Grocery list staples

My fiance and I are both grad students and working so I know what you mean about hectic and needing things on the go! We've been working very hard at trying to eat healthier, because eating crappy when you're busy is just too easy!

Here are some of our staples:
Eggs (Hard boiled), apples, bananas, rotisserie chicken, pre-made salads from safeway (total calories listed right on the label!), peanut butter filled pretzels, peanut butter on rice cake, black beans+Salsa, Clif energy bars, Ensure, Babel light cheese, Chobani Greek yogurt, almonds, high fiber instant oatmeal, shredded turkey (for sandwiches or by itself).

We generally make 2-3 meals per week and just eat the leftovers for another meal or two.
- Crock pot mexican chicken: (3lb chicken+taco seasoning+salsa+chicken stock)
-Fish/egg salad (baked halibut+egg+light mayo or greek yogurt+celery+seasoning) - Store in fridge to grab to put on bread or crackers, or eat alone.
-Frozen bag of Newmans Own Pasta + stir fried veggies (fresh or frozen)
- When in serious lazy mode or desperation: frozen Newmans Own Veggie or supreme pizza (personal) - only 330 cals.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

If you are not vegan like me our staples are (we go to costco once a month stock up chest freezer and two indoor fridges for a family of 6 and sometimes 8)

Frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts individually wrapped
Frozen Tilapia Loins
Salmon
Lean center cut pork loin roast (which we cut down as it comes in a huge amount) into three and then freeze.
97% lean Butterball Ground Turkey
Egg substitute (we like eggs alot and are a great protein
Fat free Milk and or Unsweetened Almond milk **for me as i dont do well with real milk
Greek Yogurt (somehow i can eat this but not milk without issue go figure)
Flat out (100 calorie wraps that are pretty big! i cut mine in half)
Lean lunch deli meats
Finlandi reduced fat cheese deli sliced variety packs
canned diced tomato
albicore tuna
reduced fat mayo
olive oil
cooking spray

At the produce store as its cheaper than costco we can fill a cart with fruits and veggies for about $40. Some other produce type stores are a bit more some are less.. see whats in your area.

Spinach, onion, garlic, carrots, zuccini, bell peppers a variety of colors which ever are on sale
Basamati rice (for some reason price is better here)
Romaine lettus, tomatoes,
LOTS of fruits and any other veggies that look pretty that day.

I keep in stocked up reduced fat salad dressings (light ones)
Protein bars for when i need to grab and go.

We tend to make extra servings for our dinners so we can have a serving or half of one to take with to work.
on weekends i tend to make meals and freeze them if i can so its just pop and go

We also keep shredded reduced fat cheeses on hand and the smart taste pastas as well as sauces

pretty much everything we make takes about 30 -45 min with prep time included.. you can slash the actual time if when you have extra time... do some prep work ahead for example dice peppers when you have 5 min to spare. Buy shredded carrots, frozen veggies can steam up fast in a microwave.

Hope this helps?