September 22, 2022 • 18 mins
This week is all about my favorites from Costco. I've been a member for years, nearly decades, and I can't wait to share with you the secret to making a quick and easy weeknight dinner for my family using 5 or 6 Costco staples. Although I usually get our order through delivery, you can't beat the samples and the occasional Hot Dog... even Julia Child was a fan! What are your go-to Kirkland products?
For more about the recipes and items that I mentioned in this week's episode, follow me over on Instagram @kelseynixon
Looking for more recipes? Check out Recipe Club!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hello. Hello, I'm Kelsey Nixon and this is Kitchen Prescription,
the podcast you listen to and you don't know what
to make for dinner. I hope everyone has been doing well.
I am so excited to be chatting with you about Costco.
If you follow me on social media, you know I'm
a fan of Costco. It's part of my regular routine
(00:26):
and I just calculated how many years I've been shopping
at Costco. At least twenty years, and that's not including
my childhood. That is an adult. I have been a
Costco shopper for a long time, and I know that
a lot of people who follow me are also Costco shoppers.
Now if not, you might be a SAMs Club shopper,
or maybe you've thought about being a Costco shopper. Who knows.
(00:49):
But we're going to first talk about three simple ideas
that you can join your menu plan this week, and
after that, I am going to share the one meal
my favorite last minute dinner I always pick up from Costco,
So any time I'm doing either a Costco delivery order
or I go and shop at Costco in person, this
(01:11):
is the meal my family has that evening and I
can't wait to tell you about it, and then I'm
going to go through a bunch of my favorites at
Costco as well. But before that, let's talk about some
really quick and simple recipes that you can think about
making this week to make your life easier. First up,
a sheet pan bruschetta chicken. This is from Recipe Club
(01:35):
September recipe. It is so delicious, so fresh, the best
way to use up any lingering summer tomatoes that you
may have, whether they be cherry tomatoes or full blown tomatoes,
or maybe you picked up some tomatoes at the farmer's market.
Bruschetta is so delicious and it's so simple. A little
(01:57):
olive oil and some balsamac vinegar and some fresh basil.
This is just a super simple recipe. It comes together
very quickly, and there's a huge bonus in that there
are some parmesan potatoes roasted parmesan potatoes that are so
tasty that they may rival the chicken in this recipe.
And one of the things they really like about this
(02:18):
is I use chicken cutlets, which means that they cook faster,
they're more affordable, and personally, in my family, my kids
tend to eat chicken cutlets. It's a thinner version of
a chicken breast. It's essentially a full chicken breast that
has been sliced in half. They eat them so much better.
So it's a great recipe all around. You can get
(02:39):
it in Recipe Club. We love this one. It's been
a huge hit around here. Next is an oldie, but
a goodie. This recipe goes back a long time to
my first cookbook. It's my Carneta's tacos so with pickled
red onions. This is coming as a request from my
husband because we haven't had them in a while. This
is one of those recipes that we made so often
(03:02):
for a couple of years that we kind of burned
out on it. And lately I've had a couple of
people message me on Instagram and friends say, oh man,
I made your carnitas, and it's got me thinking, oh
my gosh, we have to make those. And my husband
finally said, let's do those this week. And what's great
about this recipe is that we will definitely get at
least two meals out of this. So we'll do tacos
(03:25):
one night and then we may do kind of taco
salads or throw the delicious carnitas meat in quesadillas or
something like that. When I tell you this is the
most flavorful meat out of any recipe I've ever developed,
I am not exaggerating. It's got a couple of unique
ingredients that's got orange juice in it and fresh lime
(03:46):
juice in it. But it is delicious, so yummy. So
carnita's tacos, I'm like literally smacking my lips and salarating
as they think about it. Such a good rescue. You
can get that recipe on my web site. And then
finally we are throwing We've got a crazy, crazy week
as sports have started up for kids. So this We're
(04:09):
going to have this five ingredients simple costco dinner that
I'm going to tell you about, which is like pretend
cooking because it's basically just throwing together a handful of
costco ingredients to make a dinner. Now, if you're a
Sam's Club shopper, I can all but guarantee that you
could do this exact same thing. But I want to
get it. I want to get into the details of it.
