Foodie Pen Pals: Freckles & Spice

So last month, I took myself off the Foodie Pen Pal list as I was elbow deep in all things new baby. But since life has been slowly settling into a new sense of normalcy, I felt totally comfortable promising my participation in this month's exchange—so glad I did. Ashley of Freckles & Spice sent me a great package:

I love it when I get something homemade. In this case, it was a jar of coconut dark chocolate cherry almond butter. Clearly I didn't hesitate to dive right into it:

Nutella wha? Who needs it when you've got this stuff on hand.

These were pretty good, too:

Go Raw Pumpkin Super Chips. They made for some great afternoon snackin', if I do say so myself. As did the Zing bar, which I ended up eating on my way to the gym one morning. I love that she sent me a Zing bar. It's honestly one of my favorites, but I can't seem to find it anywhere around where I live, so to get my hands on one is obviously a very exciting thing.

Also exciting: The jar of salsa and corresponding tortilla chips...

...that I eventually turned into some black bean soup.

My favorite recipe calls for one cup of salsa. I couldn't resist the experiment, and it changed up the flavor of the soup a little. I typically stick with the same jar over and over again. Why mess with a good thing? Turns out, messing with a good thing can be a very good thing.

Yum!

Thanks for the great package, Ashley!

Now, dear reader, what do you say to some participation? If you say "hey, sign me up" then you'll want to know the following:

You know you want to.

ENTER MY GIVEAWAY! You just might win a snack sack from snackTAXI! (Contest ends at midnight EST on Friday, March 2, 2012).