vegan food swap:: october 2012

Wow - I really struck gold with this month's vegan food swap! Galen from OMGosh I'm Vegan sent quite the full box of new things to try.


(quick photo tonight - about ready to hit the road for Minnesota...again.)

Chips, cotton candy, tea, Biscoff spread, soba noodles, queso sauce, and cookies!

Galen - the homemade cookies were delicious! Thank you for including them.

I cannot wait to dig into everything once I get back (minus the homemade cookies, which are nearly gone...).

This was my third month participating in the vegan food swap, and has been a blast wrangling up packages to send out and then waiting to see what arrives on my doorstep. If you want to give it a try, check out the details here.

vegan food swap:: september 2012

What could be better than coming home after 2 weeks to an awesome vegan food swap package?!

Not much, especially when it included vegan macaroni and cheese - an old childhood standby that totally hit the spot on a chilly Sunday night.

Jen and her son, Otis, sent me this package of goodies that included a few new to me items and some old favorites.

Two larabars - a favorite snack of Jen (and me!) for a quick on the go snack.
A vegan chocolate chip cookie - one of the first brands that I tried and still occasionally pick up in a pinch for a cookie craving (hey, Jen does this too!).
Some new to me lip balm.
And white truffle oil. Holy yum!

Like I said, I broke into the macaroni right away for dinner on Sunday night. I made it with light coconut milk, added in some sauteed mushrooms and just a drizzle of the white truffle oil at the end. Served over a roasted sweet potato and some steamed kale, we had an amazing dinner that took us back to childhood!

This was the second month that I participated in the Vegan Food Swap and I plan on continuing into October. If you are interested in getting involved, check out all of the details here.

vegan food swap

It's like having a pen pal...who loves food.

This month I participated in a "Vegan Food Swap" hosted by Cat at The Verdant Life. Once you register you are matched with two other people. You send a box of stuff to one person (valued at $20ish), and the other person that you are matched with sends you a box of stuff.

I was matched up with Michelle at A Bit Addicted to Cookbooks (hey, me too!) and received an awesome box of stuff!



We opened the packaged while sipping some wine on our patio. It was like Christmas in August.



Vegan queso that tastes amazing! Made in Texas, I might have to have Iker and Kim pick some up for me!



Of course, the chocolate was one of the things we tore into. Dark chocolate + coconut is a favorite combination.



These Caveman Bars consisted of three ingredients, peanuts, agave and salt. I must recreate them at home.



The cookies were our dessert the night we opened the box. They were good, and reminded us a lot of soft Chips Ahoy cookies. Not sure we would eat them again, but they weren't bad.



Bee Free Honee (made from apples!). I laughed when I saw this because I just received a bottle of it from the company to do a review on my blog. This is from Minnesota and I am very excited to give it a try in some upcoming baking experiments.



I've seen soy curls on a few blogs before, but am kind of at a loss of what to do with them. Ideas?



In each swap, you are supposed to include a hand written note. It was nice for Michelle to include a note with her reasons for including each item.

Thanks Michelle!

Overall, this was a fun thing to do and a great way to try some new products that I might not have access too, or might not usually purchase myself. I will be participating again in September!