And the winner is...

Lavash Bento, by sherimiya! She wins a $50 shopping spree at From Japan With Love!

We are down the the finals of the May Vegetarian Bento Contest! The voting was really, really close, but in the end, it's a showdown between two very talented bentoists.

Presented in no particular order:

Finalist no. 1: Lavash Bento by sherimiya

Original entry page

Explanation: "MisterMan gets lavash "pizza" with cheddar, mushrooms, spinach, semi-dried tomatoes and onions. The lavash is whole wheat, sprayed with olive oil and layered with ingredients before baking for just a few minutes. It is a hit with the kids, and easy to adapt to individual preference.

Also, a tangerine called Ojai Mammoth, which tastes exactly like satsuma mandarins (kind of tart and seedless too) except they are huge (and I LOVE them!), cinnamon apple chunks, giant strawberry, cottage cheese with blackberries and sunflower seeds, edamame skewer and cucumber."

Finalist no. 2: Wheat Meat Stir Fry Bento by hapabento

Original entry page

Explanation: "Vegetarian Bento for Saba Man. The wheat meat (seitan) cooks perfectly in a stir fry. The texture is like chicken."

So, your task is to vote for your favorite out of these two beautiful and healthy, and of course vegetarian, bentos. Difficult, I know! Send in your vote to contestvote@justhungry.com by 23:59:59 CET on Friday June 27, 2009. The winner will get a $50 'shopping spree' at From Japan With Love.

Good luck to the two finalists!

The semi-final round is over. Vote for the winner here!

It's now the semi-finals of the Vegetarian Bento Contest! The voting has been quite heavy (more than 700 votes cast in total!) and very close indeed.

Once again, please take a look carefully at each entry. Vote for your top 2 favorites from the list on or before 23:59:59 CET of Friday, June 19th, and send in your choices to contestvote@justhungry.com. The two bento entries that gather the most votes will then go on for the Final Bento Showdown!

There are 15 semi-finalists, since there was actually a tie in one group. Here are your semi-finalists, in no particular order.

Voting now commences for Round One, Group G - the final group - of the Vegetarian Bento Contest!

Voting now commences for Round One, Group F of the Vegetarian Bento Contest!

Voting now commences for Round One, Group E of the Vegetarian Bento Contest!

Over 80 entries were submitted to the Vegetarian Bento contest! It's pretty hard to look at so many bentos all at once, let alone judge them!

So, I've decided to divide them into groups, in the order they were submitted. The top two of each group will go on to Round Two, and so on, until we have the Last Bento Standing...I mean, one winner!