Foodie Pen Pals (June 2012)

You want to know something cool? (Do people still use the word “cool” or am I showing my age?)  My little bloggy post about last month’s Foodie Pen Pal swap encouraged two other people to join this month’s swap!

If this is your first time hearing about it, the Foodie Pen Pal swap is a huge swap between tons of people.  It’s organized (quite efficiently) by Lindsay at The Lean Green Bean.  Basically, you send your name to her and she sets you up with a pen pal.  You send a box of food to your pen pal and receive one from a separate pen pal.

It’s a great way to connect with people from all over the country.  My last pen pal and I found out we have a great love for Hawaii and have chatted several times since last month!  Unfortunately, this month her pen pal burned her by not sending a box.  VERY UNCOOL BEHAVIOR.  Word to the wise…if you sign up to participate, then participate.

My pen pal was great however!  Her name is Beth and she (coincidentally enough) has a son named Jacob!  Beth has lost over 75 pounds in the last year, so she knows a thing or two about healthy eating.  She picked out some treats for me (and Jacob) that were not only delicious, but healthy!

The first thing that caught my eye was the Almond Berry Snackle Mouth granola clusters.  I love granola (and almonds and berries), so I popped these bad boys in my mouth and was not disappointed!  They were quite yummy!

The next thing I tried was the New Tree Superfruit chocolate.  I am a milk chocolate lover at heart, but have started eating darker chocolate because it’s better for me.  I usually choose Dove Dark Chocolate Promises or Hershey Special Dark bars, but they aren’t as high in the cocoa % as I have been wanting lately.  This 65% cocoa chocolate was just the ticket.  And you know what?  It wasn’t half bad!  I mean, it wasn’t milk chocolate, but isn’t that the point?

After that, I saw the Strawberry Pepper Jelly.  What the heck?  She included a little note telling me she got this at the local farmer’s market.  Apparently, she gets a sample when she goes to the market.  They serve the jelly with Ritz crackers and a little cream cheese.  She absolutely loves it, but is doing the Paleo diet, therefore she hasn’t bought any for herself.  I’m still on the fence with this one, but I haven’t tried it with crackers and cream cheese yet.  We shall see…  I wonder how it would taste with the chocolate almond Justin butter she included? 

She also included two bars for me to try:  a Pecan Pie Larabar, which I had had before, and a Almond and Coconut Kind bar, which I hadn’t.  I’m not a huge fan of Larabars, but that Kind bar was ohmygosh delicious!  I googled where to find them and was pleased to learn they were available at both grocery stores I shop in!  Definitely gonna have to pick some of those up.

Finally, Beth was so sweet to include a little something for baby Jacob.  Her little guy loved these spinach, collard greens, and kale puffs when he was learning to self feed, so she wanted my little one to try them.  I cheated and tried one and I thought they were pretty tasty!  I have been so blessed to have gotten ladies that include my boy in the fun!

If you want to participate, it’s quite simple.  Head on over to this post and sign up.  You will receive a pen pal on the 5th of July and will be responsible for sending a box of goodies around $15 to that person.  That’s all!  If you’re a blogger, you will be encouraged to blog about your goodies on the 30th of the month.  It’s really fun and it opens your palate to lots of things you might not ordinarily try (like the Kind bars for me).

Wanna play?

Whole Foods

Diet.  Low fat.  Light.  Fat free.

When you’re trying to lose weight, the no-brainer move is to switch from full fat to fat free right?  Well…not quite.  When you switch to lower calorie options, more often than not, you’re replacing those calories with lots of chemicals and additives.  It might work to help you drop the pounds, but in the long run you’re filling your body with crap you could do without.

So where does this leave me?  Turning to whole foods.  I have decided to try to eat as much minimally processed foods as I can.  I am going to shop from the perimeter of the grocery store as much as possible and really focus on reading food labels.  Have you looked at some of those food labels lately?  They are a mile long and contain so many words I don’t even know how to pronounce.

It’s going to be a work in progress though because I use Sweet-n-low in my coffee and enjoy the occasional Coke Zero.  Baby steps, people.

To get things started, I went to the grocery store and think I did pretty good!

I ended up coming home with just a few things that weren’t considered “whole” foods.  But to be fair, they are for Jeff. 

It’s berry season, so I stocked up!  I’m planning on freezing some of these berries for future use.

Look at all that produce!  Some of those items will be turned in to yummy baby food for the little guy!

Have you tried roasted cauliflower?  I’m not a big fan of cauliflower, but I’ve heard roasting it makes it really delicious.  I think I’ll try it!

Carolyn told me she loved the gyoza potstickers with the gyoza sauce from Trader Joe’s.  I’m a huge fan of potstickers, so this purchase was a must!

I only have a small weakness for Chobani.  And wine.

With all the produce I purchased, I wanted to try something I’d seen on Pinterest a while back.  Have you seen the Salad in a Jar?  I thought it was quite a concept.  I love salads but am always running late for work, so I never have time to put them together.  This way, I can just grab a jar out of the fridge and throw it in my lunch bag.  We’ll see if this works…

I made three kinds:
Harvest Salad with Homemade Raspberry Vinaigrette,

Mixed Veggies with Asian Sesame dressing (store bought…boo!),

and Mixed Veggies with Ranch dressing (again, store bought.  I forgot I had the stuff to make homemade until after I put the jar together…fail!).

I bought the pint sized Ball jars, but realized afterwards I should have grabbed the quart sized ones.  Oh well.  If you’re looking for another blog post in addition to this one, check out Lauren’s guest post on Lindsay’s blog:

Salads in a Jar

After making my salads, I went to pick Jake up.  I discovered it was time for him to eat, so I strapped him to the high chair and had him try peaches.  The verdict?  You be the judge.

OMG he loved them!  He was actually asking for them by opening his sweet little mouth.  (Watch the whole video for a really sweet interaction between the two of us.  He’s so sweet!)  Towards the end, he was starting to lose interest, but perked up again when I tried BLW (baby led weaning) with a banana.

I can’t decide which way Jake prefers his food, but we are going to keep trying both ways.  No matter which way he chooses, it’s going to be as many whole foods as possible for this family for the foreseeable future!

Question:  What’s your best tip for losing the pounds and getting healthy?