Food Exchange Box

YAY!!!  I am sooo excited to FINALLY be able to reveal to you all that was in my food exchange box or as I’ve renamed it….My Box of Cuteness!   

Jen and I have been communicating for a while now via email planning this food exchange box.  We didn’t know each other at all other than on twitter and in blog world, but have quickly learned we have lots in common and are now throwing sarcastic jokes back and forth in our emails.  Example:  I’ve told Jen for the last few weeks that I wasn’t sure if her 10 pound turkey leg would fit in the box and make it across the country (Did I mention that she’s a vegetarian??) and she’s been telling me that beef jerky she was sending me would look great on my clean eating blog!    Lets see if I got some beef jerky:

I was sooo excited about opening my box, I had to make myself slow down to take pictures.  Cute tissue paper was awaiting me and the yummy smell of coffee…hmmmm. 

I was also greeted with a letter from Jen and a delicious sounding salsa recipe!  Jen and I had themed our food exchange as “Party Starters.”

Jen’s letter walked me through the contents of my box.  First:  Pesto and Garlic for the start of a great pizza or pasta party! Apparently the pesto and garlic are from the garlic capital of the world located in California.  Cool!

I LOVE pesto!!!  And these garlic cloves were huge!!!!!

Below….behold the gifts of greatness!!    Jen has apparently already figured me out.  Coffee, Chocolate, and Biscoff cookie were sent to me for helping to start or end any great party.  Peet’s coffee is also a California specialty, it began in Berkely, CA.  The Sharffenberger chocolate started in San Francisco.  And the Biscoff cookies are a European cookies, but one of Jen’s favorites.

I’ll be trying this coffee out this weekend!

Mocha chocolate….Mmmm!

Crunchy snacks  are a party must-have or just a daily must-have!  My box included some Trader Joes Sesame Honey Cashews and dried peas.

I immediately had to try both of these!  OMG!  I never would have purchased either one of these snacks myself because I don’t eat a lot of cashews and don’t like peas.  They were both DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!

And lastly the Amy’s Organic Refried Beans pertain to my challenge:

My challenge from Jen is to throw a quesadilla party!!!  How fun does that sound?!?!  I can make my party as big or as small as I want and am recommended to try some different varieties of quesadillas.  This is also where my Salsa recipe will come into play!

Check out the entire box of loot:

So blog readers prepared to be reading about a quesadilla party soon!    This was such a fun food exchange and Jen and I are already playing on staying in touch and doing some sort of exchange again in the future!

Check out the box I sent to Jen on her blog…..http://www.appetiteforconversation.blogspot.com/