A Collection Of Costco Quinoa Salad Copycat Recipes

Costco has a lot of great products in their deli section and one of the most popular is the Quinoa Salad.  While searching online I discovered that a lot of people have been coming up with copycat recipes and I thought I might share them with you today. I do want to be clear, I haven’t made any of these but the reviews are overwhelming positive so I thought they should be be brought to others attention.

Here is one from The Tasteful Tribe.

Nourished by Nic also has one.

Another blog focusing on good nutrition, Wellness by Kay also has one.

And finally, we have one by Clean Eating Kitchen.

As you can see, given quinoa’s well deserved reputation as a superfood, many of these copycat recipes are from nutrition focused individuals. That these recipes are also delicious according to their readers makes for a win-win situation!

So please check out these fellow food bloggers, they have done some great work

I hope you enjoy checking these out and happy eating!

Costco 12 Piece Anodized Cookware on Closeout for $119-It has an Asterik!

 Most experienced Costco shoppers know the asterisk on a price tag means an item is discontinued.  I saw that on the Kirkland Signature 12 Piece Non-Stick cookware set.

This generally gets good reviews so this is probably your last opportunity to buy this value priced set.

I also noticed they had a bent box unit of it for $95 at the Kalamazoo, Michigan store.

That is a pretty good price. Somebody is going to get a great deal!

Sweet and Savory Grape Appetizers Inspired by the Costco Connection Magazine September 2024 Issue

 

 I was reading the September 2024 issue of the Costco Connection magazine and I came upon a recipe for Sweet and Savory Grape Appetizers. (When the magazine goes live online, I will add a link to the recipe).  I asked my lovely wife what she thought of the idea and she was quite enthusiastic.  We already had some Jarlsberg cheese in the fridge so I stopped at Costco and bought some grapes, mini mozzarella cheese balls and some salami. My lovely wife has a garden with fresh basil so we were set to try this out.

My lovely wife thought of making two types of skewers: one set with grapes and Jarlsberg cheese and another set with a mixture of cherry and grape tomatoes from my lovely wife’s garden and the fresh mozzarella.  Both turned out to be attractive as well as tasty.

We took these over to our friend’s house for gaming night snacks and they were a tremendous hit.  People liked the mixed of sweet and savory and there were three different food groups in one snack!  

To sum up, these were easy to make, a real crowd pleaser and they had some real variety with just one style of snack. And you can customize them with the cheese of your choice.

We were so impressed with these that we decided that we will take them to our company picnic to impress my coworkers!

Eat, be well and be happy!

Review of Ajinomoto Pork and Chicken Gyoza

 

With this on sale until Sunday 9/1, we thought we would try them.  They come 60 to a box.

They then come wrapped in sub-packages.

They do cook up as quickly as described on the package.  My lovely wife made a pretty presentation and kept with the Asian theme by serving them with green peas and mandarin oranges.

We liked these and they are tasty enough and made for a good meal.  But we also definitely enjoy the beef mandu significantly more. The Ling-Ling Potstickers are also somewhat better and even at the current full price are a better value.  

Let me be clear, they were okay, but simply put, other similar products at Costco taste better and/or are a better value so my assumption is we will never buy these again.

New link posted-Cooking the Costco Way Facebook page

 While browsing Facebook for Costco related pages, I found a fine new cooking site.  

Cooking the Costco Way.

I have added it to our list of links.

He seems to be a pretty good cook with a different focus than what we do so I thought he deserved a solid shout out.

Jarlsberg and Gouda Penne with Chicken Sausage.

 Jarlsberg is on sale this week so we wanted to try something cheesy and different than our previous dinners by making a pasta dish. The Sabatino sausages were also on sale for some added punch to the dish.

I grated Jarlsberg and Smoked Gouda (about 2 cups total).

I added a couple tablespoons of corn starch and distributed it to allow the cheese sauce to thicken and to avoid clumping.

In a Dutch oven, I added a cup of Pinot Grigio and started slowly adding the cheese after it came to a simmer. We will admit we bought the wine from Aldi but Costco has plenty of affordable quality wines that we could have used.  

After all the cheese was melted, four sausages were cut up and added. The dish was seasoned with freshly ground nutmeg and black pepper and finished by adding a half pound of cooked penne.

In the end, this was a very satisfying and easy to make dish which we will surely replicate.  The cheeses worked well together with the simple white wine sauce.  Adding the sausage gave some variety and lent a meat portion to the dish.  The cost for six servings was probably less than the cost of one meal at a restaurant and it took about the same if not less time than going to a restaurant or getting delivery.

A good home cooked meal like this is satisfying, tasty and quick.  And shopping at Costco makes it an absolute bargain.

