Costco Shopping

I thought it would be fun to share what produce we purchased on our most recent Costco trip! We typically don't purchase this quantity of produce at Costco since the large Costco quantities can be hard for just us two to use up. However when our CSA is not in session we are in a definite need for obtaining produce from other sources! The state farmer's market I've been going to is about a 40 minute drive away and it's just really hard for me to want to make weekly trips out there. I'm going to try to be better about that though since I think it's important to support our local farmers and the produce is always of great quality and very reasonable prices.

Some of this grocery haul will be frozen for later use, some of it will be to replenish pantry staples, and some of it will be to consume this week. Read on to see what it is and be on the lookout for what was utilized in the meal plan next Monday!

In some sort of order [left to right, top row to bottom]
   Frozen margherita pizza This is the first time we've ever stocked frozen pizzas! Lately our schedules have been a bit different and we've got a need for a better stocked freezer with ready made dinner options. Until I can make some freezer casseroles this will have to do! I've been having Junior League meetings one or twice a week which makes getting dinner ready harder. And since we've painting the house on the weekends it's challenging to pull ourselves away from working to prep in the kitchen for dinner. Hopefully we won't eat all of these in one month though!
   Cheerios Patrick's new favorite breakfast
   Spinach We've knocked out one of these Costco-sized bags of spinach before and we're up for the challenge again! We'll be using a lot of it for spinach side salads. I've got this soba noodles with peanut sauce and spinach in the meal plan as well.
   Old fashioned oats Making homemade granola is something we're tackling these days! I've made two batches and have a post in the works for what I did. Needless to say the oats are used up quickly in the granola batches. I'm curious to see how long this will last.
   Ground turkey The turkey was reportioned into 1 lb packets and frozen. We'll use this over the coming months. Thai turkey chili is one of our favorite things to make with ground turkey.
   Country style pork ribs Patrick's favorite way to consume pork is in a crock pot recipe. These will be portioned into 1 lb packets and frozen for future use in the crock pot!
   Sliced almonds These are one of most reached items for salad toppings. I'll also be using some for homemade granola mix.
   Frozen berry blend The berry blend has strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. Patrick most prefers berries for smoothies so this was a great combination. We'll use these primarily as smoothie ingredients.
   Sweet onions We go through onions rather quickly with all of meal planning and cooking at home.
   Honey We'll be using the honey in the granola recipe!
   Brussels sprouts I have a new recipe to try with Brussels sprouts and grabbed these. The bag certainly has two meals worth in it though so I have one of Patrick's requests for how to use Brussels, these brussels spring rolls which will be served with the soba noodles with peanut sauce and spinach.
   Red peppers I always think the red peppers are super expensive at the grocery store and they're much cheaper at Costco. I prefer red peppers over green peppers so usually pick up red peppers at Costco. One of our new favorite recipes is this pasta peperonata which calls for 4 peppers - we made this recipe on the first night with all this produce (and served it with a side spinach salad).
   Extra virgin olive oil Pantry staple that needed to be replenished on this trip.
   Avocados Another produce item that always seems to be pricey at the grocery store. We'll use these on salads, for breakfast, or with a Mexican night. I've got a huevos rancheros planned for a weekend brunch to use an avocado!
   Butter All of our butter is typically used in cooking / baking preparations (versus buttering rolls or toast) but it seems to go quicker than I always think it will. Having butter on hand is always nice and plus it saves us some money to buy it at Costco.
   Cherry tomatoes These will be great for our salads. I've also got a penne pasta with asparagus and cherry tomatoes on our meal plan as well as a fish dish with corn cakes and sauteed cherry tomatoes. We'll plan to squeeze these in however we can!
   Mushrooms I always seem to be grabbing mushrooms every few trips to the grocery store. We really like them in different dishes. I've specifically planned for this mushroom farfalle for this meal plan; I'm sure some of them will be used in our favorite fake bake.
   Cheddar cheese I purchased a block of 2 lb cheddar cheese on a prior Costco trip and froze it in 1/2 lb portions. It worked really well to pull it out and shred it in this portions and then use throughout the week as we needed it. So I'm doing it again!
   Parmesan cheese I'm sure you've noticed on our meal plans that Patrick and I love a good pasta dish. Pasta typically occurs at least once in every meal plan so for this reason we go through a lot of Parmesan. Like the cheddar cheese we'll shred about 2 cups at a time and keep it in the fridge to use throughout the week.
   Apples Gotta keep the fruit bowl full!