Submission Guidelines

We’re so happy you’re considering sharing your recipes with us!  Some recipe sharing sites don’t care what’s in your food, as long as it looks pretty.  We like “pretty food” too, but the ingredients are what we really care about.  So check out the guidelines below for what will get you on the front page of the site, and what will get you a very sad rejection letter.  Now, we’re not going to say we’ll never reject a photo because of bad lighting, but it hasn’t happened yet.

We are looking for recipes and posts that are “paleo in spirit” but we take a very broad view of “is it paleo?” when moderating the site.  If your recipe says “fat or oil of choice”, we’ll publish it.  If it calls for  “corn oil”, that won’t make the cut because there isn’t a healthy version of corn oil.

On the other hand, if your recipe calls for a bit of brown sugar, we have recently decided to publish those submissions because there are some natural brown sugars that still contain some minerals and nutrients.  Then there’s fake brown sugar, white sugar with a little molasses added back in for color, but we assume that you are making wise choices…I mean, you’re here on a paleo recipe sharing site, so you have to care about health, right?

It would be virtually impossible to list every ingredient that we will or will not publish, but here’s some basic submission guidelines.  And if you have any questions at all, you are always welcome to drop us a line and we’ll try to clear it up.  We reserve the right to decline any submissions that we feel do not serve the interest of our readers.

First things first:

If your recipe is a dessert, please submit it to our sister site, DessertStalker.  Chowstalker is a relatively safe place for those who prefer to avoid sweets, but there’s a time and place for treats and that’s why DessertStalker was created.

Photos should be of the recipe submitted.  Your image needs to be at least 250×250 pixels, but no bigger than 1MB (1000KB) A small watermark is fine, but images with text overlays of anything else will no longer be published.  

Please do not submit a post more than once.  We will only publish it one time regardless of how many recipes are covered. If you do choose to submit a post containing multiple recipes, the recipe submitted should be the first recipe in the post, so that a reader doesn’t thiink they’ve ended up at the wrong place. 

Even if the recipe is acceptable, the submission will most likely be rejected if the photo contains things like breads, potato chips, Mountain Dew, or cupcakes.  Especially cupcakes.

Since our readers are already “clicking through” to get to the recipe, please make sure it is at the URL submitted, so they won’t need to click on yet another link to get to the actual recipe.

If your recipe includes a particular product or brand, be sure to include the ingredient list via a link, picture, etc.  It must meet the same guidelines as any other ingredient and be void of items created inside of a chemistry lab.

All options must meet our guidelines. If an ingredient lists includes things like “2 cups chicken or lentils”, or “1 tablespoon butter or margarine”, it will not get published because we don’t have any way of saying which option works for us and which doesn’t.

Please select your recipe categories carefully.

Nightshade-free means free from tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplants and any spices or sauces that use nightshades as ingredients, such as paprika, chili powder, most curries, etc.

Only select “Whole30″ category if your recipe is 100% Paleo and compliant with the Whole30 program.  Regular potatoes, baking powder, dairy and sugar of any kind (even honey!) are off limits for the Whole30 program.  Smoothies and food in liquid forms are not considered Whole30 compliant.   The recipe needs to be perfectly Whole30, and cannot contain non-Whole30 options.  (Ex:  Butter or Coconut Oil.  This is not Whole30, because butter in a not Whole30.)

True or False: A recipe can belong to these two categories at the same time – “eggs” and “egg-free”?

These ingredients will make the cut:

Meats, seafood, fowl, eggs

Quality fats such as coconut oil, butter, and rendered fats

Vegetables

Fruits and Nuts

Natural thickeners like arrowroot and tapioca

Dairy – real dairy, no low-fat garbage!

Ingredients like these will not, not even if they are listed as optional or an alternative:

Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils (includes canola, corn, vegetable, soybean, safflower, etc.)

Grains and pseudo-cereals

Legumes (this includes peanuts, soy, beans, lentils and non-fermented legume products such as tofu)

Highly refined sugars (including table sugar and agave nectar) and artificial sweetener

Most food additives (including xanthan gum)

Exceptions to the rule. These are OK:

White rice and corn (see the FAQs for more info)

Wine for cooking (not beer)

Small amounts of honey or other natural sweeteners

Legumes where the pod is consumed such as green beans and snow peas

Small amounts of fermented soy (soy sauce, miso, etc) as a flavor enhancer

Pink salts, sugars and nitrates used for curing meats, and preventing botulism 

Sugar used for fermentation (pickles, kombucha, etc.)

Just a few other notes:

Duplicate submissions are not published.  This including recipes that are very similar from the same blog/website.  It would be virtually impossible to list every ingredient that we will and will not publish.

Feel free to make multiple submissions at one time.  We will spread them out among other submissions to give you as much time on the front page as possible.

When submissions are approved, they will appear on the front page, until they are bumped off by new submissions.

FYI, when you are logged into the site, you will be able to see your submissions before they are approved, but no one else can see them.

Please feel free to send us an email if you have any questions at all!

And thank you so much for your contributions!