My current food staples

GRAINS

• Whole Grain Bread: I get regular sliced loaves, as well as whole loaves from bakeries. Many packages that say "whole wheat" or "whole grain" are not 100%. You have to check the ingredients. If it says "enriched flour" in the list, that's not whole grain.
• Low-fat triscuits: A good crunchy/salty alternative to chips. They are whole grain. Incidentally, the low-fat have the same calories as the regular!
• Whole Grain Cereal. There's a lot of these coming out now. Check the ingredients to be sure. Cereal with soy milk and a little Splenda or lite maple syrup on top is a good snack.

VEGIES:

• Cooked vegetables.... cabbage, potatoes, onions, broccoli, rutabaga, etc.
• Often I add a bag of frozen veggies, i.e., "winter mix." Speaking of which... canned vegetables are horrible tasting and typically have a lot of sodium. Fresh is best. But frozen is a good medium. Tastes fresh. Easy to prepare. Keep long. No sodium.
• Raw vegetables are great nibblers.

MEATS

• Skinless turkey and chicken. Pre-made turkey burgers are easy to cook.
• Fish - any, as long as not battered or fried. Tuna fish is quick, but high sodium.

FRUIT

• Apples are always tasty and easy to prepare and easily portable.
• As with veggies, frozen fruit is a good compromise between fresh and canned. I get frozen berry mix, which i then can add to cereal, or mix with yogurt, or whatever. Frozen peaches are good too.

DRINKS

• Coffee - I usually have one cup a day. If i have a second, it's usually decaf. Of course it's Starbucks French Roast, made with a coffee press...
• Water - I usually have it with me at all times, whenever I feel thirsty. I have a Brita filter on my kitchen faucet which works real good and avoids lugging hundreds of pounds of bottled water into my house.
• Non-alcoholic beer - I love the taste, has few calories (about 50), and is healthy (basically grains and water). I especially like it when it's hot out or if I've just exercised.
• Red wine - I occasionally have it with a meal, or late in the evening instead of junk food. The experts tout the health benefits of this practice fairly consistently. I usually only need 2-4 ounces to satisfy the taste, and to have a mild sedative effect. Much more than that and I begin slipping into a state of less mental and physical acuity than I want or need. I can't seem to drink a whole bottle before it goes bad.
• Diet soda - I don't drink it very often, because usually I prefer one of the above drinks. However, it does "hit the spot" sometimes. Caffeine free.

DAIRY

• Non-fat cottage cheese (makes good dip for triscuits!)
• Non-fat plain yogurt. You've got to mix it with something else. For sure...
• Low-fat plain soy milk. A great alternative to milk. I use it a lot for cereal and cooking.

MISCELLANEOUS

• Tofu: great with vegetables or with just soy sauce or hot sauce or salsa
• Eggs: I do not think they are the devil (although they may be deviled)
• Salsa: Great with triscuits, added to scrambled eggs, mixed with refried beans, as a dip
• Corn tortillas: I'm not talking about chips. I'm talking about the round things that you use to make burritos, etc. The corn ones usually come in a bag. I get a bag of 100. You have to cook them briefly in a frying pan before eating. (You can cheat and put in wet paper towel in microwave.) They are basically just corn and water. Whole grain. Low fat. Most other types of shells are high fat and use refined flour.
• Refried beans: I buy a bunch of different kinds of beans, put them in my crock pot, and in about 3 or 4 hours they're done... just mash them up. Use them for dip (mixed with salsa), or to put in the corn tortillas mentioned above. They have zero taste, so you have to put something on them if you want any flavor. Sometimes I use garlic salt.
• Lite maple syrup - nice pick-me-up on cereal. Not too much.
• Splenda - good topping instead of sugar (I don't scared too easily by all the hype that surrounds any new product. Sugar has lots of verifiable negative side effects, and the artificial sweeteners have been studied extensively and no one's quite sure.)
• Garlic salt - tastes great, go easy
• Low-fat or fat-free dressings - Be sure to check calories... 40-60 calories per 2T. Use it as a garnish. Don't drown the salad. Just get some taste on there. Fat free blue cheese dressing is really good. Also, you can get fat free mayonaise. Saves tons of calories.