2014 is my year for goals. My first goal was to reach out to my LinkedIn network — individually. 375 e-mails later, I felt good about what I’d done.

My second goal was to enter (and hopefully win) some recipe contests. The first contest I entered was the “Potato Goodness Guilt-Free Potato Recipe Contest”. I helped one of my clients put together a recipe contest in November so I tried to leverage what I’d learned.

It is surprising to me how few people actually read the rules when they enter contests. So, that’s where I started. The sponsor was looking for healthy, creative recipes. I wanted to make sure that I did something that had common ingredients and that would be flavorful and easy to prepare.

When I’m in a hurry, I’ll often sauté chicken breast strips that are coated with chili powder, cumin and salt and then use them in a salad. I used that coating on potato slices, roasted them and then built nachos using scrambled eggs and egg whites, salsa and reduced fat cheese. I called it Nacho Usual Breakfast.

It won!! Now I’m off to LA for 4 days of culinary exploration. You can see the press release here.  What fun!!