Any suggestions for EASY and GOOD pop open package food?

I'm not a fix breakfast person, and making something for lunch is time consuming too. I'm looking for good, healthy pop open package food that's easy to grab and take. I love the special K breakfast bars, does anyone have anymore good suggestions on something like this?

I'm not a fix breakfast person, and making something for lunch is time consuming too.

I too am not a fix breakfast type person. For breakfast I have two hard boiled eggs, two slices of part skim mozzorella(sp) cheese, and four or fove triscuit crackers. Not a hot breakfast, but better than sugar caoted cereals. For lunch I usually have a salad. I have a salad almost every enveing for dinner, so I just cut up more than needed for one meal and make two out of it. I place the lettuce in the bowl first and then all the extras (green peppers, green onions, cucumber, cauliflower, broccoli, cherry tomatoes) and after I place the lid on the bowl, I turn it upside down so the heavy extras do not smash down the lettuce. I do not use all extras listed every day, vary the ingredients to make the salads differnet daily. I never add the cheese until the next day at lunch, carry that in a snack size bag. Also if you have a chicken breast left over this can be added at lunch for a different taste also.

I know this is not "package foods", but I don't do those and just a different kind of suggestion.

This is a great topic.

I'd like to add to Daniel's suggestions that some of those Campell's Soup at Hands can be good in wintertime. I like the low fat laughing cow cheeses. I like to put just a few pretzels or healthy treats in a small "snack baggie" to just sample something. ALot of the time two pretzels or wheat thins is all I need.

When I make a dinner, I make too much and put some in a small ceramic dish. I can freeze it for much later or leave it in the fridge to eat in a few days. That way, I have the convenience of pre-packaged without the preservatives and cost.

Low fat yogurts are always easy. I like to put a few crunchy cereal spoonfuls into a snack bag and pour it ontop.

That's all for now.

Thanks for the great topic idea.

Suggestions were great, thanks so much. I'm making a list of things, I think if I had a list of things to choose from, get them from the store and have on hand, it makes it so much easier. If not, it's when I don't have the options available that I eat the 'wrong' things. Have a fridge and microwave at the office and that helps.

I love the Nabisco 100-calorie packs snacks. They are only 2 points on Weight Watchers, and have the taste of all the favorites. My favorite is the Chips Ahoy cookie variety. The Oreo, peanut butter cookies and wheat thins are also good.

Also good are the Kashi GoLean crunchy bars. They are between 140 and 170 calories each (2 to 3 points on WW), and taste great. I love the Chocolate Caramel Karma and the Chocolate Peanut Bliss. These would be good for a quick breakfast. They are high in fiber and have protein in them so they keep you pretty full. The Weight Watchers bagels are also delicious. They have lots of fiber and some protein too, and are only 2 points on WW. I also snack on yogurt and fresh fruit, always convenient and easy to grab.

For lunch, meal replacement shakes are good occasionally. Lean Cuisine entrees are delicious and easy to prepare if you have access to a microwave. I sometimes even eat those for dinner. They are not high in sodium and have veggies and good things for you and taste great. I love the pizzas! And the pastas! They also have varieties without starch, just meat and veggies. Smart Ones entrees are also very good.

Just look for convenience foods that are lower in sodium, and have no trans fats and you should be okay. Watch saturated fat intake as well. I would not recommend the South Beach Diet entrees or lunches because they are loaded with sodium (1100 mg or more per serving!).

Bonnie

We can't have alot of prepackaged foods in the house because I have a child with multiple food allergies so these ideas may or may not work for you. One thing I do is make my own frozen dinners for DD to have. I have a bunch of divided containers with lids and as we have dinners with leftovers I simply put some meals into the freezer. Then, instead of having a lunch out of box that has 5 things she's allergic to I can pull out a meal I know is safe, nutritious and quick.

Another thing that I do that may take more prep time than you want to give it is make up my own "cup of soup" type mixes. I use a food dehydrator to dehydrate all kinds of veggies and beef jerky that doesn't have corn syrup in it and we make up soup mixes to take camping. Just add boiling water. You could do the same thing on a smaller basis in a baggie. If you don't want to mess with dehydrating many organic groceries sell bulk soup mixes that don't have all the sodium and other garbage that comes in the lipton packets. (Sorry Lipton but not all of us can take your chemistry.:rolleyes: )

Another idea would be to go to an organic grocery and experiment with nut butters. DD can't have peanuts but we LOVE cashew-macadamia butter and roasted sunflower seed butter. A couple of tablespoons of nut butter and some apple slices, carrot sticks, celery, etc is a great lunch and can be thrown together the night before. It has enough protein and good fat to fill you up for a while too.

The main idea from me, I guess is to think outside the box. I've noticed that when we had to ditch all the processed crap from our diet I automatically dropped 30 pounds and DH dropped about 15 (he works outside so he still eats more junk.) It's just because we aren't getting all the sodium and fillers we used to get from quick food.

Tami