We are delighted to announce the first annual RobbWolf.com Paleo Holiday Recipe contest! We know there are some bangin’ chefs and home cooks out there among Robb’s readers, and we’re ready to see what you’ve got!
The results of this contest: dozens of delicious, new Paleo recipes you can use on your holiday table or for your New Year’s party, and a chance to be featured in a reader-generated cookbook that will henceforth be offered as a free download on RobbWolf.com!
There are five categories where we want you to bring it:
- Best Main Dish – Think big hunks of protein, casseroles, and such
- Best Side Dish – Fancy veggies and grain-free sides
- Best Party Dish – Little nibbles, appetizers, and munchables
- Best Dessert – Paleo-ish sweet stuff
- Best Festive Beverage – Make it festive, boozy, and gluten-free. Need we say more?
The rules
- No grains, dairy, or legumes
- Alcohol and sugar are allowed (c’mon, it’s the holidays after all). Grass-fed butter is also allowed, but you MUST note a workable substitution in the recipe as well for those who can’t tolerate it.
- A recipe may only be entered into one category (your coconut puffs can’t go into best dessert and best party dish). You may, however, submit multiple recipes. As many as you want.
- Make it special – don’t submit any old weeknight recipe thrown together from cans and the freezer. These should be festive and put your best (chef’s) foot forward. If you wouldn’t bring the dish to a potluck where our esteemed judges are in attendance, it’s not good enough for the recipe contest.
- All recipes must be original creations or family heirlooms (no copyrighted material or “adapted” recipes from a copyrighted source)
How this works
- Submit a recipe via this form.
- Recipes must be submitted no later than 11:59pm EDT on Sunday, December 11, 2011.
- Recipes will be posted on RobbWolf.com shortly thereafter. You’ll have a couple days to look them over, try some out if you really want to decide on which you think is best, then voting will commence at 1pm EDT on December 17th. There will be 24 hours to vote! Voting closes at 1pm EDT on December 18th.
- Monday, December 19th – votes will be tallied and the top 3 readers choice winners from each category will be announced on the site and presented to our esteemed judges, who will then make and taste the recipes and choose a winner for each category. The finalists from each category will be eligible to win the Overall Reader’s Choice award (by popular vote). Voting will be open for 24 hours for this round as well.
- Wednesday, December 21st – The winners, as picked by our judges, will be announced, along with the overall Reader’s Choice winner. Prizes will be distributed, confetti will fill the air, speeches will be given.
All recipes submitted for the contest will be compiled into a Paleo Holiday Recipes eBook and a Festive Paleo-ish Drinks eBook, which will each be available as a free download on RobbWolf.com.
Meet our esteemed judges
Left to Right: Mark Sisson, John Welbourn, Chris Kresser, Loren Cordain, Shannon Ford
- Mark Sisson – of Mark’s Daily Apple fame, most likely to make ladies faint at a single glimpse of his abs, judging the best main dish category
- John Welbourn – CrossFit Football owner & creator, ever large and in charge, judging the best festive beverage category
- Chris Kresser – Integrative Medicine guru, most likely to beat Robb in thumb war, judging the best dessert category
- Loren Cordain – Author of The Paleo Diet (and roughly a zillion other books), Robb’s mentor, judging the best side dish category
- Shannon Ford – Mrs. United States, resident hot Paleo chick, judging the best party dish category
What’s next?
Watch the blog over the next couple weeks as we announce kickass prizes for each category, plus an awesome, enviable super-prize for the Readers Choice overall winner.
Arm yourself with your whisk, preheat that oven, and get to submittin‘! The deadline will be here before you know it!
What will you enter?
What recipe are you dying to enter in the contest? Have any boozy paleo-ish drinks to share? Tell us in the comments.
To scared to enter if Welbourn is a judge. I’d have to think really BIG!
Where does almond flour stand in this contest? Acceptable?
Almond flour is ok.
Coconut flour too?
Coconut flour too I would imagine…
Yes – any legume/grain-free concoction of flour you come up with
I’m surprised to see that sugar is allowed. I get that it’s the holidays, but I still think it’s so important we all try our hardest to cut back on sugar over the holidays since we’ll be faced with many, many situations that encourage sugar overload. I want to feel happy and good over the holidays, not depressed and crappy.
Macadamia Monster Cookies
Is there any limit on how many recipes/categories we can enter? Thanks!
No limit on how many you can enter, you just can’t enter the same recipe into two categories. So your coconut puffs can’t be entered in best party dish AND best dessert. But you can enter two different desserts.
Butter? Kerrygold, I promise!
I would love to know the answer to this one too. I feel as if 99% of the population can thrive with grass-fed butter… ya? And, ghee is a fantastic substitute.
Let’s see, I’m going to make an executive decision as the contest overlord and say that grass-fed butter is allowed, but note in the recipe a non-dairy substitution as well. Fair?
How strict a recipe format are you looking for here? Mine tend toward general instructions with ideas for alternate ingredients and some people fine my measuring system (oh, you know a big handful of this and a little pinch of that) frustrating. Not that my family would really mind if I fed them several large meals a day just to get accurate measurements on each!
Handfuls and pinches are fine. Just make your instructions as clear as possible, please.
this is awesome!!! so excited!!
Coconut Egg Nog Smoothie anyone?
Me please!
So… Many… Ideas! Awesome! Can I submit a recipe that’s already on (or will be on) my personal blog? Is it okay to solicit votes on my blog when the time comes? (I want one of the kickass prizes;)
You may submit an existing recipe that you own. And we encourage you driving your readers over here, anytime – whether you have an ulterior motive or not hahah.
Will do! You guys are definitely a part of my blogroll — thanks for all of your great info!
chocolate recipes please??? (I know they’re allowed, I’m asking the contestants!)
I LOVE this idea. I can’t wait to crank up the Christmas music and get to work in the kitchen. I have a few recipes in mind already.
Cocoa powder? yay or nay?
yay
Yay!
I did a pumpkin curry soup last week that I think is pretty festively seasonal. I just need to figure out amounts of stuff, since when I made it I just dumped crap in until it tasted how I imagined it should.
-j
Oh, was there another way to make soup?
I would totally try it yummmm, cant wait for moore recipe inspiration!!!
Hello Amber,
Rats what if I’ve make a mistake copying & pasteing or a typo, can I resubmit a correction?
Thanks,
Chef Rick
201.403.8813 cell
Gah! I forgot to get my crap together in time!
Did you guys get a ton of recipes?
-j
DANG that’s my FAVORITE BACON RECIPE!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!
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