I know I struggle with trying to think of bkfast and lunch foods, and I get tired of the same old things for dinner. All of our recipe thread are awesome, but I often find that I'll get home from the store w/ a car load of stuff to make dinners, but there's not many options for bkfast, lunch and snacks. I thought we could share what other types of things we put on our lists other than just the recipe ingredients for dinners. And also how much of something you buy (like I always buy 5 or 6 bananas, then I realize that Hannah will eat them all and there's none left for me and DH).
Please share what's always on your list for
snacks
bkfast
standby ingredients you can make meals from
lunches
And rough ideas of how many/much you buy and why you get that amount.

EDIT: I highlighted the acutal thing I buy in red in my post, and my explanation is all in black. That way if we are makng a list we can scroll quickly through the posts and write things down w/out having to read through everything.

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Today I bought 2 boxes of muffin mix and the little cupcake papers to make them in.

One box makes 12 muffins, and we each eat one muffin for breakfast, so if I make a box, I have bkfast for the 3 of us for 4 days (but I have also remember to buy fruit to go with it)

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Bags of Salad or spinach - I always buy 2 and we run out by weeks end.
I always have almonds and dried cranberries on hand for spinach salads. Then olive oil, balsamic, mustard, salt and pepper mixes up quick for dressing.

Or I get a head of romaine lettuce for salads. You can just wash and cut it up with a knife.

I also like those bags of shoe string veggies made from carrots and broccoli, the work great on top of salads.

Then I always buy fruits/veggies that are on sale. We always have apples in the fridge for quick snacks, I buy about 11 apples as DH will have at least one a day and I eat the rest. I have mine with peanut butter.

Yogurt is always in my cart, I buy more if it is on sale as it really lasts for a long time. This is my afternoon snack.

a bag of baby carrots are usually in my cart for snacks as I make dinner, DH eats them when he walks in the door from work.

Whole wheat bagels are usually in my freezer from Costco. I have 1/2 for lunch with peanut butter or light cream cheese and some fruit. Or I eat left over dinners.

DH eats whole wheat bread, cheese and lunch meat from Costco.

Whole grain cereal and oatmeal are bough when it is on sale. I buy tons of cheerios, chex and granola (or I make granola). DH likes honey bunches of oats (I think that is too sweet).

Whole wheat pasta, sauce and ground turkey is usually on hand.

Chicken breast is always on hand. I usually have whole wheat buns in my fridge so we can have chicken burgers.

I hate the weekends because we are usually out of fresh veggies by then. So I have frozen and canned veggies so we will always have something green with dinner.

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This is basically our entire list for a given week so you might still get an idea of lunches and snacks.. LOTS OF MEAT purchased here each week! Most of the meat gets stocked in the deep freezer too so it's not like we eat all this in one week.

Will add more if I remember... Also we spend about $100 - $135 a week on food. All the items we get weekly are marked, if we run out of something not marked weekly it gets added when we need it.

Chicken legs "weekly purchase"
Chicken wings "weekly purchase"
Steaks "weekly purchase"
Ground beef "weekly purchase"
Hot dogs
Bacon & Chicken Bacon "weekly purchase"
Canned Tuna
Shrimp ring "weekly purchase"
Sandwhich meat "turkey breast, or chicken breast"
Breakfast sausages
Croissant Rolls for baking rolls "steph's recipe" which are in the oven as we speak to freeze for dh's bfast at work ( he eats on the drive basically or as soon as he gets to work and is sick sick SICK of oatmeal -- so thank you Stephanie!!
2 Packs 18 Eggs "weekly purchase"
Yogurt "weekly purchase"
Large block of Old Cheese "weekly purchase"
Feta Cheese "every other week to 2 weeks"
Strawberries/Banana's/Apples/Kiwi/Mango's etc "weekly purchase"
Cucumber "weekly purchase"
Dill
Celery
Green & Red Peppers "weekly purchase"
Black Olives
Onions
2 heads of Lettuce, or 1 and 1 head of Romaine "weekly purchase"
Bag of Spinich "weekly purchase"
Brocolli "weekly purchase"
6-8 Tomatos "weekly purchase"

Mayo "weekly purchase" used mostly for salad dressing.
Stuffing Mix "weekly purchase"
Bag of Mixed Veggies "every other week" for dh's casserole "posted in one of these threads its the KRAFT recipe"
Rotini Noodles for "tuna salad" for dh's lunchs
8 + Sweet Potatos - I freeze w/ his chicken legs for lunches w/ sour cream
Diet Jello

Baking ingredients when needed...
Oatmeal " and for breakfast for dh and Alyssa"
flour
vanilla
choco icing & vanilla icing
choco chips & bakers chocolate
baking powder and soda
strawberry glaze mix
salt
icing powder
sugar
sweetner
coolwhip x2
choco & Vanilla pudding mix

Condiments like...
PB
Honey
Pickles
Jam
Nutella
ketchup
mustard
steak sause "weekly purchase"
hot sause "weekly purchase if buying a small bottle"

marg/butter "weekly purchase"

soups
sauses for pasta

Light Rye Bread & Regular Rye Bread
flat breads for garlic bread
garlic, marg or butter, lawrys for garlic spread


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Kelly I never make cupcakes from a box anymore and have a recipe if you want it I can repost it. We dont buy any cupcakes, cookies etc as I make them each or every other week. I just made a double batch of oatmeal double chunk choco chip cookies yesterday( also a KRAFT recipe, I gave the pre made containers for Mother's Day for those that seen them). For the WW girls there are 2 points per cookie.

We just got back from grocery shopping and the things at the top of the list with a few from the bottom were purchased today. Not including personal or cleaning products. milk,cream, coffee etc of course.

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Kelly - Some Snack ideas or inbetween meal foods.
Tomatos slices, sprinkled with Fresh dill, feta and olive oil is AWESOME!
Any kind of homemade treat is better than store bought since you can control sugar and other items
Oatmeal Chunk Cookies - 2 WW points per cookie
Another recipe that can be altered re: sugar or flour, just read my posts. Amish Friendship Bread
Cheese, cucumbers, pickles, olives w/ salad dressing are a good snack.
Cheese and Crackers
Yogurt & or w/ fruit on the side
toast w/ cheese/tomato/cucumber
Raisins & Celery w/ Pb
I make a mean greek salad w/ onions, green & red pepper, feta, black olives & Kraft greek dressing
Fresh fruit
100 Cal pack, they come in lots of variety now
diet jello - 5 cals per seving - eat with fruit or even make your OWN whipped topping.
Homemade smores

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Tammy your list is very similar to ours! I LOVE greek salads like that and make them often. I see the dill on your list, I like to also mix dill with light Ranch dressing and use as a dip or salad topping - so good and hides the "light" flavor a little.

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