Foodie Fun

Anyone who knows me or follows my blog knows I am a little obsessed with food and eating clean so when I found out about Foodie Penpals a few months ago through my ever expanding twitter community (thanks to Tone It Up) i was intrigued but never really looked into it until last month and made the plunge to sign up for the Canadian program starting in March. Let me tell you when I finally read more into the program I was VERY excited. It’s  such a cool idea that it made me want to reach out to the founder and pick her brain on why and how she started it all.

Foodie Penpals was started by founder Lindsay Livingston of The Lean Green Bean blog back in September 2011.

"The idea first popped into my head after receiving some sort of sample box of foods in the mail. It got me thinking about how much I love getting mail and how fun it would be to mail some foods to other bloggers." said Lindsay

It started with 30 participants in the US and in a few short months it's expanded to Canada and the UK and to over 350 bloggers and readers.

"Each month since then we've pretty much doubled but I never thought that I'd be connecting 350 people in only 6 months!"

The premise of the program is a no brainer for foodies. Lindsay keeps track of all the bloggers and readers who want to participate in a spreadsheet and matches them to their penpals. You will get one person but that person won't get you. On the 5th of the month you get your matches along with emails indicating you need to contact your penpal within 72 hours to find out any dietary restrictions, food preferences etc. The max you can spend on the food for your box is $15 and you must get your box in the mail by the 15^th of the month to ensure that your penpal gets it by the end of the month. After you get your box you must blog at the end of the month on the day indicated by Lindsay in her emails. As a reader you can choose to guest blog or not blog at all!

If you are a baker like me you can include some of your baked goodies too! Keeping in mind food allergies of course. While I think this is a wonderful idea I don't think I would risk getting any baked goods due to my sensitivity to gluten cross contamination, unless I got someone in the same boat as me.

Lindsay knows her way around the kitchen "I'm constantly baking stuff in the kitchen and then looking for people to give it away to so I don't eat it all myself! This was the perfect excuse to send out some homemade goodies along with other foodie stuff"

From reading through her blog you would think that the head of Foodie Penpals has always loved baking and cooking. But she wasn't always a foodie.

"I used to be world's pickiest eater as a child. I lived on Cheerios and mac and cheese. I guess it was probably senior year of college, when I first had an apartment to cook in that I started really liking food."

Although her love for cereal hasn’t changed “I eat about 3 bowls a day. If I go more than 3 days without it I get serious withdrawals”.  Her eating habits have dramatically.

She now loves to meal plan and cook meals at home. This has led her to her most recent endeavor, going back to school to become a registered dietician.

"I love teaching people about making healthy choices. I taught preschool after I graduated (college) and 1/2 the kids in my class had never even tasted a bell pepper before. I realized they weren't getting the nutrition education they needed."

She's right it all starts with our children and teaching them how to fuel their bodies at a young age. Kudos to you Lindsay:)

For more information about Foodie penpals click here. Make sure you check out the rest of her blog as well while you are there. I can't wait to reveal what my foodie penpal sends me at the end of the month! Stay tuned! Let me know if you decide to sign up as well.

Thanks for taking the time and doing the interview with me Lindsay!! Lindsay is a busy bee…she not only has school, she works 3 nights a week as a diet aide, blogs daily, runs the Foodie Penpals program and is a momma with her hubby to their furbabies 2 cats and 2 dogs!