I love Costco! Let’s just get that out of the way, but it can be intimidating shopping at Costco and knowing what to buy and better yet what to avoid. I am going to share with you my list of favorite food items to buy at Costco for healthy eating and cooking and some items that looks like they might be healthy, but you need to stay away from.
The Best Things To Buy At Costco
A lot of people stay away from buying in bulk because they think the food will go bad before they eat it, but the truth is there are many healthy food items at Costco that have a long shelf life. Here is my list of healthy food items that have a long shelf life and I highly recommend buying from Costco.
Butter: We love using grass-fed Irish butter while cooking, and the best price I have ever seen is for Kerrygold Irish butter at Costco. It has a higher butterfat percentage than American butter and taste much richer. The American butter has higher amounts of water, and who wants to pay for that!? Use that butter to schmear all over Dessi’s keto bagels, or use to make my keto biscuits.
Coconut Milk: The price of organic coconut milk milk at Costco is just about the same price as Trader Joe’s, but the consistency of the coconut milk is smooth and creamy. The coconut milk at Costco does have guar gum, which helps makes the texture smooth and prevents the coconut cream from separating from the milk like the one from Trader Joe’s does. If you don’t mind the guar gum, go for Costco, but if you buy the one from TJ’s, you may need to warm the milk up and whisk well to emulsify the milk and cream.
Use coconut milk from from Costco to make my pork chops al pastor meal prep or my golden cauliflower keto rice.
Cooking Oil: There are so many cooking oils at Costco it can be a bit confusing. Some are healthy and a great deal, and some you need to stay away from! Buy virgin coconut oil, olive oil, extra virgin olive oil, and virgin avocado oil from Costco. The prices are amazing and these are heart healthy (yes, even the coconut oil despite what people say) and are great for cooking at high temperatures (yes, even the olive oil..that is a myth!) Use olive oil to make my ultimate Italian meatballs, use avocado oil to sear chicken thighs for my keto chicken and cauliflower fried rice, and use coconut oil to make Dessi’s gluten free pumpkin bread.
Stay away from canola oil, vegetable oil, and corn oil from Costco. These types of oils are highly processed and they use chemical solvents to help extract the oil from the pants. Yuck!
Almond Flour: Costco has the best price I have ever seen for blanched almond flour – only $4 per pound! Trader Joe’s almond flour cost $7.50 per pound. Use almond flour to make Dessi’s low carb pita bread, Dessi’s keto crackers, and my keto sausage McMuffin sandwich.
Chia Seeds and Hemp Hearts: These superfoods are the real deal, they are loaded with protein, fiber, antioxidants, and omega-3 and 6 fatty acids. Use chia seeds to make my keto coconut chia seed pudding and sprinkle hemp hearts on yogurt or cook with some quinoa for a breakfast bowl like I do during the weekdays.
Almond Butter & Peanut Butter: The price is right for these pantry staples. Just make sure to store them in the fridge once opened. Use either of these for my low carb peanut noodles with homemade lettuce wraps.
Do Not Buy These Food Items From Costco:
Rotisserie Chicken: I cringe when I see how many people buy the rotisserie chicken from Costco. It is a low quality chicken that is pumped full of sugar, preservatives, MSG, and chemicals. You are much better off roasting chicken thighs at home or a whole chicken. You can easily roast chicken thighs and make my chicken salad recipe that is the bomb.
Organic Eggs: Not all organic eggs are created equal, and Costco brad eggs are very low quality. Organic does not mean jack! A chicken can be organic, but still be confined to a cage, eat organic corn instead of worms and bugs, and not see the daylight. Buy pasture raised chicken eggs I like a brand called vital farms from Whole Foods. They are twice the price but the quality is much better. You can check the quantity of eggs from this website here. Even the 365 brand from Whole Foods are garbage!
Pine Nuts: Have you ever heard of pine nut syndrome? It’s when you have this bitter, metallic taste in your mouth that can last for weeks! It has been know to be caused by pine nuts from China, which are not a real breed of pine nuts, but an off-shoot, and guess where the pine nuts from Costco come from? China! I am not saying it will happen to you, but it is not worth the risk and they are not real deal pine nuts anyway. Plus they are expensive! Try using toasted walnuts to make my easy pesto recipe that I toss with pasta or low carb shirataki noodles.
