May Foodie Penpal: Trade Joe's Favorites

Every month, I rip open and devour all the contents of my Foodie Penpal package before I take a picture. I have to backtrack and eventually end up with bad photos. This month I did okay.

I came home after my PM job and found a nicely put together box from Amber of Hungry 4 A Healthy Life. She packaged everything so beautifully in pretty tissue paper! I loved unwrapping each item.

The goods:

• 3 cookie cutters. Sadly, I haven't been baking since moving back. I do need to work on my cut-out cookies.
• 3 fruit leathers shared between me, my dad (visiting), and my little cousin.
• 2 spices. I love the cinnamon sugar one, but I'm not sure what to make with the 21 Seasoning Salute. Any ideas?
• 2 Greens+ bars. I've never tried these. I like the taste of the energy bar. They're calorie-dense, like all bars, so I do what I always do - eat a few bites for a sugar/energy fix. :)
• Maple sugar. New product I believe. When I bake I'll try it out...
• Powerberries. I've purchased these before. Yum.
• Locally made jalapeno popcorn. I love spicy so this was perfect. I devoured this while watching a movie.

These went first!

Amber sent me her favorite Trader Joe's items, which got me to thinking - what are my favorites and what are yours? Off the top of my head:

• Cookie Butter
• Sea Salt & Turbinado Dark Chocolate Almonds
• Astounding Multi-Flavor Joe Joe's Cookies
• Tricolor Quinoa
• Chocolate Croissants
• Bistro Biscuits
• Cat Cookies
• Sunflower Butter

Check out the box I sent to Jessica Is Baking - I even took a quick picture. I thought it was cute. :)

Here are the Foodie Penpals details:
-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal! 
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month. 
-Foodie Penpals is open to US & Canadian residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. 

If you’re interested in participating for June, please CLICK HERE to fill out the participation form and read the terms and conditions.