(04:31):
So before we do that, let's just wrap this up.
Three simple ideas. The sheet panbouchet a chicken from Recipe
Club and then this simple Costco dinner and let's jump
into the back half of the podcast to really talk
about what makes this so special. So I've been a
Costco shopper for years, honestly since college, and like I said,
(04:55):
that was about twenty years ago. But not only is
this one stop shop a great way to save on
certain items, there's almost a culture that's around shopping there.
And let's be honest, no one is complaining about the
free samples. In fact, I've been seeing people wearing these
(05:16):
Kirkland branded t shirts around town in both I think
ironic and un ironic ways. Like people who love Costco
love it. They love it and for good reason. And
like I mentioned earlier, some people feel the way about
Sam's Club that I feel about Costco. And honestly, I've
just never lived close to a Sam's Club, so I've
(05:37):
never been a member. So there are certain things that
I always buy at Costco, and I want to walk
you through that list, But first I dangled the bait.
I want to share my favorite last minute dinner from Costco,
and no it's not a hot dog. Although there is
no hate, no shade towards a Costco hot Dog. Trust me,
I love it. In fact, I even remember reading an
(05:59):
article once upon a time they talked about how Julia Child,
even in her final years, thought Costco is fabulous and
loved the hot dog. So if it was, if the
hot dog is good enough for Julia Child, it is
good enough for me. Although I must say a couple
of the traditional menu items that were on the Costco
(06:19):
Delhi menu have disappeared, and I'm not happy about it.
I'm I'm not happy about it, the soft serve in particular.
Let's jump into this easy dinner. So, like I said,
whether I'm doing a Costco delivery order, which I do
through instant Kart, I know it's more expensive, but I
stand by this that if I have Costco delivered, I
(06:44):
will inevitably spend less money than if I walk into
the store and I am tempted by all of the
other things to buy that I don't really need. Like
if I went to Costco tomorrow, you know I'd walk
out of there with Christmas decoration and I don't need
a Christmas decoration. So by having it delivered, you do
pay a small markup on some of the prices, but
(07:06):
I figure I'm still coming out ahead because I am
not tempted to buy all of those amazing things on
the endcaps from cookwear to Christmas decorations to beach toys
and you know a tent like there's all sorts of
things you can buy at Costco. But something I do
always have delivered or always walk out with, are these
(07:30):
five things a rotisserie chicken. You simply cannot beat them.
They are around five dollars. I know that Costco takes
a loss on them. They are at the back of
the store for a reason. The rotisserie chickens are so
good some people renew their memberships for that alone. And
(07:51):
if I'm going to be paying Costco for groceries, you
better believe I'm picking up a five dollar chicken that's
already cooked with tender, juicy, delicious meat. So rotisserie chicken
salad kit, I always grab a salad kit and to
pair with that, I like, you can choose to the
salad kit as is. But another thing I always get
(08:14):
at Costco is fresh berries. And so I will take
that salad kit, whether it's their Mediterranean salad kit or
their sweet kale salad kit, and I will add some
fresh berries on top, and if I've got some almonds
or something at home, I'll add that for a bit
of crunch as well. That gets and they are usually
pretty big and so we can never eat they come
in a pack of two, we can never eat them all,
(08:34):
so I will portion them out and then pop what
we don't eat in the freezer. And then as we
have simple spaghetti nights or other knights where breadwood pear nicely,
I can simply pull it out, pop it in the
toaster oven and we have great fresh bread. And then finally,
usually a vegetable. Now I know I've already got the salad,
but I love buying the French green beans at Costco
(08:57):
and even corn on the cob if it's those summer months,
and that just seems to really round out the meal.
So this is a meal that my family had this week.
The rotisserie chicken that I simply just served straight up.
