Costco Essentials: Food Edition

2016 has been my first year as a woman with a Costco membership.  This is basically a rite of passage, right?  Because I  feel different.  But maybe that's just the $1.50 hotdog combo speaking.  Who knows?

Anyway.  Today I picked up some of my favorite Costco food "essentials" and thought it would be fun to share.  Here are my top 9 favorite food items at Costco right now:

1.  Wawona Festival Blend Mixed Fruit (Frozen). This is one of the tastiest blends of frozen food I have tried.  It includes mango, papaya, pineapple, and strawberries.  We use this in smoothies or sometimes I thaw some of the pieces out for a snack.  Super good!

2.  Tortilla Fresca Uncooked Flour Tortillas. These tortillas are delicious.  They come uncooked, but when you are ready to use them all you have to do is preheat a frying pan to medium heat and cook each side for about 30 seconds.  These tortillas remind me of the tortillas at Cafe Rio.  We use them for quesadillas, enchiladas, taco salads, or burritos.  This is a product our family uses weekly, in some form.

3.  CheeseHead's String Cheese.  My boy goes through string cheese like nobody else.  I have found that this string cheese is the best value in my area.  It is roughly .16 cents an ounce where at Walmart it is closer to .24 cents an ounce.  Score!

4.  Kirkland Brand Organic Apple Sauce  Pouches.  This is another item my boy loves that is a killer deal at Costco.  You get 24 pouches in a box for $9.99, where at Walmart you can get a box of 12 pouches for $6.99.  If your kid loves pouches, this is definitely something to snag at Costco!

5.  Rotisserie Chicken.  You cannot beat this deal.  Seriously.  I buy a rotisserie chicken every single time I go to Costco.  I can usually get about 8 cups of meat off one of these chickens and it costs $4.99.  I usually take the meat off the bone, cut it up, and divide the meat into 4 different freezer bags.  This makes dinner time a breeze!  

6.  Pink Himalayan Sea Salt.  I am going to be totally honest here . . . I bought this salt because I thought it was cute.  Cute salt.  I know, not essential.  But guess what?  I'm hooked.  This stuff goes on everything at our house.  Plus, it's always a conversation starter when we have people over.  Haha!

7.  Sara Lee Artesano Style Bread.  For the longest time I was a super stickler for whole grain everything at our house.  Whole grain pasta! Whole grain bread! Whole grain rice! Etc. But I was remembering that when I was a kid I totally ate white bread and I'm fine.  So, I buy this stuff for my boy and put one bag in the freezer.  If you are a lover of french toast, this also makes the best! 

8.  Gardenburgers.  I love Gardenburgers.  A few times a month we will have them for dinner.  I eat mine on a whole wheat bagel with lettuce, tomato, and avocado.  Super delicious and easy!

9.  Kirkland Normandy Style Vegetable Blend.  This blend has broccoli, cauliflower, carrot slices, and baby carrots.  I'm super picky about frozen vegetables, but these ones are almost as good as fresh!  I use this as a side for many of our meals.  It also works in a pinch for making stir fry.  Not the most exciting purchase, but you've gotta eat those veggies!  

There's my list.  What are your favorite food purchases at Costco?