FPP October!

Hello again! It's time to report on Foodie Pen Pals for October, and as ever it's been a great month. My generous sender this time was Helen Walsh, who writes NomzNHolz, a blog about food, travel and, as she puts it, general ramblings about London and other climes. 

In answer to Helen's questions about the kinds of foods I like, I told her that I was trying to get back on the healthy eating wagon, and she very kindly responded with some lovely, thoughtful little items in my parcel. Here's the whole lot - well, what was left of it after a fit of the muchies pre-photo session:

Ooh, what a lovely haul it is. At the top there is a wee box of gluten-free pecan crusted coffee cakes - oddly named, as they don't contain any coffee! Moist, chewy but not too heavy; deliciously nutty and oh, so satisfying. The recipe for them includes quinoa, dates, cinnamon, coconut oil, almonds and agave nectar, and you can see the whole thing here. I'll definitely be trying them for myself. 

Here's a closer picture, although it certainly does not do them the  justice they deserve: 

In the middle of the first pic we have a sweet little portion of what I think is pomegranate jelly / jam but it's all written in foreign, so if anyone knows for sure what 'geleia de goiaba' is, feel free to let me know! There are also a couple of sachets of de-toxifying nettle tea, a little sachet of (40 calorie) Options Belgian Chocolate hot chocolate; a pack of olives (yum) and a teeny weeny bar of salted dark chocolate. Well, if I'm honest, that's actually only the wrapper, cause I scoffed the chocolate some time ago, and can positively verify that it was 136 calories of extreme yumminess. Also in there is the wrapper for a delicious pomegranate, blueberry and oat bar, which really was lovely and represents one of that famous five a day, so also healthy-eating friendly! And last, but not least...

... a teeny weeny pumpkin! Would you LOOK at how adorable this wee thing is? It's about the size of a large clementine, just the cutest thing I ever saw. It made me smile so much, it's so perfect, and especially for a Hallowe'en reveal!! As it happens, there's a recipe for pumpkin muffins I want to try, so this might be the very fella I've been looking for. Or I might just try to carve it into a teeny weeny jack-o-lantern, because that would be so much fun! It's just another example of how thoughtful Helen's parcel was. She offered to supply festive goodies, however since I tend not to begin celebrations for the 'C-word' until after my brother's birthday on 14 December, she very cleverly went for October festive instead. 

The last thing in the photo is a fab-looking recipe for Miso Dengaku, a Japanese aubergine dish I'm very much looking forward to trying.

My wonderful parcel also contained a big bag of giant corn nuts, which were demolished almost before I'd got the rest of the wrapping off the box, and a shot-glass-sized measuring cup which will most definitely come in handy, especially since my scales are broken at the moment!

So to sum up, thank you Helen for a really fantastic parcel, it was just full of lovely things and I'm still working my way through them. The fact that you took the time to consider healthier options or calorie contents and still managed to come up with such delicious things made it very special and I can honestly say that every single thing in the box made me smile from ear to ear!

I shall leave you with another picture of my teeny pumpkin. Awwww. 

Foodie Pen Pals is operated in Europe by Rock Salt. It's based on an idea from The Lean Green Bean, which set up the scheme for the US and Canada. There are around 1600 participants all over the world. Get involved!