I didn't do anything to it other than cut it up.
And I have an amazing Instagram reel about how to
break down a rotisserie chicken that if you have not
watched it, it is life changing. You should go watch it.
(09:19):
So I cut up the rotisserie chicken, I mix up
the salad kit, I throw some berries on top, I
slice the baggett, slather a little butter on it, pop
it under the toaster oven, and then I will usually
take some French green beans, toss them in the skillet
with a little bit of butter, maybe some lemon pepper,
and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. So I'll te
(09:40):
them just until they're cooked, just enough to still be
crispy and soft. And that is an incredible, healthy, well
balanced meal that really does not cost me that much.
Because the rotisserie chickens five dollars, the salad kit at
most is going to be seven dollars. Berries best priced
(10:01):
on berries out there, you just cannot beat it. The
baguette under five dollars for two massive baguettes, and then
those green beans. I think I paid four fifty for
a huge back two pound back. So it's really an
affordable meal. It's healthy, it's well balanced, it's a meal
you can feel good about feeding my family, and best
of all, everyone in my family will eat it. Next
(10:22):
time you're at Costco or next time you're doing an order,
make sure you've got those things the rotisserie chicken, the
salad kit, the fresh berries, the baguette, and a veggie,
whether it's French green beans or corn on the cob,
or baby carrots that you roast off with a little
bit of honey and olive oil. That is a great meal.
All right, now, I promised you I would share a
(10:43):
few other favorites from Costco, So I'm just gonna jump
through these categories really quickly. Let's talk about produce. So
I've already mentioned with berries for years, I have been
buying berries at Costco. You can get whether you want
organic or regular. Obviously there's gonna be a little bit
of a price difference, but they have fantastic berries. You
get more bang for your buck, and I swear the
(11:05):
berries at Costco always look better than the berries in
my local grocery store. So I'm a huge fan of
getting berries. And my kids are like berry monsters, and
it's such a great way to get them antioxidants, and
it's just a good thing to keep on hand in
my refrigerator that they are happy to snack on and
I can easily pack into lunches. So I'm always getting
(11:27):
that baby carrots. That's another really great snackable option for lunches,
bell peppers, the small snacking cucumbers, The Persian cucumbers always
a hit. So almost every two weeks I do a
Costco order and those things are always in it. Berries,
baby carrots, bell peppers, and the cucumbers. And then I
(11:49):
mentioned this, but a salad kit or two if you
have the option at your Costco. Taylor Farms salad kits
are my favorite. My Costco carries them religious They've got
a couple of different ones. They've got an avocado ranch
one we've talked about, the Mediterranean one. If they have
the dill pickle one, it is so yummy and so delicious.
(12:11):
That's hit or miss for me right now, but I
love that one when they have it. They have a
great Asian salad kit as well, but those are just great,
and even on we're talking about busy nights. Two or
three nights ago, I took the Asian salad kit from Costco.
I added some shredded rotisserie chicken that I had left
(12:32):
over after not using the entire rotisserie chicken to feed
my family, and then I added in some dammy. I
added in some avocado, some fresh lime juice, and oh
and then some crunchy noodles on top. I had myself
a grain ball. It was fantastic. So to really dress
up one of those salad kits is an easy thing
(12:53):
to do on a busy night, or like for me,
if my son is gone at baseball and my husband's coaching,
and I know that they are going to pick up
something at the snackshack before they come home, and I
just need to make something for myself. That's an example
of something I would make for myself on an extra
busy night. Dairy and protein. Obviously I'm picking up a
rotisserie chicken, but I want to talk about the raw
(13:15):
meat as well, because Costco really has some fantastic protein options.
Whether I have bought the organic chicken breasts, chicken thighs,
chicken tenders, they have great filets when it comes to stake,
the pork tenderloins are quite big, but they are great
value for your money. And then fish, Costco does a
(13:39):
great job with their fish, especially if you're a landlock
and you can't get access to great fish. I just
have trusted Costco as a source for my meat for
many years and I've always been happy. So especially if
you are someone who wants to buy in bulk and
freeze extras so that you've always got something on hand.
