Tonight: Two Bonney Lakers compete in chicken recipe competition for a shot at $10,000

Bonney Lakers Donna Beck and Rebecca Cameron will venture to Seattle tonight to compete in the Foster Farms Fresh Chicken Contest. The Washington state semifinal—held at Kathy Casey Food Studios in Seattle—will determine who moves on to the Sept. 28 finals in California's Napa Valley at the Culinary Institute of America. Semifinalists also recieve $1,000.

"I've been doing a lot of practicing," Cameron said. "My family and I have been eating plenty of apple spinach salad in the run-up to the contest."

Cameron, a woman who said she's always had a love of food and the culinary arts, is a dietitian by trade. But a few years ago, she found that it was difficult to give her clients clear-cut tips for how to meet their goals.

"Being a dietition, my specialty is telling people how to eat," she said. "But I didn't know how to get them there, what recipes they could prepare, how to prepare them properly."

So Cameron enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America, which she said was the time of her life.

Her recipe in the contest is an apple spinach entree salad with skinless, boneless chicken cutlets.

"Many people have a hard time now getting five fruits and vegetables a day," Cameron said. "So I try to work them in to every entree recipe, and I find then its easier to get those nutrient dense foods."

If she wins the $10,000 prize in Napa Valley, Cameron would open a food truck that sold healthy meals, she said.

Beck, who we were not able to reach for an interview at this time, will be entering her dry rubbed chicken tacos with tangy avocado sauce.

Contact Bonney Lake-Sumner Courier-Herald Reporter Daniel Nash at dnash@courierherald.com or 360-825-2555 ext. 5060.

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