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Food Lion Frugal Cook-Off & Gift Card Giveaway

February 28, 2014

A few weeks ago, I was asked to participate in the Food Lion Frugal Cook-Off at the Charleston Cooks store here in Charleston. The premise of the event was similar to Iron Chef or Chopped, and I was excited to be part of it.

Here’s the gist of the event:

You’ll be paired with another blogger and will have 45 minutes to cook a dinner for 4 on a budget of $15 (protein excluded). There will be a “pantry” of Food Lion brand products for you to cook with and your protein will be a surprise! The dishes will be presented to the judges and scored by its taste and your ability to stay within the budget!

 

Easy peasy! I do that kind of thing all the time! Oh, wait, no. The opposite of that. Anything I cook usually takes me 2 hours and most of the dishes in my kitchen. I was freaking out, but luckily I have lots of people in my life to encourage me and keep me from having a full on panic attack. Thanks guys!

And on the other end of the spectrum was Food Lion.

And on the other end of the spectrum was Food Lion.

When I got to Charleston Cooks, we were greeted with a buffet of items from the Food Lion deli, along with beer and wine. I got a sweet lime green apron with my name and Queen of the Food Age embroidered in it, and I got to meet a lot of really cool people.

Pictured: really cool people

Pictured: really cool people

I was partnered with Lisa, whose blog Charleston Treasures is really great and you should go read it. I had a great time working with her, and she was a wonderful partner to cook with!

Would you have guessed that she has 6 kids??

Would you have guessed that she has 6 kids??

At the beginning of the event, we were presented with 4 cuts of meat (pork chop, tilapia, chicken breast, and ground turkey), hidden under aluminum foil. Lisa let me do the honors of picking, and we ended up with tilapia. Although I was really hoping for the chicken, I was glad not to have gotten the turkey or pork. We had the perfect idea for our tilapia: fish tacos! The only problem: no tortillas. So we scrapped that idea and came up with about 15 others before finally settling on a crispy Greek-inspired baked tilapia with rice pilaf and cucumber salad.

Don't you want to eat that right now? Yes. Yes you do.

Don’t you want to eat that right now? Yes. Yes you do.

When we presented to the judges, I was a bit of a blathering idiot, I even called it chicken by accident, which I followed up with “Oh crap. Sorry, I meant tilapia.” Classy. But I was pleasantly surprised and excited when we ended up winning second place!

So proud!

So proud!

Here’s the full video from the event! You can find me at the 0:36 mark, struggling because MATH IS HARD YOU GUYS. I especially love the part at the end where they “highlight” all of the dishes we made. Literally there were 4 dishes and they only named 3 of them in the video. Guess whose dish got left out. SPOILER ALERT: it’s mine.

You can view the rest of the event photos below. Thanks for being such loyal readers! Be sure to take a look at all of the other participants’ blogs because they’re all really great!

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And here’s Lisa’s and my video! I especially love my quote at the end where I announce to the world that I’m basically a crazy cat lady. I don’t know why I’m so awkward, you guys. I just am.

As a reward for participating, Food Lion sent me home with a nice swag bag of their products, as well as a $100 gift card. I decided that I would reward you, my loyal followers, with another giveaway.  Enter below for your chance to win a $100 gift card to Food Lion! Just post a comment with your favorite tilapia recipe to enter. You also get additional entries for following me on my various social media channels. Good luck!

Look how shiny!

Look how shiny!

a Rafflecopter giveaway