Costco's great. They vacuum pack a lot of their proteins,
(14:03):
so like with their chicken breasts, they do four pretty
good sized chicken breasts in one vacuum pack, so it
freezes really nicely. They do meet very well eggs. I'm
always buy my eggs at Costco. I always buy my butter,
and there's a few cheeses that I always buy, their
shredded palm, big blocks of Tillamook cheddar, and once upon
(14:23):
a time I used to buy Beecher's Flagship cheese at Costco,
some of my favorite cheese ever. And since moving to California,
my Costco does not sell it, and I am so
sad about it. The closest thing I found is the
Trader Joe's Unexpected Cheddar, but I still miss my Beacher's
Flagship that I could get at Costco. Ah. Wait, all right,
(14:46):
let's talk about dry goods. So a lot of lunch snacks.
My kids pack lunches, so everything from chips to apple sauce,
packets and granola bars, cereal oatmeal. Rio's Marinaia sauce. You
cannot beat the price of Rayos at Costco. It is
the only place I buy Rayos and I almost always
add the pack of two jars to my order because
(15:09):
we just use it that often. And then this has
been a new fine for me lately, the Dave's Killer
Bread White done right, because my kids are real picky
about bread, and this is a this is a bread.
I feel good about making the peanut butter and jelly
sandwiches on I happen to really like the taste of it,
(15:29):
and it's just good. It's good, and you get two loaves.
I always freeze one, just pull it out as needed,
and that is something that I religiously get every single
time in the frozen section. You better believe I'm getting
those Dino nuggets. I'm still I live with toddlers, and
mama's gotta do what mama's gotta do to survive. So
whether it's they've got these knockoff Chick fil A Chicken nuggets,
(15:51):
do you guys know about these? They're pretty great. So
I've got those, and then still the Dino Nuggets because
my two year old demands it. Beyond nuggets, I usually
grab some popsicles and frozen pizzas because we are real
people too. In my family occasionally eats a frozen pizza,
not frozen warmed, but you get the idea. Gosh, I'm
(16:13):
really exposing all of my vices here. Drinks. I'm a
diet coke drinker and I am not embarrassed to admit it.
And my diet coke comes from Costco. And then some
paper goods, paper towels, toilet paper, things like that. So
that's kind of the mental checklist that I run through
each time I do a Costco order, and I do
(16:35):
believe that it saves me money, even with the elevated
prices due to Instacart. I'm so grateful to have the
option to have it delivered because not only is it
in slightly overwhelming shopping experience, but when you live with
tiny people like I do, taking your kids into Costco,
(16:55):
I just I'm just not willing to do it anymore.
I am not willing to do it anymore. It is
too crazy. I do miss the free samples, but it
is too crazy to take my toddler into Costco, and
I am willing to pay a higher price to not
have to do that. It is and everything's heavy, right,
(17:16):
so I don't. I'm so grateful for the instacrats shoppers
that so lovingly shop for my groceries, drive to my
house and bring it to my doorstep. There are certain
things that I am willing to pay for and this
has become a convenience in my life that it has
given me hours back hours every month where I'm not
(17:39):
shopping at the grocery store and more sanity. And I
just don't know that I could ever go back. I'm
a huge fan. Maybe when my kids are older, because
I don't hate the experience of shopping there. I just
it's the kid thing. It's a kid thing that kills me.
So anyways, there you have it, you guys, my favorite
last minute dinner from Costco, plus a list of favorites
(18:03):
that I'm constantly buying in every department. Hopefully that is
helpful to you. I can't thank you enough for listening
to the podcast today. Please rate and review it. It
helps other people find the podcast who are looking for
similar resources to help them get dinner on the table,
and we'd love to have you in Recipe Club. Recipe
Club is my curated recipe resource where I release five
(18:26):
new recipes every month to make your life easier in
the kitchen. All of the recipes are voted on by
our club members so that I am developing the recipes
that you need. We have a great time. My best
recipes are in Recipe Club and I would love to
have you there. All right, you guys have a wonderful
week and I can't wait to chat with you next week.
