Costco Coupon Book July 12 To August 5

Once again, thanks to my friends at Addicted To Costco, I have this month's coupon book.

I certainly hope I can convince my wife to let me buy some of the Chocolate Chunk Cookies that are on sale with no limit and no coupon required.

These cookies have been on sale during previously during the summer, so I will keep my eyes open for them.

My list of recommendations also includes the Oberto Jerky.

Finally, for your canine friends, I recommend the Jerky Treats they have on sale.

Elegant Mediterranean Cheese And Vegetable Platter

Recently, my wife had a party to go to and while she didn't want to spend a lot of time cooking, she wanted to make something that would be appreciated and show our love of food. Her decision was to make a fantastic cheese and vegetable platter using a variety of ingredients from Costco including:

• Kirkland Signature Artichoke Hearts
• Feta Cheese 
• Bell Peppers
• Grape Tomatoes
• Tasso Mediterranean Green Olives

As you can see, the presentation was as good as the food was tasty:

When my wife got home from the party, I asked her if there were any leftovers and she said no!  That certainly indicates it was a success in both ease of prep and flavor.

Review Of Costco Calzones

A while back we tried the Costco brand of calzones in the deli and I have to say, I was pretty impressed with them. They are easy to heat up in the oven and they come with their own marinara sauce.

Upon cutting them open, you will find they done have a good quantity of filling in them.

I found these satisfying in everyway: texture, taste and serving size.  You can easily get two meals out of each one if you extend it with a nice romaine salad.

The price was pretty reasonable and I would definitely give these a thumbs up.  While these are not a gourmet meal, they are tasty, filling and extremely affordable.  An excellent value in every way.

Costco Coupon Book June 14 to July 8 Plus A Review Of The Apple Strudel

Thanks once again to my friends at Addicted to Costco, I have this months coupon book.

The Craisins are on sale again and I highly recommend them.  Here are links to some previous posts about them.

Trail mix with craisins, M&M's and peanuts.

Pork Loin with cranberry relish.

Apple, cranberry and quinoa salad.


The take and bake pizza is on sale again and I have done a variety of posts on them.  Here is one.  They are a great deal to start with but on sale they are simply a crazy deal. In fact, we are having one for dinner tonight. (And the leftovers will be lunch tomorrow).

And while I haven't written about the Sun Chips, I have posted about the multi packs of chips in regards to the Baked Lays products.

As for the apple strudel, I highly recommend it. It has a good, flaky crust and a well executed apple filling. I also like the fact that they are miniature strudels which make for easy serving.  My mother in law put some sharp cheddar on hers and thought it was excellent.  And I am positive that heating these up and serving them with some good vanilla ice cream would be totally awesome!

And for extreme decadence, some of my wife's family topped them with fresh strawberries and Cool Whip, although I did not go far myself. I did use some Cool Whip though and that worked well.


I highly recommend them and with the coupon, they are about 80 cents each, which makes them an excellent bargain.

Pasta Prima Chicken and Mozzarella Ravioli With A Sauce Of Grape Tomatoes and Cheese

We are big fans of Pasta Prima ravioli and my lovely wife took a package of the Chicken and Mozzarella Ravioli and made of a sauce from:

• Fresh Grape Tomatoes from Costco
• Some frozen rotisserie chicken from Costco
• A left over sauce packet from some frozen Pasta Prima ravioli
• Some lemon EVOO

The results of this were absolutely fabulous and kudos to my wife for thinking of this.  If you don't have an extra sauce pack laying around, just substitute some of your favorite herbs and grated cheese. And if you don't have lemon EVOO, just use some fresh lemon and your favorite EVOO.

The dish had a great chicken flavor and the ravioli and the sauce also added a couple of cheese components. 

The tomatoes were fresh and made the dish lively and the remaining herbs and seasonings rounded out the dish and just put it over the top.

I am sure we will do something like this again and I have to say, having all these Costco ingredients on hand really made this quick and rewarding work.

Last Day for Costco Coupon Book

Sorry I have not been posting much lately, but things have been keeping me busy outside of the blog.

Courtesy of my friends at Addicted To Costco, here is this months coupon book.

I have done postings about a couple of items that are on sale this month.

Here is a review of Sabatasso's Mini Pizzas.

And a entry on making trail mix with M&M's.

Antico Artichoke & Asiago Tapenade With Grilled Naan Bread

We recently discovered the joys of toasted naan bread and I thought it would be great as a replacement for crackers.  And as it turned out, I was right and the outcome of this experiment was absolutely delicious.

