Costco, known for its bulk offerings, also boasts a wide variety of frozen foods that cater to different tastes and dietary needs. Navigating the frozen aisles can be overwhelming, but with the right information, you can stock your freezer with nutritious and convenient options. This guide highlights some of the best healthy frozen foods available at Costco, considering taste, nutrition, and value for money.
Frozen Fruits and Vegetables: A Nutritional Powerhouse
Kirkland Signature Normandy-Style Vegetable Blend
This blend of broccoli, cauliflower, baby carrots, and sweet yellow carrots offers a convenient way to add variety and nutrition to your meals. Flash frozen at peak freshness, it delivers vitamins A and C in every bite. Roast it with olive oil, salt, and pepper for a simple side, or add parmesan or balsamic glaze for extra flavor. It’s also great in stir-fries, pasta, grain bowls, soups, casseroles, or frittatas.
Golden Farms Pineapple Chunks
These organic pineapple chunks, grown in Costa Rica and frozen at peak ripeness, are naturally sweet and bursting with tropical flavor. A ¾ cup serving provides 50% of your daily vitamin C and 3 grams of fiber. Enjoy them straight from the bag, blended into smoothies, stirred into yogurt, or tossed into fruit salads. They also work well in pineapple salsa for tacos or roasted with cinnamon.
Smart Harvest Organic Sweet Cherries
Enjoy the taste of cherries year-round with these organic dark sweet cherries. Add them to yogurt or oatmeal for a natural sweetness, bake them into muffins or tarts, or toss them into salads for a burst of flavor. Packed with antioxidants, fiber, and vitamins, they are a wholesome and nutrient-dense treat.
Nature's Path Frozen Broccoli
Costco's frozen broccoli from Nature's Path is a must-buy for those looking to eat healthier. The larger-portioned packaging allows you to cook enough broccoli for several servings in one bag. The quality is consistently excellent, with vibrant green florets that maintain their texture and flavor even after cooking. It's perfect for quick stir-fries, roasting, or adding to casseroles and soups.
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Costco Frozen Berries
With an array of berries that range from perfectly sliced strawberry halves and wild blueberries to mixed berries and even raspberries, Cosco has all the berry variety you are likely to need in your life, and at prices that are hard to beat. If you're a smoothie lover, then Cosco's frozen berries are the perfect product you need in your fridge. If you are a fan of baking, their frozen blueberries work beautifully in scones and galettes.
PuraVida Fire Roasted Root Vegetables
This colorful mix of root vegetables like sweet potatoes, parsnips, carrots, and red onion is seasoned simply with black pepper and salt. Air fry it for a quick, wholesome side dish to pair with your favorite protein.
Protein-Packed Frozen Foods: Convenient and Nutritious
Kirkland Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
A bag of these chicken breasts is a must-have for quick weeknight meals. Individually frozen, they are 99% fat-free and can be cooked from thawed or frozen. Use them in grilled chicken fajitas or chicken stir-fries for a satisfying dinner.
Trident Seafoods Alaska Salmon Burgers
These wild-caught Alaska Salmon Burgers are loaded with 1,190 milligrams of omega-3s per serving, supporting heart and brain health. Each burger packs 20 grams of protein and 35% of your daily vitamin D. They cook up effortlessly in the air fryer, on the stove, or on the grill.
Imperial Garden Organic Edamame
These young soybeans are packed with protein, fiber, and antioxidants. Steam them for a quick snack or toss them into salads, stir-fries, dips, or grain bowls.
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Beyond Meat Beyond Burger Plant-Based Patties
For those looking to add more plant-based options, these patties pack 20 grams of plant protein per serving and have 35% less fat than a 4-ounce serving of 80/20 ground beef. They are easy to cook on a skillet or grill and become tender and flavorful.
Yucatan Avocado Halves
Frozen avocados are just as creamy and delicious as fresh ones. Frozen at the peak of ripeness, they lock in nutrients and flavors and are perfect for smoothies or guacamole.
Kevin's Korean BBQ-Style Beef
These tender steak tips are paired with a sweet and spicy bulgogi-style sauce, combining coconut aminos, garlic, and toasted sesame seeds. The beef is grass-fed, and the meal pairs well with grains like couscous, quinoa, wild rice, or bulgur.
Convenient Frozen Meals: Quick and Easy Options
Clovis Farms Organic Super Smoothie Blend Pouches
These pouches are packed with blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, kale, spinach, and bananas, delivering fiber, antioxidants, and vitamins. Toss a pouch into the blender with ½ cup of your favorite liquid for a quick and nutrient-packed smoothie.
Garden Lites Veggies Made Great Spinach Egg White Frittatas
These ready-made frittatas are made with eggs, tomatoes, onions, red bell peppers, and mozzarella cheese. Pop one in the microwave for a quick breakfast or snack.
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Milton's Roasted Vegetable Cauliflower Crust Pizza
This pizza is a great option for those with gluten intolerance or sensitivities. The roasted vegetables and crispy cauliflower crust provide a balance of texture and taste.
Tattooed Chef Organic Riced Cauliflower Stir Fry
This low-carb dish combines cauliflower rice with peas, corn, and red bell peppers in a sesame ginger sauce. It’s quick and easy to prepare in a skillet or microwave.
