What to Buy at Costco for Your Weekly Meal Prep

Buying groceries in bulk can be a dangerous game. Of course you’re getting tons of food for a great price, but it can easily take a turn for the worse when you buy too much food, especially food that doesn’t squarely fit into your daily routine. The last thing anyone wants is having to dump a bunch of expired or decaying food into the trash! Your wallet is SCREAMING. That’s what brought you here, though. We visited our local Costco and put together this handy guide to what to buy at Costco for meal prep—plan ahead and nothing goes to waste!

Tyson Rotisserie Seasoned Chicken Breast Strips

Costco sells an iconically delicious rotisserie chicken, but we’re meal prepping here. Since my time is precious (yours too, right?), I’d much rather spend a few extra dollars per pound on these frozen rotisserie chicken strips than have to break down a bird on my own. That way I can save my energy for my weekly bout of Sunday Scaries!

Kirkland Signature Whole Grain Rolled Oats

It felt crucial that we include a product that works for breakfast prep, not just lunch. You can’t exactly cook up a triple batch of waffles for the week, but these rolled oats from Costco are the perfect base for making overnight oats if you have time for a lil meal prep on the daily.

Bibigo Cooked Sticky White Rice Bowls

Sure, you could cook rice for the week on a Sunday night—we just can’t guarantee it’ll still taste great come Friday. Bibigo comes in clutch with these individual, shelf-stable rice bowls. Just prep a big batch of orange chicken on Sunday, portion it out, and toss it in your lunch bag with one of these bowls. Brilliant.

Kirkland Signature Organic Chicken Stock

You know what will (generally) hold up in the fridge all week? A batch of soup. It’s nearly indestructible! Even if your plans for the week change, guess what you can do—freeze it for later. Is soup a miracle food? We can dive into that later, but for now, we need a base for our soup and, naturally, we went with Kirkland Signature chicken stock. Buy this and prepare a Costco-sized batch of chicken noodle soup that’ll last you a full seven days.

Simply Fresh Organic Chicken Caesar Salad Shaker

Costco’s bagged salad section is a little deceiving. It looks like the ultimate meal prep safe haven full of prepped and portioned meals that are ready to be tossed together and enjoyed. Unfortunately, because it’s Costco, most of those portions are for families of four and the fourth day of eating dressing soaked lettuce doesn’t exactly hit the same as the first. Thankfully, they have a line of salad shakers that are much easier to crush on your own. Bring these to the office when you just don’t feel like cooking anything the night before!

Kirkland Signature Organic Mixed Vegetables

Costco has a plethora of vegetables available to buy in store. But truthfully, as someone who’s shopping for a household of one (and a cat, but she doesn’t eat many veggies), I stick to veggies of the frozen variety. There’s no better staple for meal prepping than this honkin’ mixed bag of frozen carrots, corn, peas, and green beans. Toss it into a batch of fried rice that you’re making for the week, sneak it into a veggie soup, or just heat them up as a side with any protein you’ve got in your bento box.