We bought some Antico Artichoke and Asiago Tapenade at Costco recently and I was eager to try it.  When we got to our friend's house for a get together, I took the naan bread and cut it up with kitchen shears.  Using the kitchen shears works very well and it makes quick and easy work of the project.  Then my lovely wife toasted the bread in the oven and it was ready to go.

This was a major success and it disappeared like magic.  I have the jar of the tapenade open by me right and I was so overwhelmed by the smell of the cheese, herbs and garlic that I had to run into the kitchen and grab a spoon and have a taste of it!

Artichokes and asiago by themselves are delicious but they have the right mix of herbs and garlic to really put this over the top.  And the naan bread as a base to serve it on made it elegant and added a toasted flavor and some crunchy texture.

I highly recommend this combination. I am also sure toasted naan bread would be a great base for a wide variety of spreads. And I am positive this tapenade is very worthy of spreading on crackers and other breads.  My wife also suggested putting in on a pizza or using it as a pasta sauce and I am sure we will try at least one of those ideas.

The Costco Craze Premeres Tonight On CNBC

The Costco Craze: Inside The Warehouse Giant  premieres tonight and will be rebroadcast a number of times over the next few days.

I will be updating this post with my comments.

I will be curious to see what they say about the food at Costco.

Update:


I was generally pretty pleased with the broadcast. It elaborated on a number of things I was already aware of such as their private label products and their small selection, But it also talked about their major sales in areas such as toilet paper and wine.

I was also pleased that they said their prices for food were 30% lower than the typical major grocery store.

And in the area of wine, I was impressed by the analyst who said they have played a part in upgrading America's taste in wine. (I am paraphrasing).  No wonder the independent Costco Wine Blog is so successful and useful.

I was also pleased with the interview with my friend Kim at the Addicted To Costco blog.  That was fun and it was exciting to see another Costco blogger on tv.

While the show definitely portrayed them as aggressive negotiators and extremely shrewd marketers, I thought the overall tone was pretty positive. They have happy customers, they sell quality products and they treat their employees very well. They are also concerned about being true to their strategy.

It was a fun show and I recommend watching it.

Frozen Make Ahead Mini Meatloaf-Make One Big Batch And You Are Set For Weeks!

We have had tremendous success with freezing rotisserie chickens and ground beef.  Freezing Costco sized packages in smaller, ready to use containers is a versatile idea and I thought it would work well with meatloaf.  My wife concurred and she went searching for recipes.  She settled on Paula Deen's recipe and set to work.  She did make some minor substitutions such as using some breadcrumbs in addition to the oatmeal.  And while I thought of making larger meatloaves, my wife suggested using the 24 ounce containers for freezing them and her insight was absolutely brilliant!
Here is a photo of the frozen meatloaf.

One of the nice advantages of the mini-meatloaf is that it can be cooked in the toaster oven.  To facilitate cooking these, we typically let them thaw in the fridge for a couple of days beforehand to shorten the baking time.
Here is a photo of the finished meatloaf.

This was a good meatloaf recipe and the tomatoes in this recipe make it very moist.  And for us, the mini meatloaf is good for four servings so we have dinner and leftovers for lunch the next day.  As for serving ideas, this works really well with just mashed potatoes and a nice salad.

We are totally sold on this idea and I am sure we will do it again.  It is affordable, tasty and it is so easy to do.  I love the idea of homemade comfort food in the freezer and doing a big batch of it like this makes it extremely time efficient.

And of course, you can use your own favorite meatloaf recipe, so I encourage to explore and enjoy.

Pasta Prima Chicken & Mozzarella Ravioli With Rachel Ray's Peas And Prosciutto Sauce

We are big fans of Pasta Prima's Chicken and Mozzarella Ravioli and we have definitely enjoyed it before.  With it on sale again, we bought some to freeze and some to cook more immediately.  I thought something with a red sauce would be good and I remembered Rachel's Pasta, Peas and Prosciutto.  My wife seconded the idea and while she finished grading some papers for work, I got dinner going.

I did make a few of minor adjustments to Rachel's recipe.  The first one was that we don't any herbs from our garden yet, so I substituted some freeze dried basil.  Second, we left out the small can of tomato sauce.
Finally, I would say we added more like two cups of peas instead of one.

As for the result, it was very good. The peas add some color and texture you don't see in your typical red sauce plus it also adds another vegetable.  The prosciutto adds a bit of meat, but it is delicate and elegant in its flavor.  All these flavors went well with the ravioli.  And leaving out the small can of tomato sauce was exactly the thing to do. Otherwise, the dish would have had too much sauce.