Frozen Meals: Ranked
Costco's frozen section is full of easy dinners that can satisfy even the pickiest of palates, but stock can vary among Costco locations, as the company chooses what products to offer based on what's popular in a particular region. Factors that played largely into the ranking included taste and texture - for example, dishes that had juicy chunks of chicken and crisp vegetables ranked higher. Also taken into account was how each frozen meal reflected its fresh form, as they should be able to be substituted for takeout or a homemade dish.
- Kirkland Signature Italian Sausage and Beef Lasagna: It has a crispy outside with gooey, melty cheese in the middle that was still bubbling when pulled out of the oven. The outside was so pleasantly crispy, the noodles were tender, and there was an ample amount of meat and ricotta in each bite. Moreover, it boasted some delightfully herby notes, and the sausage had a spicy kick to it.
- Don Miguel Chicken & 3 Cheese Mini Burrito Bowls: The melty cheese on top was adored and appreciated how the bowl heated through beautifully after just a few minutes in the microwave. The corn was nice and crunchy, the chicken chunks were tender and moist, and the bowl even boasted a little bit of spice. The rice and beans had a nice bite, and I found myself cleaning the bowl even though I don't usually enjoy black beans.
- Birds Eye's Garlic Chicken: The chicken was moist and flavorful, the pasta was tender, the vegetables retained a nice bite, and the garlic sauce was surprisingly flavorful. My biggest complaint about this dish was the broccoli, as you could absolutely tell it was frozen.
- Ajinomoto's Yakisoba: The noodles were slightly chewy, but they boasted a delicious, rich flavor, as did the vegetables. Though, the vegetables retained virtually no texture, with the exception of the delightfully crunchy pieces of cabbage. One serving is definitely enough to be a dinner and the flavor alone would keep me coming back for more.
- Oceans Halo Shrimp Fried Rice: The shrimp retained some texture without being chewy, though they didn't have much flavor on their own. The fried rice itself surprised me; it was full of flavor, and I didn't get bored as I was eating it. Though, I think it would need a ton of soy sauce to be palatable. My biggest complaint was the scrambled eggs.
- Ajinomoto's Yakitori Chicken Fried Rice: Each individual bag contains a generous serving that I'd consider filling enough to be a dinner on its own. The meal was unfortunately lacking in two other areas. First, the sauce that was there was yummy, but I didn't think there was enough of it to make this dish particularly flavorful. Worse than the lack of sauce, however, was the chicken, which was dry and bland.
- Bibigo's Chicken Teriyaki Rice Bowl: The sauce was fine, but it was slightly too sweet. Though, I would say that the sauce and the rice were the best parts of the meal. I appreciated that the vegetables retained some texture, but they weren't particularly flavorful. Meanwhile, the chicken was also dry and lacked flavor. I'd probably eat this if no other options looked particularly palatable - it's a safe meal choice.
- Ajinomoto's Shoyu Ramen Bowls: The part of this dish I liked the most was the flavorful broth. It boasted a rich umami soy flavor that I'd have been happy to just sip on. The noodles were also pretty good; they had a decent bite to them and tasted like typical instant ramen noodles. Had this dish only been broth and noodles, I may have ranked it higher. But unfortunately, the other elements of this dish fell very flat. I avoided the chicken with every bite because it was slightly sweet, and I found it to be fairly unpalatable when paired with the broth. The vegetables present in the dish were absolutely tiny and didn't stand out on their own at all.
- Marie Callender's Chicken Pot Pie: The textures were all wrong. The chicken cubes were large, dry, and dense, and the vegetables were far too soft.
Frozen Foods to Avoid at Costco
Costco's Frozen Avocado Halves
Once defrosted, the avocado retains a strange, almost freezer-burnt flavor that requires masking with spices and additional ingredients.
Costco's Marinated Wild Pink Salmon
Heavily seasoned and flavored, the fish's flavor ends up completely transformed into something spicy and not entirely pleasant.
Olivia Butterfly Shrimp
This dish ends up tasting like someone took a poor shrimp, stomped on it on the ground with their heavy boots, brushed it with way too much oil and spices, and then placed the whole unappetizing mess on your plate.
Costco's Salmon and Tuna Poke Singles
These pre-portioned seafood dishes suffer from an overwhelming mix of seasonings that mask the delicate flavors of the fish.
Bibigo Mandu Chicken & Vegetable Dumplings
While convenient, the microwave preparation sacrifices authenticity and texture, resulting in soggy wrappers that pale in comparison to traditionally prepared Korean dumplings. The filling, a mix of chicken, cabbage, onions, and mushrooms, lacks the depth and complexity of genuine Korean cuisine.
Costco's Chocofruit Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries
The chocolate coating tasted stale and lacked cocoa flavor, failing to deliver the rich indulgence I expected. The combination of subpar chocolate and lackluster fruit resulted in a treat that felt like soggy fruit forgotten in the back of the fridge rather than the fondue-dipped morsels of sweetness that inspired this.
Costco's Frozen Farmed Atlantic Salmon
From a culinary perspective, the taste and texture are just not that great, with the salmon often overcooking in a brief period of time.