Hello. Hello, I'm Kelsey Nixon and this is Kitchen Prescription,
the podcast you listen to and you don't know what
to make for dinner. I hope everyone has been doing well.
I am so excited to be chatting with you about Costco.
If you follow me on social media, you know I'm
a fan of Costco. It's part of my regular routine
(00:26):
and I just calculated how many years I've been shopping
at Costco. At least twenty years, and that's not including
my childhood. That is an adult. I have been a
Costco shopper for a long time, and I know that
a lot of people who follow me are also Costco shoppers.
Now if not, you might be a SAMs Club shopper,
or maybe you've thought about being a Costco shopper. Who knows.
(00:49):
But we're going to first talk about three simple ideas
that you can join your menu plan this week, and
after that, I am going to share the one meal
my favorite last minute dinner I always pick up from Costco,
So any time I'm doing either a Costco delivery order
or I go and shop at Costco in person, this
(01:11):
is the meal my family has that evening and I
can't wait to tell you about it, and then I'm
going to go through a bunch of my favorites at
Costco as well. But before that, let's talk about some
really quick and simple recipes that you can think about
making this week to make your life easier. First up,
a sheet pan bruschetta chicken. This is from Recipe Club
(01:35):
September recipe. It is so delicious, so fresh, the best
way to use up any lingering summer tomatoes that you
may have, whether they be cherry tomatoes or full blown tomatoes,
or maybe you picked up some tomatoes at the farmer's market.
Bruschetta is so delicious and it's so simple. A little
(01:57):
olive oil and some balsamac vinegar and some fresh basil.
This is just a super simple recipe. It comes together
very quickly, and there's a huge bonus in that there
are some parmesan potatoes roasted parmesan potatoes that are so
tasty that they may rival the chicken in this recipe.
And one of the things they really like about this
(02:18):
is I use chicken cutlets, which means that they cook faster,
they're more affordable, and personally, in my family, my kids
tend to eat chicken cutlets. It's a thinner version of
a chicken breast. It's essentially a full chicken breast that
has been sliced in half. They eat them so much better.
So it's a great recipe all around. You can get
(02:39):
it in Recipe Club. We love this one. It's been
a huge hit around here. Next is an oldie, but
a goodie. This recipe goes back a long time to
my first cookbook. It's my Carneta's tacos so with pickled
red onions. This is coming as a request from my
husband because we haven't had them in a while. This
is one of those recipes that we made so often
(03:02):
for a couple of years that we kind of burned
out on it. And lately I've had a couple of
people message me on Instagram and friends say, oh man,
I made your carnitas, and it's got me thinking, oh
my gosh, we have to make those. And my husband
finally said, let's do those this week. And what's great
about this recipe is that we will definitely get at
least two meals out of this. So we'll do tacos
(03:25):
one night and then we may do kind of taco
salads or throw the delicious carnitas meat in quesadillas or
something like that. When I tell you this is the
most flavorful meat out of any recipe I've ever developed,
I am not exaggerating. It's got a couple of unique
ingredients that's got orange juice in it and fresh lime
(03:46):
juice in it. But it is delicious, so yummy. So
carnita's tacos, I'm like literally smacking my lips and salarating
as they think about it. Such a good rescue. You
can get that recipe on my web site. And then
finally we are throwing We've got a crazy, crazy week
as sports have started up for kids. So this We're
(04:09):
going to have this five ingredients simple costco dinner that
I'm going to tell you about, which is like pretend
cooking because it's basically just throwing together a handful of
costco ingredients to make a dinner. Now, if you're a
Sam's Club shopper, I can all but guarantee that you
could do this exact same thing. But I want to
get it. I want to get into the details of it.
(04:31):
So before we do that, let's just wrap this up.