This was definitely a success and it was a wonderful, flavorful Sunday evening meal that took very little work and time.

And it also left us enough for some nice lunches on Monday.

This positively gets two thumbs up from us and I am very confident in recommending this as an excellent use of this fine ravioli.

Costco Canine Cuisine Review: Jerky Treat Tender Strips-Treats So Good Your Dog Will Learn To Close Its Cage Door By Itself To Get Them!

While our dog is not able to blog, she also enjoys food from Costco.  We bought some Jerky Treats Tender Strips and she is very fond of them.  These treats are made in the USA by Delmonte.  They are on sale this month, so we stocked up.

Layla really seems to love them, as you can see she has quite a look of anticipation on her face waiting to get one.

Layla is a clever girl and she knows when we leave in the morning she has to go in her cage.  The other day, she trotted in well before I got the treats and it seems like she was able to figure out how to close her cage door after herself, which seems like quite a trick!

She is a good girl that deserves some pampering and we are happy to give her treats that she enjoys that are made in the USA.

The Costco Craze-Inside The Warehouse Giant: Premieres Thursday April 26 at 9PM EDT on CNBC

CNBC's special on Costco is going to premiere on April 26.   They have a couple of short teaser clips on their website and links to other Costco blogs and various Costco related articles.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

This is definitely on my "must watch" list.

Chicken Sausage and Quinoa Soup

This post was primarily written by my lovely wife as I was out walking the dog on this pretty but crisp day.

It is spring and that brings thoughts of grilling sausages in our household.  So this last weekend while at Costco, we perused the sausage section and came home with a package of Sabatino's Smoked Mozzarella with Artichokes & Garlic Chicken Sausage   It comes in two sealed packages that contain eight sausages each.

Our first menu item with this is a soup that starts with the standard mirepoix of celery, onion and carrot sauteed in olive oil with a spoonful of chopped garlic and a little salt.  Four of the sausages were sliced and sauteed in the pan.  Next was added a couple of quarts of homemade chicken stock which we made from the last two rotisserie chickens we bought.  Finally, a cup or so of cooked quinoa was added to bulk up the soup and it was done.

This was very filling and yummy.  There is a lot of flavor in the sausages so it doesn't require much other seasoning but in the future a little garam marsala may be added to warm up the flavor.

To serve with the soup, a piece of naan bread from Costco was cut into slices and toasted.

Aside from having another successful main dish, we were thrilled with how well the naan bread toasted and what a great compliment it made to the soup. I am sure we will be toasting some of it again soon!



  

Costco Coupon Book For 4/12 to 5/6 Plus A Link To Recipes For Items on Sale

Once again, I would like to thank my friends at the Addicted to Costco Blog for this month's coupon book.

Among the items on sale this month is the Pasta Prima Chicken and Mozzarella Ravioli.  Below are some recipes using this wonderful product:

With a sauce of Pancetta and Vidalia Onions

With a sauce of Italian Brats and Tomato

Also, the Tostitos Artisan Roasted Garlic and Black Bean Chips are on sale and here is a recipe and a review of them.

Chicken Taco Salad With Tostitos Chips

A review of the Roasted Garlic and Black Bean Tostitos

I am intrigued, it looks like they were on sale at this same time last year.

Also, the Hebrew National Hot Dogs are on sale. I highly recommend stocking up on these for your  ssummer grilling. These are definitely some of the best hot dogs you can buy.

Hebrew National Hot Dogs With A Side of Summer Squash

Leftover Easter Lamb With Tasty Bite Madras Lentils, Celery and Onions, Served Over Rice

We really enjoy the Tasty Bite Madras Lentils we get at Costco. They are flavorful, nutritionally sound and ready to go.  I was thinking that they would combine well with some left over lamb and my wife eagerly seconded that opinion.  Therefore, I chopped one small onion and one stalk of celery, which my wife sauteed while I trimmed and cubed the lamb.  We tossed the lamb into the pan, added the lentils and warmed everything up.  The meat mixture was then served over some rice.

My wife and I were totally pleased with how well this worked out.  Just serving the lamb and lentils together would have been fine, but I am thrilled with how we made the dish more substantial.  Adding the onions and celery and then serving the whole mixture over rice was effortless but it really made this a very complete dish. The lentils added an elegant but reserved spicy flavor, the onions and celery added crunch and the rice made a wonderful base to serve all this on.

We don't cook leg of lamb that often in our family, but the next time we do, I can guarantee that I will be thinking about this.  Also, for lunch tomorrow, we will be serving the lentil and lamb mixture over quinoa and I am looking forward to that for lunch already!

