I shop at Trader Joe's for my family of 8. Here are 16 of my favorite things to buy.

Mornings can be chaotic as we have five children attending four different schools. We need easy-to-prepare and easy-to-clean-up breakfast items that the school-aged kids can prepare themselves while we tend to the younger ones.

We thankfully do not have any food intolerances to work around, but these do contain soy, milk, and eggs for those who do need to be careful.

I never leave Trader Joe's without at least two six-packs of yogurts. Each six-pack comes with two different flavors.

The texture is thick like custard. And if you're lucky enough that they last more than a day in the house, you can also freeze them with a popsicle stick for a lighter dessert option.

Our older kids don't always feel like eating breakfast, but it really is necessary before they head out the door.

Toaster pastries aren't ideal as a protein-rich breakfast, of course, but teenagers are difficult to please, and I'm just happy they have some form of fruit at the start of their day.

I rely on several Trader Joe's items to make up the packed lunches our kids take to school, both for their sandwiches and their side dishes.

Sandwiches can get boring and repetitive, but thankfully Trader Joe's sells several varieties of rolls that my kids love.

Some options are seasonal, but we love the French rolls and the Ciabatta rolls for a hearty sandwich.

To accompany sandwiches, I like to pack a variety of shelf-stable snacks as I don't necessarily trust that the kids will remember to put a cooling pack in their lunchboxes.

One of our favorites is the cheddar-cheese rockets.

We love the honey wheat pretzel sticks and veggie sticks, too.

All of the snacks I've mentioned are reasonably priced our kids would happily polish any of them off if we didn't divide them into individual portions for their lunches.

My children are split 50/50 between the salted and unsalted nuggets, and I have to admit that I like the non-salted ones best.

They are a source of added protein, easy to divide into individual servings, and bite-sized, which cuts down on crumbly mess

For a sweet treat, I always have a tub of the Triple Ginger Snaps in the house. My kids love these "spicy" cookies that have bits of crystallized ginger in them.

As an added bonus, they settle an anxious tummy in a pinch.

Although most items in Trader Joe's are store brand, I love that they also carry Clif's protein-packed bars for a lower price than our hometown grocery store.

These are a great energy booster for our kids with early practices — it helps tide them over until dinnertime.

Having kids headed in different directions and at different times means needing fast, tasty, and easily reheatable meal options. One of my favorites is stromboli.

I use two packages of the chain's ready-to-bake pizza dough, usually one plan and one herbed.

To start, I roll it out to about the size of a baking sheet.

I liked to add the chain's shredded mozzarella or Quattro Formaggio cheese to my dough.

We usually opt for Italian salami and pepperoni. Once the meat and the cheese are inside the dough, I shape it into a log and bake.

I love to eat stromboli both fresh out of the oven as well as straight from the fridge the next day as a premade sandwich.

But if someone is late for dinner, they can always pop a couple of slices into the toaster oven for a warm meal.

I cook the tomatoes down with some olive oil and garlic while boiling fusilli, then mix it all together with fresh mozzarella.

I have a strict policy of not making this until Memorial Day has passed, but we love this simple summer meal for Sunday evenings when everyone is home.

The shrimp is a nice treat and it usually takes around 20 minutes to cook in the oven. To make it a full meal, we sometimes pair it with a side salad.

The coconut shrimp and root-vegetable fries cook at roughly the same high temperature, so I usually put both in the oven at once.

Plus my kids are more willing to eat their vegetables in fry form.

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