Three simple ideas. The sheet panbouchet a chicken from Recipe
Club and then this simple Costco dinner and let's jump
into the back half of the podcast to really talk
about what makes this so special. So I've been a
Costco shopper for years, honestly since college, and like I said,
(04:55):
that was about twenty years ago. But not only is
this one stop shop a great way to save on
certain items, there's almost a culture that's around shopping there.
And let's be honest, no one is complaining about the
free samples. In fact, I've been seeing people wearing these
(05:16):
Kirkland branded t shirts around town in both I think
ironic and un ironic ways. Like people who love Costco
love it. They love it and for good reason. And
like I mentioned earlier, some people feel the way about
Sam's Club that I feel about Costco. And honestly, I've
just never lived close to a Sam's Club, so I've
(05:37):
never been a member. So there are certain things that
I always buy at Costco, and I want to walk
you through that list, But first I dangled the bait.
I want to share my favorite last minute dinner from Costco,
and no it's not a hot dog. Although there is
no hate, no shade towards a Costco hot Dog. Trust me,
I love it. In fact, I even remember reading an
(05:59):
article once upon a time they talked about how Julia Child,
even in her final years, thought Costco is fabulous and
loved the hot dog. So if it was, if the
hot dog is good enough for Julia Child, it is
good enough for me. Although I must say a couple
of the traditional menu items that were on the Costco
(06:19):
Delhi menu have disappeared, and I'm not happy about it.
I'm I'm not happy about it, the soft serve in particular.
Let's jump into this easy dinner. So, like I said,
whether I'm doing a Costco delivery order, which I do
through instant Kart, I know it's more expensive, but I
stand by this that if I have Costco delivered, I
(06:44):
will inevitably spend less money than if I walk into
the store and I am tempted by all of the
other things to buy that I don't really need. Like
if I went to Costco tomorrow, you know I'd walk
out of there with Christmas decoration and I don't need
a Christmas decoration. So by having it delivered, you do
pay a small markup on some of the prices, but
(07:06):
I figure I'm still coming out ahead because I am
not tempted to buy all of those amazing things on
the endcaps from cookwear to Christmas decorations to beach toys
and you know a tent like there's all sorts of
things you can buy at Costco. But something I do
always have delivered or always walk out with, are these
(07:30):
five things a rotisserie chicken. You simply cannot beat them.
They are around five dollars. I know that Costco takes
a loss on them. They are at the back of
the store for a reason. The rotisserie chickens are so
good some people renew their memberships for that alone. And
(07:51):
if I'm going to be paying Costco for groceries, you
better believe I'm picking up a five dollar chicken that's
already cooked with tender, juicy, delicious meat. So rotisserie chicken
salad kit, I always grab a salad kit and to
pair with that, I like, you can choose to the
salad kit as is. But another thing I always get
(08:14):
at Costco is fresh berries. And so I will take
that salad kit, whether it's their Mediterranean salad kit or
their sweet kale salad kit, and I will add some
fresh berries on top, and if I've got some almonds
or something at home, I'll add that for a bit
of crunch as well. That gets and they are usually
pretty big and so we can never eat they come
in a pack of two, we can never eat them all,
(08:34):
so I will portion them out and then pop what
we don't eat in the freezer. And then as we
have simple spaghetti nights or other knights where breadwood pear nicely,
I can simply pull it out, pop it in the
toaster oven and we have great fresh bread. And then finally,
usually a vegetable. Now I know I've already got the salad,
but I love buying the French green beans at Costco
(08:57):
and even corn on the cob if it's those summer months,
and that just seems to really round out the meal.
So this is a meal that my family had this week.
The rotisserie chicken that I simply just served straight up.
I didn't do anything to it other than cut it up.
And I have an amazing Instagram reel about how to
break down a rotisserie chicken that if you have not
watched it, it is life changing. You should go watch it.
