:
Whole Wheat Cereal Cookies preheat oven to 375
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups cereal (Uncle Sam’s, Wheaties, Total)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Cream butter and sugar together. Mix in egg. Stir in milk.
Sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Add to creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.
Chill dough for 30 minutes.
Drop by teaspoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 375 for about 10 minutes. Cool and enjoy!
I heard about Emergen C but had never tried it. Extra Vitamin C, I’m all for it.
I want to thank Molly and Lindsay for a great experience.
By the way, I also got to share some regional foods with Laney Horton at http://laneyluwho.blogspot.com/. Check out her post to see how my food fared! Laney did tell me the chocolates didn’t last long! Chocolates are the first thing I’d eat too!
Traveling in the Writelane 