Once A Month Mom & DOLE Frozen Fruit Menu Contest

**Added February 19th:

And the 3 finalists are (in no preferential order):

• Menu A – Julie
• Menu B – Michelle
• Menu C – Kisti

Please make sure that you are coming back to the side bar each and every day between February 19th and February 26th to place your vote for your favorite menu. This is YOUR chance to have a say in the monthly menu. (Yes, after you vote the poll answers disappear. This is because the results are unpublished. However, remember to come back each day as the answers will reappear so that you can vote again.)

Oh this is going to be a fun one! I have been dreaming of the day that you, the readers, start creating some great Once A Month Mom menus to share with others! As you know we are in the middle of the Create Your Own Menu series. I thought it would be a great idea to give you the opportunity to put that knowledge to the test in celebration of the Once A Month Mom Blogiversary!

And I am so excited to be sharing this experience with Vanderbilt Wife! Did you know that it was her site that got me even dreaming of blogging in the first place? What a perfect opportunity to partner with her to celebrate the Once A Month Blogiversary! She will be bringing you some great ideas on creating your own menu and assisting me in the selection of the top three menus.

I am so happy to have DOLE Frozen Fruit as a sponsor of this contest. We have had the privilege of using their product before as part of the Once A Month Mom Tweet-Up and I thoroughly enjoyed it then. I hope that you did too!

As for the contest? Here are some details for you. This contest involves YOU submitting a MARCH Once A Month Mom menu. You should use parts 1-5 to create a menu. The menu should meet the guidelines outlined in those posts and include 3 breakfasts, 4 lunches, and 8 dinner recipes. Please be sure to be mindful of items that will be on sale in the month of March as outlined in Part 2. The menu should also contain at least two recipes that include DOLE Frozen product(s). You can create your own recipe to be included on the menu or you can use recipes found on the DOLE website.

Menus should be submitted by email only by Monday, February 15th at midnight EST. At this time Vanderbilt Wife and I will review all of the menu submissions and choose our 3 favorites. Then, starting on Friday, February 19th the voting will begin! All of you will be voting to choose your favorite of the three menus from Friday, February 19th until Friday, February 26th. The top menu (and contest winner) will be revealed on March 1st with the release of the new month’s menu. Exciting, huh?

So if you have been thinking about coming up with your own menu, now is the time to do it. I can’t wait to see what you come up with and I can’t wait to be able to have readers help to choose the new menu. This should be fun! You will find the official contest rules below as well as some frequently asked questions.

Once A Month Mom DOLE Frozen Fruit Menu Contest Prizes:

Once A Month Mom Apron

Grand Prize – The author of the top voted menu will receive the following:

1. Menu published on Once A Month Mom for March 2010 (if you have a blog you will DEFINITELY be linked).
2. $250 cash
3. Once A Month Mom Apron
4. 5 Coupons for Free DOLE Frozen Fruit products.
5. A pair of Crocs

1st & 2nd Runner Up – The author of the other two chosen menus will receive the following:

1. 5 Coupons for Free DOLE Frozen Fruit products.
2. Once A Month Mom Apron
3. Pair of Crocs (still pending will know for certain on 1/29).

Once A Month Mom DOLE Frozen Menu Contest Rules:

1. You have until Monday, February 15th at midnight EST to submit your March Once A Month Mom Menu.
2. The menu must contain the Once A Month Mom menu format of 3 breakfasts, 4 lunches and 8 dinners. (See Create Your Own Menu Part 5).
3. Your menu must contain at least TWO recipes that include DOLE Frozen Fruit product(s). You can create a recipe of your own, utilize someone else’s recipe and specify DOLE Frozen product(s) or use a recipe on the DOLE website. (If you create your own recipe DOLE would like permission to post it on their website).
4. Your menu must be submitted by EMAIL ONLY. You CAN NOT post your menu on your blog or other internet source. Menus that are posted elsewhere will be eliminated from the contest. Your email should include:

• Links to each of the recipes that you have chosen for your menu. (If it is a family recipe or recipe from a cookbook you will need to send a copy as an attachment).
• Highlight or star the recipes that use DOLE Frozen Fruit product(s).
• A brief description of your menu and why you chose certain items. Please include any changes you have made to recipes.
• A 2-3 sentence bio about yourself.
• If you have a blog your URL.
• If you have a twitter account your Twitter Handle.

5. If your menu is chosen for the top 3 you agree to:

• Give up publishing rights of your menu to Once A Month Mom. (This means you can not publish it on your site or at another source. You are giving Once A Month Mom rights to publish and/or further develop your menu).
• Develop the grocery list and instructions and submit to Once A Month Mom between February 19th and February 26th but NO LATER than February 26th.

6. The top 3 menus will be published on Friday, February 19th.

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. Can I create a specialty menu? (For example, gluten-free or kid-friendly).
   • Yes you may. We can not guarantee that it will be chosen but it will be considered equally with the other recipes.
2. Do I have to stick to the 3 breakfasts, 4 lunches and 8 dinners?
   • Yes.
3. Can I use recipes on my own blog?
   • Absolutely! Although I do not encourage that they all be from your blog as variety is the spice of life! :)
4. If I have a recipe that I would like to use but it has not been published to my site yet, can I publish it or does the recipe become property of OAMM?
   • You can most certainly publish your recipes to your site. If you want to wait to see if your menu makes it into the top 3 first, you may also wait and do that. We would just need you to send the recipe as an attachment so that we can make an accurate decision on the three top menus.
5. Why can’t I publish my menu on my site?
   • Google is not a fan of duplicate content on multiple sites. If your menu is chosen it will be published at Once A Month Mom, if you also have your menu published Google will throw out the content when being searched. Or at least that is the best way that I can explain it without using a bunch of geek language.
6. Can I talk about this contest on my site?
   • Absolutely! And we encourage that. If you are chosen as one of the top 3 menus you will WANT to publish the information somewhere so that you can encourage others to vote for you.
7. I don’t have a blog/website, can I participate?
   • Absolutely. Having a blog is definitely not a requirement. There are so many other ways that you can interact and encourage others to vote for you if you are one of the top 3 menus. We would like any and everyone to consider participating.

So what do you think, are you up to the challenge?

• Tweet about it
• Subscribe to the comments on this post

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 31st, 2010 at 4:24 pm and is filed under Announcements. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.