I tend to use mostly diced and whole, I can easily crush them myself, but I can't make crushed tomatoes whole, LOL.

I buy tomato paste in a tube, I don't use much of it, so a tube lasts me a long time in the refrigerator.

actually, I can tomatoes myself, usually halved or quartered and then I cut or break them up into pieces the size I want.

Annie

I use mostly diced and sauce.
I also can my own, but if I run out, I usually buy diced.
Always plain so I can add herbs or veggies to suit us.

I also use tomato powder (search this forum for a thread about it). That way I don't need to stock tomato sauce, puree, paste, etc. Just mix the powder with water to desired consistency. It's also handy as a slight thickener in soups, chili, etc.

Deanna

I use mostly petite diced and crushed since my kids don't like big chunks of tomatoes in things. You may get enough answers to cover them all. ;-)

I never buy diced tomatoes....very rarely buy sauce....always have cans of whole tomatoes, crushed and tomato paste. From paste I can make sauce and I can hit the whole tomatoes with the stick blender....or chop in the cuisinart if I am using a lot.
When I freeze fresh, I rough chop in the FP....And I will never EVER buy Oreos again! My screen is blue and I lose the screen if I hit enter! Linda C

I only buy 6 in 1 ground tomatoes, and instead of tomato paste, I now use tomato powder, which is much more effective, as Deanna recommended. When buying canned tomatoes, the best ones will NOT have citric acid added - that makes them taste less sweet. It's more important to read the ingredients than to look at whether they are chopped, ground, or whole. They should also be packed in puree instead of juice.

Lars

When I buy canned I prefer the huge institutional sized can... 6.6 lbs. Sauce is $3-4 a can and whole tomatoes are $4-5 a can (they was cheaper before the great food inflation). Just opened a can of Red Gold whole tomatoes last night as my garden tomatoes are all green yet. They come packed in tomato juice which I poured off. I wanted chili tomatos so I took to the rest of the can with a potato masher.. now they are crushed tomatoes.

Two reason for the large cans... economics and I like the Red Gold brand. Oh.. and nice to only open one can rather then several. Takes a heavy duty opener to cut from the top but my little side cutter can opener popped it right open.

The dry beans soaked up much of the tomato juice... my 12 pot has about 11 quarts in it after 2lbs dry beans and the tomatos. All I could to to squeeze in some meat, spices, an onion, and peppers. Came out wonderful... juicy but thick chili.

I see you mention dry beans. I soaked my beans in a pot of cold water for a couple hours while I went shopping... they were almost rehydrated when I was ready to make chili. I used the strainer to pour off the soak water and added a couple cups of fresh water before cooking. I use almost nothing but dry beans/peas/lentils these days... less salt, cheaper, and they taste better.

: )
lyra