It’s hard to believe it’s already been a year since last year’s Simply Potatoes recipe
contest on Food.com. It was my first time being the sole judge in such a high-profile
contest (the grand prize was $2,000!), and I took my duties very seriously. I know how
much work it can be to come up with a winning recipe, so it was important to me to
choose carefully. The recipe for Spinach & Goat Cheese Hashbrowns Nests ended up
being my clear favorite last year; I’m sure from the photo that you can see why.

This year, Simply Potatoes has really upped the stakes in this contest:
The Grand Prize this year is $3,000! There will also be a People’s Choice Prize for
$1,250, AND one random winner will receive $750.

All the Simply Potatoes products are so fun and easy to cook with – and participating in
the contest is, too. Although these aren’t the “official” rules (they can be found here), I
did want share a few of the contest details with you. You’ve probably already guessed
from the title of this post that the contest is limited to just five ingredients this year.
You can use any five ingredients you wish, as long as one of them includes one of the
following:
• Simply Potatoes Diced Potatoes with Onion
• Simply Potatoes Shredded Hash Browns
• Simply Potatoes Traditional Mashed

The contest officially launches today (Feb. 12), and submissions will be accepted
through March 12, 2013. Once the submission period closes, users will rate the recipes
on Food.com for two weeks. Then my job starts, and I’ll spend 10 days recreating,
testing and tasting the highest rated recipes (such a hard job for me, I know)! Then I’ll
have the privilege of announcing the winner through Food.com. I can’t wait to see if it’s
you!

Here are a few more examples of last year’s finalists (click any photo in this post to see
the recipe):

As you can see, all of last year’s finalist recipes weren’t difficult to make, but they were
all creative and delicious. I can’t wait to see what you all come up with this year – enter
here!