(09:19):
So I cut up the rotisserie chicken, I mix up
the salad kit, I throw some berries on top, I
slice the baggett, slather a little butter on it, pop
it under the toaster oven, and then I will usually
take some French green beans, toss them in the skillet
with a little bit of butter, maybe some lemon pepper,
and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. So I'll te
(09:40):
them just until they're cooked, just enough to still be
crispy and soft. And that is an incredible, healthy, well
balanced meal that really does not cost me that much.
Because the rotisserie chickens five dollars, the salad kit at
most is going to be seven dollars. Berries best priced
(10:01):
on berries out there, you just cannot beat it. The
baguette under five dollars for two massive baguettes, and then
those green beans. I think I paid four fifty for
a huge back two pound back. So it's really an
affordable meal. It's healthy, it's well balanced, it's a meal
you can feel good about feeding my family, and best
of all, everyone in my family will eat it. Next
(10:22):
time you're at Costco or next time you're doing an order,
make sure you've got those things the rotisserie chicken, the
salad kit, the fresh berries, the baguette, and a veggie,
whether it's French green beans or corn on the cob,
or baby carrots that you roast off with a little
bit of honey and olive oil. That is a great meal.
All right, now, I promised you I would share a
(10:43):
few other favorites from Costco, So I'm just gonna jump
through these categories really quickly. Let's talk about produce. So
I've already mentioned with berries for years, I have been
buying berries at Costco. You can get whether you want
organic or regular. Obviously there's gonna be a little bit
of a price difference, but they have fantastic berries. You
get more bang for your buck, and I swear the
(11:05):
berries at Costco always look better than the berries in
my local grocery store. So I'm a huge fan of
getting berries. And my kids are like berry monsters, and
it's such a great way to get them antioxidants, and
it's just a good thing to keep on hand in
my refrigerator that they are happy to snack on and
I can easily pack into lunches. So I'm always getting
(11:27):
that baby carrots. That's another really great snackable option for lunches,
bell peppers, the small snacking cucumbers, The Persian cucumbers always
a hit. So almost every two weeks I do a
Costco order and those things are always in it. Berries,
baby carrots, bell peppers, and the cucumbers. And then I
(11:49):
mentioned this, but a salad kit or two if you
have the option at your Costco. Taylor Farms salad kits
are my favorite. My Costco carries them religious They've got
a couple of different ones. They've got an avocado ranch
one we've talked about, the Mediterranean one. If they have
the dill pickle one, it is so yummy and so delicious.
(12:11):
That's hit or miss for me right now, but I
love that one when they have it. They have a
great Asian salad kit as well, but those are just great,
and even on we're talking about busy nights. Two or
three nights ago, I took the Asian salad kit from Costco.
I added some shredded rotisserie chicken that I had left
(12:32):
over after not using the entire rotisserie chicken to feed
my family, and then I added in some dammy. I
added in some avocado, some fresh lime juice, and oh
and then some crunchy noodles on top. I had myself
a grain ball. It was fantastic. So to really dress
up one of those salad kits is an easy thing
(12:53):
to do on a busy night, or like for me,
if my son is gone at baseball and my husband's coaching,
and I know that they are going to pick up
something at the snackshack before they come home, and I
just need to make something for myself. That's an example
of something I would make for myself on an extra
busy night. Dairy and protein. Obviously I'm picking up a
rotisserie chicken, but I want to talk about the raw
(13:15):
meat as well, because Costco really has some fantastic protein options.
Whether I have bought the organic chicken breasts, chicken thighs,
chicken tenders, they have great filets when it comes to stake,
the pork tenderloins are quite big, but they are great
value for your money. And then fish, Costco does a
(13:39):
great job with their fish, especially if you're a landlock
and you can't get access to great fish. I just
have trusted Costco as a source for my meat for
many years and I've always been happy. So especially if
you are someone who wants to buy in bulk and
freeze extras so that you've always got something on hand.
