If you want to stay only shopping at Costco, def change up how you plan. First you can look at sale items ahead of time (when planning meals) so start there. Second, if you have a freezer, know you can pick things up and pop them in so you don’t need to use it up right away. Lastly I think the key is to be flexible and open minded. I might have planned (ex) hot dogs for dinner, but I see sausages on sale I will pick those up instead. If you wanted chicken Caesar salad but pork chops are on sale, roll with it.

I’m a Costco lover (and we’re only 2!) and I find it super hard to pre-plan shopping lists because I will lean towards sale items to save money - like my chicken/pork chops salad notion. You can always Google “what to make with …” if you are stuck for ideas too.

Slightly unrelated but if you want to throw another store in your list, add a farmers market. There is so much great fresh produce out right now!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since it sounds like you don’t really cook, here are some ideas for premade stuff we regular stock up on from there for a quick kid friendly dinner:

Chicken cilantro wontons: steam with a bit of broth in a skillet with sugar snap peas or broccoli

Ravioli + sauce

Gyro meat. Serve on pitas with cherry tomato’s, cucumbers, red onion, plain yogurt

Frozen meatballs. Make meatball subs or pasta

Chicken apple sausage. Slice and sauté with apples and onions. Serve on rice

Salmon burgers / salmon fillets. Grill and put on a bun with avocado and lettuce.

The chicken tacos and chickpea/quinoa salad in the premade meals case are really good too.

I love to cook and I miss it, but with 3 kids it is so much work to plan, shop, prep, and cook. I do resort to the premade stuff all too often. I do miss REAL cooking!

We almost exclusively shop at Costco, but I have 2 teen boys and a husband with fast metabolisms so they eat a ton of food. What I do is make a bunch of ingredients that I then can assemble in different ways. Like I will buy the 10 lb bag of dried black beans and cook a pound of them on Sunday, to use in tacos, black bean burgers, enchiladas, nachos, etc during the week. I’ll cook a pound of rice and use it in stir fry, curries, rice bowls, etc. I’ll roast a huge bag of broccoli and use it as a side, in wraps, bowls, etc.

This gives me the flexibility to change my meal on the fly, but still have most things pre-cooked and ready to go.

From the frozen section :
A. Just Bare Chicken bites. 1. You can serve them plain if kids are picky or throw them into a salad. 2. You can make an easier southwestern salad by mixing salsa and ranch dressing, throwing in corn, avocados, cilantro. 3. Use them in wraps with lettuce, tomatoes, mayo. Etc. 4. Use them in an Asian bowl, stir fry veggies, remove , heat a skillet with some oil, cook chicken add sauce .lterriyaki, orange, honey whatever. Serve over rice.

B. Beer battered cod. Make fish tacos or fish and chips

C. Frozen lasagna

D. Bag of frozen chicken breasts or thighs. Throw into instapot or slow cooker, defrost and sauté, whatever.

3. Big bag of frozen broccoli for veggies

4. Bags of frozen fruit for smoothies.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you buy half a cow from a local farmer? That would take a lot of guesswork and save tons of money.

OP here we get all of our beef from a local farmer.

But that still begs the question…how to meal prep or plan ahead with Costco?

Why does it have to be Costco? If you’re cooking from scratch a grocery store is more useful.

I’ve done it, why can’t it be possible? There are some things that are always available. Certain breads, veg, fruit, oats always there

My nearest supermarket is terrible. Yeah, it's sad when Costco has a better selection.