Disclosure: “I participated in an Ambassador Activation on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Lay’s. I received a promotional item to thank me for participating.”
I love to cook. LOVE IT!
I love sharing the meals I create with my loyal readers, family and friends in hopes of inspiring them to try making meals they never have before. 
The reason that I have the confidence that I do in the kitchen is because of my parents. My mom and dad taught me everything I know…and they instilled a confidence in me that is typically rock solid when it comes to matters of the kitchen. Sure, there have been times where I’ve made a mistake when cooking, but those moments don’t occur very often….thankfully.
Because my parents taught me so much about cooking, I want to do the same for my kids. I want to know that when they’re grown up, they can feed themselves…and whoever they end up marrying.
I want to know that they can create meals they will love no matter what ingredients they have on hand, just like I can.
Sometimes I follow a recipe, with a few tweaks here and there. And other times I completely wing it and hope for the best.
One of the meals that I completely winged was a pasta meal made with tortellini, fresh baby spinach, fresh portabello mushrooms, rotisserie chicken, Italian cheese and Asiago Parmesan Alfredo Sauce. YUM!!
The dish was inspired by a Stouffer’s pasta meal that I love but don’t actually buy often because it’s a premade meal and I’d rather have homemade. I told myself that I could make something similar at home that would taste amazing, so that was the meal I came up with. And it was a HUGE hit! (I’m actually craving some now!) 
One of the meals that I make that the kids love helping with is pizza, whether it be regular pizza, French Bread pizza or English Muffin Pizza. They love to help. And it allows them to personalize the pizzas they make so it only contains ingredients they like. What kid doesn’t like that?
My children also love to help make Shake ‘n Bake pork chops and fried chicken with southern gravy. Hm. I wonder if people would like the second as a chip flavor? I know I would prefer it over the chicken and waffles one from last year. That was not a favorite of mine.
While some of the meals in the collage above would make interesting tasting chips, I’m thinking some of them would be down right weird, like Mulligatawny Soup Chips. Or Chicken Soup Chips.
Do you think any of your family’s go to recipes would translate well into a chip flavor? If so, you still have time to enter the Lay’s “Do Us a Flavor” contest, open to fans nationwide, and possibly win $1 million grand prize. Sweet, right? (See Rules for complete details!)
This year, entrants can select from three different potato chip styles: Original, Kettle Cooked and Wavy.
The judges for the contest are made up of chefs, foodies and flavor experts. Four finalist flavors will be selected from submissions. The chips will be released in the summer of 2014. Fans will then have a chance to pick a winning flavor by casting their vote for their favorite new flavor.
To those of you who enter, good luck!