The 10 Best Pantry Staples for Lunch You Can Buy at Trader Joe's, All Under $3.99

Dining out is a delicious way to sample new cuisines and a time-saving way to outsource the meal prep, true. But make that lunch break chopped salad or deli sandwich a habit, and it can certainly do a number on your budget. The typical American household (whether that's a single person or a family) spends $3,000 on average each year dining out, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Even if you grab fast food or a fast casual meal rather than visiting a sit-down restaurant, chances are you're investing about five times as much ordering out than you would spend on items to cook from scratch.

Luckily, it need not be time consuming, boring, or less flavorful to eat a homemade meal. And it can be easy to be ready to rock your DIY lunch recipes any day of the year with these affordable, exclusive-to-Trader-Joe's pantry staples. Stock up on your next supermarket trip, mix them up throughout the week and you'll likely be counting down the minutes until noon each day.

Wild Skipjack Tuna

From tuna salad sandwiches and tuna melts to seafood spaghetti and fish-stuffed avocado, the uses for pouch and canned tuna go far beyond eating straight from the package. Although they're not bad that way, scooped up with chips or crackers! Available for $1.79 per 3-ounce pouch, the seafood in these skipjack packs is sustainably caught and low in mercury, then slow-cooked inside the pouch to max out the fresh seafood flavor.

Magnifisauce

To mix with that tuna or slather on any deli sandwich to make it even more magnificent, try $2.99 per 10-ounce bottle Magnifisauce. It's Trader Joe's riff on McDonald's Big Mac specialsauce, and is made with a zippy mix of mustard, relish, mayonnaise and ketchup.

Garden Vegetable Soup

So. Many. Veggies! This better-than-basic-canned soup comes pre-chopped, slow-cooked and ready to heat and eat. The first time we spotted the ingredient list (including vegetable broth, kale, Swiss chard, spinach, sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, tomatoes, zucchini, red bell peppers, leeks, and olive oil—whew!) we couldn't quite believe the low price for all those garden goodies: $3.99 per three-serving, 25.75-ounce jar.

Everything But The Gluten Crackers

To pair with soup, salad, or your favorite easy dip recipe, stock up on these seedy, two-bite crispbreads. A coating of white and black sesame seeds, granulated onion, dried minced garlic and salt make them taste reminiscent of an everything bagel minus one thing: wheat. The $2.99 per 4.2-ounce package crackers feature sunflower seeds, oat flakes, corn flour, quinoa flour, and potato fiber instead of all-purpose or wheat flour.

Salted White Corn Tortilla Chips

As an alternative dunking option, consider this sizable bag of just-salty-enough chips ($3.49 per 32-ounce bag). The gluten-free, stone-ground, white corn tortilla chips are sturdy enough to stand up to a thick guacamole or chunky chili, or soup, and crumble beautifully on top of taco salads, too.

Bloody Mary Salsa

Or try those chips with this cocktail-inspired salsa. Don't worry if you're enjoying it for a workday lunch—this $2.69 per 16-ounce jar salsa is alcohol-free! Its other ingredients give a nod to a bloody mary beverage, though, including tomatoes, jalapeños, and green chili peppers, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, capers, onions, lemon juice, and vinegar. Try it on salads, stuffed inside burritos, or stir a spoonful or two into a cup of mac and cheese.

Greek Chickpeas with Cumin and Parsley

Like a deconstructed hummus, minus the tahini, this $1.79 per 9.88-ounce can of zhuzhed-up garbanzo beans means one hearty and well-balanced meal paired with some of those crispbread crackers and a piece of fruit. It's made with simple yet scrumptious ingredients: chickpeas, soybean oil, lemon juice, parsley, salt, cumin, garlic powder, and black pepper.

Matcha Green Tea Japanese Noodles

For an Asian-inspired cold pasta salad, simply boil these wheat and buckwheat flour-based matcha tea-infused noodles ($2.99 per 6.35-ounce package) in water until al dente. Then toss with chopped vegetables, leftover chicken, and miso-sesame sauce. Voilà! A takeout-like entrée, ready to pack and chill until lunchtime.

Sparkling Lemonade

To wash this all down, crack open a refreshing fizzy lemonade ($3.99 per four-pack of 8.45-ounce cans). Think of it like the happy medium between sparkling water and full-sugar lemonade—each serving has just 70 calories.

Joe-Joe's Slims

And because no brown bag lunch is complete without dessert, if you ask us, pack a few of Trader Joe's twist on OREO Thins cookies. The slimmer, vanilla-creme stuffed cookies pack in a lot of chocolate flavor per bite—and per buck; each $1.99 per 10.9-ounce box holds more than nine, four-cookie servings.

Related:

• The All-Time Best Products at Trader Joe's, According to Employees
• Here's Who Really Makes Your Favorite Trader Joe's Snacks