A Slight Variation To Giada's Sweet and Sticky Caramel Hazelnut Rolls

We bought a large multipack of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls a while back and my wife commented that she was intrigued by Giada's use of them  to make some very tasty looking rolls for breakfast.  My wife followed the recipe, except for substituting some nuts we had on hand for hazelnuts.

These rolls were tasty, stick, sweet, delicious and easy!  That is an incredible combination.  I am betting the next time we buy a bunch of them we will make some rolls like this again.

A Chicken Soup With Quinoa: Grandma's Home Cooking Meets A Bolivian Staple

My wife had a couple of long nights in a row with concert rehearsals and she told me in advance for her night off she wanted comfort food.

Few foods are as comforting as chicken soup so I quickly settled on that for dinner. Since she gave me warning, I pulled some of our frozen chicken from Costco out of the freezer the night before and put it in the fridge to thaw.

When I got home from work, I pulled out our big soup pot and drizzled in some EVOO. I then added a generous helping of Christopher Ranch Chopped Garlic we get from Costco and a small palmful of rosemary I crumbled in my hand.  Meanwhile, my wonderful wife chopped:

• 1 small yellow onion
• 2 stalks of celery
• 1 cup of baby carrots

These were added to the pot and I sauteed them until the onions were tender. While this was going on my wife thawed out a couple of quarts of homemade chicken stock and added that to the pot while I tossed in the somewhat thawed chicken.

She then rinsed a half cup Nature's Earthly Choice Quinoa  and threw that in the pot with about a cup of boiling water.  We brought everything to a boil then turned it to a simmer for about 15 minutes to cook the quinoa.

This dish was absolutely a home run!  It was a delicious, healthy, hearty chicken soup with lots of comfort but it also had a distinct character.

Rosemary and chicken are a natural combination and while parsley is a great seasoning for chicken soup, the rosemary gave it a bit of panache.  Also, the garlic helped give it a more varied and hearty flavor profile.

And finally, the use of quinoa instead of noodles gave it a twist without making it so out of the ordinary it was no longer comfort food.

And by using all the foods we had in a cupboard, fridge and freezer, this went together in very little time with minimal effort.

In every way this dish was a success:

• Taste
• Ease
• Cost
• Comfort

I am positive we will do something like this again and it only reaffirms our strategy for rotisserie chickens.

Two Birds In The Hand From Costco Is Worth Five Packages of Chicken And Four Quarts of Stock In The Freezer

Buying things in bulk and having them ready to use can be a big time and money saver.  For example, we love cooking up the big family size packages of ground beef we get at Costco and freezing them in a number of small packages that are the right size for a single recipe.

Recently, we expanded upon this idea with the rotisserie chickens we buy at Costco. I bought two of them and while I was putting away and organizing the other items from the shopping trip, my lovely wife cut up the birds and diced the chicken into bite-sized pieces.  She then took and put all the chicken in a number of containers that we then froze.

After all the chicken was put in the freezer, she then threw the carcasses in a pot with some onions, carrots and celery and let it all simmer together.  Then she strained it and put it into some containers (which I think were from soup we bought at Costco) and froze them.

As I said, this gave us five packages of high quality ready to use chicken and a couple of containers of delicious home made stock.  Doing all this at once right when the chickens were bought was extremely time efficient.

The number of different meals we will get out of these two chickens is really pretty impressive from both a time and money aspect.  Plus, rotisserie chickens are tasty and chicken can definitely be one of the healthier meats to eat.

And I have to say, homemade stock is wonderful stuff. In addition to having lots of real chicken flavor, it    is much lower in sodium than what you typically buy at the store.

My wife and I are absolutely thrilled with this idea and I can guarantee you we will be doing it again.  There are so many plusses to it that I simply can not recommend this enough.

A Review Of Costco's Chicken Alfredo

My wife and I enjoy cooking, but the deal on the Chicken Alfredo on sale this month was just too good to pass up, so we took the plunge.  Aside from covering it with aluminum foil, there is no real prep involved other than putting it in the oven.  Cooking time was about an hour, but when you figure out how long it takes to get to a restaurant, order a meal and have it come to the table, that time is really not bad.

My wonderful wife removed the foil near the end of the heating to help brown the cheese a little.  The chicken is pre-cooked, so that makes the process of heating a bit quicker than baking it from scratch.

The dish had good flavor and we enjoyed it, although we both thought it was more alfredo with chicken than Chicken Alfredo. Still, there was enough meat in the dish you didn't feel cheated.

This was a good alfredo, about the quality you get at a place like Applebee's or Fridays.  Even before the coupon, it is a very good value and the coupon makes it a great value.

