May Theme: Vegetarian Bento Contest!

The contest is now closed. Thank you so much every one who entered! The voting and selection process will be announced soon.

The April theme didn’t really go too well, and it’s my fault (see why here [1].) But it’s a new month! After much consideration, the monthly theme/contest for May will be: Vegetarian bentos. May is a great time for spring and early summer produce throughout most of the Northern hemisphere, so I think it’s a great time to get creative with our vegetables. Southern hemisphere bentoists can jump in with cold weather vegetables.

Even if you aren’t a vegetarian all the time, it’s never a bad idea to eat more vegetables. I’m not a vegetarian myself but I try to make at least 40-50% of my bentos meat-free. The main goal is that by the end of this month, we’ll have lots of ideas and recipes for vegetarian bentos from the community!

Contest rules

• This contest is open to anyone in the world!
• Lacto-ovo vegetarian bentos and recipes only. This means: No meat, poultry, fish, or oils and sauces that contain any animal fat or extracts (lard, suet, beef or chicken stock) or fish extract etc. (e.g. fish sauce, traditional dashi). Eggs, dairy products (milk, cheese, yogurt, butter) are ok. All vegetables and fruit are ok too of course! (See this definition of lacto-ovo vegetarian [2].)
• Enter complete vegetarian bentos with a photo of the bento, OR individual bento friendly (holds up well until lunchtime, and tastes good at room temperature) vegetarian recipes, also with a photo.
• For recipe entries: Only your own recipes please, not ones copied from books or other sites.
• For complete bentos: Please describe each item in your bento clearly. You can include items made from other people’s recipes, but please attribute them. (Example: “For this mini-quiche I followed (url of original recipe).”)
• You can enter as many times as you like.
• You can post your entries on your own blog, in the forums here (e.g you can post your recipes in the Bento Recipes Cookbook [3]), or in the Just Bento Flickr pool [4].
• You must reply to this post with the URL for your entry blog post, forum post or Flickr photo page. A link back to this post would be helpful too, as well as a sentence in your post or title clearly saying that it’s an entry for this contest.
• Your entry/comment must be posted on or before 23:59 CET on May 31, 2009.
• Entries will be judged by the Just Bento community by secret ballot. The winner will be announced in mid-June 2009.

The prizes

One lucky winner will win a $50 shopping spree in the online store of newest sponsor, From Japan With Love [5].

If you’ve ever perused the From Japan With Love site, you know that Sofia has a knack for choosing the most adorable bento products and other goodies from Japan. Here’s your chance to fulfill your kawaii-loving urges!

So…good luck everyone!