Spices: It’s not that the quality of spices is not good at Costco. It’s that ground spices start to lose their flavor within 3-6 months, and there is no way you can use all of that cumin in that time! You are better of buying FRESH spices from the bulk section of Whole Foods or better yet, from a spice shop in your town.
Green Juices & Kombucha: I am so tried of this trend for paying top dollar for “cold pressed” juices and smoothies. Green juices from Costco are nothing but pasteurized sugar water and kombucha makes me gassy as can be! Read the ingredients. They sneak in sugar and other nasty ingredients plus all of the nutrients of the green juices are killed when they are heated for pasteurization!
Well that’s it. I hope you enjoyed my grocery haul for my favorite healthy food items at Costco and what to avoid. Please let me know if you want to see hauls from other stores!? Check out some of my favorite healthy meal prep recipes:
Please do more grocery shopping for meat
i will! i buy organic chicken from whole foods 365 brand..and grass fed beef
You mentioned nuts going rancid but how long before that happens?? I go through a Costco plain almonds in 2 months or so, is that too long to be room temp??
Mary, you should be good, nut would typically go bad 6 months after they are open and left at room temp.
I so love you and your wives recipes. I’m 60 years young and have never had lamb (except in a gyro). i am going to make my daughter and her husband your Aussie lamb chop recipe/Yogurt sauce. also going to make your wifes low carb keto bread. could you please tell me where to find coconut butter.Keep up the good work!!! love your new web site as far as trying to find your recipes, videos, pictures, and your printable recipes. Thanks so much you to for all the hard work and getting me and my family to eat right!!
HI Leanne, here’s the link to the coconut butter – best price is on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Nutiva-Organic-Sustainably-Coconuts-15-ounce/dp/B004T80BYE/ref=sm_n_ma_dka_US_pr_ran_0_2?adId=B004T80BYE&creativeASIN=B004T80BYE&linkId=d49960bc581bed7ef61e25273604678f&tag=flavcity05-20&linkCode=w43&ref-refURL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.flavcity.com%2Flow-carb-keto-bread%2F&slotNum=0&imprToken=-0oguWVMvmEwLGHcvEqIig&adType=smart&adMode=manual&adFormat=grid&impressionTimestamp=1548006126802
Hi Bobby,
I emailed the manufacturer of the Avocado Oil and found out how the oil is made. It seems legit and no different than Chosen Foods. I’m happy to email it to you if you give me your info.
Thanks for reaching out – we looked into it too and we agree. In fact we are now buying it.
Can you please do “healthy snacks” to avoid … Absolutely love your blogs and YouTube videos!
That is a great idea! It’s now on my list!
Please reevaluate your claim that Kirkland eggs are bad. The problem with using the Cornucopia Institute as a benchmark for if Kirkland/Costco eggs are good or bad is that their rating system is horribly flawed. The Institute rates them based on responses to surveys that were sent to the producers. Since Costco didn’t respond, the Institute gave them all zeros. The Institute list was originally produced almost 10 years ago. They provide no details on when they surveyed producers or when they resurveyed them, if ever. And assigning a zero to a non-respondent in a flawed methodology. I’ve seen greater scientific rigor in a 6th-grade science fair project.
Love your YouTube channel and Instagram feed, but please investigate the “sources” you are using before citing them. And please stop telling people to not buy Kirkland/Costo eggs based on flawed and misleading information. Also, Kirkland eggs now carry the Certified Humane certification as well.
Thank you for the info. I’ll have to look into it, but I believe the zero-score is NOT only from non-respondence.
Correct. I’m sure there are respondents that deserve a zero score. But they don’t disclose the reason/result for the zero scores. And grouping all non-respondents into a zero score is an incorrect methodology. Using the Certified Humane certification that Kirkland eggs carry one can easily infer that their score is well above zero. What’s kind of funny is CI has a report on their site about eggs (separate from the scorecard) and one of the “heroes” they profile in there is an egg farmer that produces eggs for Costco.
BTW, congrats to you and Dessi on your growing family.