Review of Rana Beef and Short Rib Lasagna on sale at Costco

 Like many people, we love lasagna but it is a dish that takes some time and effort to prepare so something that you can just put in the oven has a lot of appeal.  And it being on sale made it easy to try.

It comes refrigerated, so that definitely makes it a bit more upscale than frozen.

You take it out of the cardboard box and is pretty much ready to go into the oven.

Since it is refrigerated, it only takes 20 minutes to bake and you are all set for dinner!

My lovely wife and I both enjoyed it. It has good texture and flavor. It also had solid portions of meat and cheese- it wasn’t all tomato sauce and noodles.  While not as good as the best homemade or restaurant lasagna, it was tasty and a good value. And at 20 minutes of baking time, it is faster than ordering out.

It also has a really good shelf life so you can stock up.

Go ahead and indulge in some lasagna, it’s easy, quick and affordable.

A Review of Kevin’s Paleo Thai-Style Coconut Chicken at Costco

 

With it being on sale for $3.50 off this month, we definitely thought this was worth a try. It comes in a 32 oz total package with the sauce and the chicken packed separately.

It can be heated up on the stove top or in the microwave which does increase its versatility. In either case, the prep is pretty easy.

The heated chicken and sauce came together quickly and looked tasty and smelled good.

We are big fans of the Lotus Foods Millet and Brown Rice  Ramen Noodles at Costco. The big bag of them is pretty affordable about at Costco and they are more flavorful and and have more fiber than your standard ramen.

Being ramen noodles, they cook up in just a few minutes.

As we expected, the noodles paired very nicely with the chicken and the sauce.

This is not the best coconut chicken you will ever have but it is certainly tasty and a  good value at full price. On sale it is definitely a bargain.  My lovely wife did suggest the next time we get it that we throw in some frozen vegetables, most likely frozen peas. We also might try it with rice.

If you enjoy curries, this an affordable, easy to prep option that will save you lots of time and money over getting takeout.

Summary of Some Food Deals at Costco from 7/31-8/24 2024

 I felt some commentary on this months deals might be useful. I do realize that the numbers are going to be different, but since all food has gone up, Costco is still clearly a leader in value.

This month they have the Frito-Lay Classic Mix 54 pack on sale for $5 off.  I have previously written about the Baked Lays saving you calories and money.  While the Classic Mix pack won't save you calories, it will save you a lot of money over vending machine or the overpriced bags at the store checkout.

Save yourself some money and have some portion control and buy these at Costco!

While not a food item, the Ziploc Variety Pack is also on sale.  While reusable containers are have a lot of advantages, at this price the occasional use of disposable bags makes some sort of financial sense.

The Ocean Spray Craisins are again on sale. Over the years we have done a number of posts about them:

An Apple Compote.

Homemade Trail Mix. 

Pork Loin with Cranberry Relish and Mixed Grain Salad.

Bacon and Tomato Ravioli with a Salad of Romaine, Almonds and Cranberries. 

The Ling Ling Potstickers are again on sale. Here is a review of them we did.

The Columbus Reduced Sodium Sliced Italian Dry Salami is also on sale again.  This is a great product just as a snack, on a charcuterie board, in sandwiches and on pizza. We have done a variety of posts about this lovely product. 

We are thinking about trying the Coconut Chicken and the Lasagna that are on sale. Hopefully we will be reporting back with reviews.

Cinnamon Breadsticks with Glaze

 

It has been a long time but things have happened in my life that I have thought of restarting the blog again. I found this mostly completed post so I thought why not?

Readers of this blog are probably familiar with our enjoyment of pizza and cheesy breadsticks.  It is something that works really well for us.  I make a couple of pizzas using Tyler Florence's very reliable pizza dough recipe and set aside some dough in the refrigerator for breadsticks later.

The cheesy breadsticks do certainly rock but my wife suggested that we branch out into cinnamon breadsticks and I thought that was an awesome idea.

I started out with some dough I set aside in the fridge and rolled it out to about the same thickness I use for   pizza.  I think slathered it with some melted Kerrygold butter.

Then we give it a hearty sprinkle of a mix of 1 part cinnamon/3 parts sugar.  We use the wonderful and affordable Saigon Cinnamon from Costco

My lovely and smart wife suggested instead of slicing and then moving the breadsticks to the cookie sheet that we just slice it on the cookie sheet and pull the pieces apart later.

My wife is a very smart woman and it made the job much easier and made the breadsticks prettier.

These are very tasty, very easy and very affordable. They are great as a treat or for breakfast.  If you like cinnamon these are definitely worth making.

Enjoy!