Costco's great. They vacuum pack a lot of their proteins,
(14:03):
so like with their chicken breasts, they do four pretty
good sized chicken breasts in one vacuum pack, so it
freezes really nicely. They do meet very well eggs. I'm
always buy my eggs at Costco. I always buy my butter,
and there's a few cheeses that I always buy, their
shredded palm, big blocks of Tillamook cheddar, and once upon
(14:23):
a time I used to buy Beecher's Flagship cheese at Costco,
some of my favorite cheese ever. And since moving to California,
my Costco does not sell it, and I am so
sad about it. The closest thing I found is the
Trader Joe's Unexpected Cheddar, but I still miss my Beacher's
Flagship that I could get at Costco. Ah. Wait, all right,
(14:46):
let's talk about dry goods. So a lot of lunch snacks.
My kids pack lunches, so everything from chips to apple sauce,
packets and granola bars, cereal oatmeal. Rio's Marinaia sauce. You
cannot beat the price of Rayos at Costco. It is
the only place I buy Rayos and I almost always
add the pack of two jars to my order because
(15:09):
we just use it that often. And then this has
been a new fine for me lately, the Dave's Killer
Bread White done right, because my kids are real picky
about bread, and this is a this is a bread.
I feel good about making the peanut butter and jelly
sandwiches on I happen to really like the taste of it,
(15:29):
and it's just good. It's good, and you get two loaves.
I always freeze one, just pull it out as needed,
and that is something that I religiously get every single
time in the frozen section. You better believe I'm getting
those Dino nuggets. I'm still I live with toddlers, and
mama's gotta do what mama's gotta do to survive. So
whether it's they've got these knockoff Chick fil A Chicken nuggets,
(15:51):
do you guys know about these? They're pretty great. So
I've got those, and then still the Dino Nuggets because
my two year old demands it. Beyond nuggets, I usually
grab some popsicles and frozen pizzas because we are real
people too. In my family occasionally eats a frozen pizza,
not frozen warmed, but you get the idea. Gosh, I'm
(16:13):
really exposing all of my vices here. Drinks. I'm a
diet coke drinker and I am not embarrassed to admit it.
And my diet coke comes from Costco. And then some
paper goods, paper towels, toilet paper, things like that. So
that's kind of the mental checklist that I run through
each time I do a Costco order, and I do
(16:35):
believe that it saves me money, even with the elevated
prices due to Instacart. I'm so grateful to have the
option to have it delivered because not only is it
in slightly overwhelming shopping experience, but when you live with
tiny people like I do, taking your kids into Costco,
(16:55):
I just I'm just not willing to do it anymore.
I am not willing to do it anymore. It is
too crazy. I do miss the free samples, but it
is too crazy to take my toddler into Costco, and
I am willing to pay a higher price to not
have to do that. It is and everything's heavy, right,
(17:16):
so I don't. I'm so grateful for the instacrats shoppers
that so lovingly shop for my groceries, drive to my
house and bring it to my doorstep. There are certain
things that I am willing to pay for and this
has become a convenience in my life that it has
given me hours back hours every month where I'm not
(17:39):
shopping at the grocery store and more sanity. And I
just don't know that I could ever go back. I'm
a huge fan. Maybe when my kids are older, because
I don't hate the experience of shopping there. I just
it's the kid thing. It's a kid thing that kills me.
So anyways, there you have it, you guys, my favorite
last minute dinner from Costco, plus a list of favorites
(18:03):
that I'm constantly buying in every department. Hopefully that is
helpful to you. I can't thank you enough for listening
to the podcast today. Please rate and review it. It
helps other people find the podcast who are looking for
similar resources to help them get dinner on the table,
and we'd love to have you in Recipe Club. Recipe
Club is my curated recipe resource where I release five
(18:26):
new recipes every month to make your life easier in
the kitchen. All of the recipes are voted on by
our club members so that I am developing the recipes
that you need. We have a great time. My best
recipes are in Recipe Club and I would love to
have you there. All right, you guys have a wonderful
week and I can't wait to chat with you next week.
Host
Kelsey Nixon
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