My Go-To Costco Grocery Staples Guide
Let’s face it: planning the perfect healthy menu, grocery shopping, and cooking meals for the week is a real commitment. Many of my clients say the biggest challenge in sticking to a healthy diet is finding the time to make it all happen.
This is where my Costco grocery guide comes in! When you have staple food items in your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer, you can create meals in a pinch. My go-to staples grocery list is downloadable and broken down into categories for trouble-free and quick shopping!
Have Staples on Hand
Despite cutting down on cooking time and planning, having staples on hand will decrease your chances of reaching for other foods of convenience that may not align with your goals. Instead of reaching for a frozen pizza when you are exhausted from a long day of work, grab an Amylu’s chicken burger and mixed veggies for a side, and you will have a healthy meal! Having staples will allow you to be more creative in the kitchen and see how simple healthy meals can be.
Prepare Food Ahead of Time
Going beyond the benefits of having staples in your kitchen, prepping food items ahead of time is a huge hack for a healthy lifestyle. Having cut-up fruits and vegetables stocked in your refrigerator makes for easy snacking or quick meal additions. Batch-prepping sweet potatoes, grains, and meat means dinners are almost already completed when you open your refrigerator!
Adding Staples to Meals
If you can invest more time into meal planning and cooking, this guide provides room for variation. Many meals can become more nutrient-dense by adding handy staples. My burger bowl recipe is a great example of a way to create a fast meal by throwing together a customizable mix of veggies from your refrigerator and combining it with staples from the guide such as lean organic ground turkey/grass-fed ground beef, pickles, veggies, and avocado.
Other Staples: Pantry, Refrigerator, Freezer
Here is a list of staples that are not on the Costco guide but are still great options to have on hand.
Pantry:
Beans & legumes
Garbanzo beans, black beans, lentil pasta, cannellini beans, kidney beans
Canned goods & packaged items
Diced tomatoes, coconut milk, pumpkin puree, Amy’s organic soup, vegetable and chicken broths, bone broth, tomato sauce
Grains
Quinoa, rice varieties (wild, brown, black, rice noodles), buckwheat (soba noodles), and farro
Nuts & seeds
Almonds, cashews, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, pinenuts, sesame seeds (tahini), sunflower seeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds
Oil
Avocado oil, olive oil, toasted sesame oil, coconut oil
Pantry Vegetables
Potatoes (sweet potato, russet), garlic, onion, winter squash (spaghetti squash, butternut, acorn)
Vinegar
Balsamic, Braggs apple cider, red wine, rice, white wine
Convenient, yet nourishing
Simple Mills Crackers, Mary’s Gone Crackers, Siete Foods, Late July, Hu Kitchen
Refrigerator
Vegetables
I recommend having two varieties of leafy greens and a few color vegetables on hand:
Bell peppers, zucchini, broccoli, carrots, celery, spinach, mixed greens, arugula, cauliflower, mushrooms, ginger root
Fruit
Berries, oranges, pineapple, apples, kiwis, avocados, lemons, etc.
Protein
Organic eggs, chicken, turkey, and beef (opt for high-quality, organically-raised options)
Organic tempeh and tofu
Salmon, cod, halibut, shrimp (wild-caught seafood)
Greek yogurt (zero sugar)
Fermented foods
Sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurts (coconut, almond, other plant-based yogurts)
Freezer
Fruit
Cherries, mango, bananas, wild blueberries, strawberries, pineapple
Vegetables
Spinach, kale, zucchini, cauliflower rice, edamame, stir fry blends, peas
Sprouted whole grain organic bread
Ezekiel bread, whole grain English muffins (Ezekiel or Dave’s Killer Bread)
Remove the stress around food and make mealtime easy for yourself! Download my Costco staple grocery shopping guide and start shopping to stock up today.