If you’ve been to any American mall lately, you could probably tell me the kind of food they have to offer in their food courts: greasy pizza, microwaved subs, poorly Americanized Asian food, you catch my drift. If you have to eat like me (mostly vegan, organic, mostly raw) there aren’t very many options. I did happen to find a “create-your-own-salad” place but it costs more than 12 dollars to order enough food to fill my belly and it’s not even organic. After a spur of the moment idea popped into my head, I believe I have found the solution to this inconvenient problem!

PACK YOUR OWN FOOD!! Sorry if I misled you into reading this post, because my idea isn’t really that innovative. It’s simple.
Many of you know that I’m a teacher so I  have a miserable nine weeks off during the summer time to fill with activities (smile). Now that my daughter is coming up on 2 years old, I really have to get creative in planning our days. Hanging out at home comes with toddler orders of “siiiee!”(I want to go outside,) but on those days I’m not interested in initiating a Hot-lanta sweat detox, an indoor environment where we can get out of the house is ideal.  In order to beat the heat, the mall is a great place to get a little exercise and chat with friends, along with great people watching.

A few weeks ago, before the school year began,  my sister (who is also a teacher) was in town and needed to go to the mall. So being tired of the time constraint of having to be home by lunch, I went ahead and packed our lunch as we journeyed off.

In a large cooler bag, I packed:

For my daughter: 1 slice Ezekiel bread, kidney beans tossed in “spice” (Herbamare), 1 pear, water.

For me: A large salad with spinach, carrots, tomatoes, sunflower sprouts, onions, apples, kidney beans, and sunflower seeds. EVOO and Balsamic.

For my sister: Turkey sandwich on Ezekiel bread, a pear, and some organic tortilla chips.

Wa-llah! We packed all of our food in a cloth cooler with straps to make our mall visit easier. Once we found a high chair and a nice sunny table in the food court, we had a FUN and HEALTHY lunch!