Thus, I give it a solid thumbs up: great value and tasty food.  Not the world's best alfredo, but competent and satisfying.

Pasta In A Hearty Red Sauce With Fresh Spinach

A basic red sauce and meat pasta is a very reliable dish: it is tasty, easy, quick and satisfying.  Another thing going for it is that it can be spruced up in a variety of ways.  You can adjust the seasoning, add different vegetables and use basic dried pastas or filled ones.

In this case, my lovely wife kicked it up by adding some of the fresh spinach we buy in great big bags from Costco.

Aside from adding flavor, the spinach adds another layer of texture and it has some great nutritional aspects.

If you have been wondering what to do with some of that great big bag of spinach, try throwing some of into your pasta.  You might be very pleased with the result.

Jarlsberg Cheese Dip With Gluten Free Crackers From Costco

My friend Bill at work requires a gluten free diet and so to celebrate Fat Tuesday and my six months at the job, I brought in a treat he could eat.

There are only four ingredients in this recipe that I found and the prep is very easy. This makes for both a great return on time and money.

I served the dip with two types of gluten free crackers: the Mary Gone Crackers ones that are on sale this month (until 2/26) and the Food That Should Taste Good Sea Salt Brown Rice Crackers.

I was pleased with the result and I enjoyed the crackers with the dip.  I will say though that for this particular dip, I thought the Food Should Taste Good Sea Salt Brown Rice Crackers went with the dip a bit better than the Mary Gone Crackers one did. This dip had a couple of onion flavors in it and I think the Sea Salt crackers with a more subtle flavor made for a better pairing.

But let me be clear that I  think both of them worked fine. And I have to say, the price on gluten free crackers at Costco is a bargain compared to other stores.

So be nice to your friends Celiac Disease and serve this tasty, easy dip with fun and safe gluten free crackers.

Coupon Book For February

Once again, I have the coupon book from Costco courtesy of my friends at Addicted to Costco.

Happy World Nutella Day!

Nutella is one of our favorite products to buy from Costco. We love the stuff and it is vastly less expensive to buy at Costco versus the grocery store.

Therefore, I want to make note that today is  World Nutella Day.  Here is a link to recipes that celebrate this magnificent product.

Also, here is a quick thing I did with Nutella a while back:

I got some chocolate bread from Costco and toasted it.  Then I added sliced bananas and Nutella. Presto,  I had a delicious breakfast sandwich. The actual prep time for this was mere moments but the return on the investment was great.

Saving Time And Money With The Family Sized Packages Of Ground Beef At Costco

As much as we enjoy cooking and eating together, my wife and I both work and when we get home at the end of the day, we want to eat dinner not very long after we get home. One of the strategies my lovely wife came up with that support this is to always have cooked, browned ground beef in the freezer ready to go.

What we do is we buy those big five or six pound packages of ground beef at Costco and then we brown all the beef at once.  Browning one great big package is really not that much more work than browning one or two pounds.  After the meat is browned, we let it cool, put it in containers and freeze it.

This saves us a lot of time in many ways:

• As previously mentioned, browning a big package of meat is very time efficient
• We have the meat divided up into easy to use packages
• There is always cooked meat in the freezer, ready for us to make dinner with
• Using frozen cooked meat is much faster than taking frozen  raw meat and then cooking it

 So even if you are a couple or just one person, buying the big packages of ground beef makes a lot of sense. It is both economical and a huge time saver.

A Review Of Skotidakis Jalapeno Greek Yogurt Dip On Sale

The current coupon book ends tomorrow 1/29 and I thought I would make a few comments about this fun dip that is on sale.

It comes in a 24oz container, so there is enough if you want to serve a larger group of people.  As for the dip itself, it is a competent, well made product that I think has a lot of uses. It has a bit of heat that builds but it is not heat only for the sake of heat, it definitely has flavor.

However, it is not an overpowering flavor, so it should be a good crowd pleaser. People that want some "zing" in their dip will like it but those with milder tastes will not find it overpowering.

And I think it is versatile too. We had it with some the Garlic and Black Bean Tostitos that I am fond of and it worked pretty well.

My wife also suggested that it would be great on baked potatoes and I think that would be a excellent thing to do to a spud.

I also see this as a garnish on Mexican style dishes.

While not the most amazing dip on the planet it is a good product and being yogurt based, it is probably healthier for you than something based on sour cream.

I recommend the product and the next time it is on sale, we will probably buy it again

Been Gone And Now I Am Back With: Peroggies With Spinach & Crumbled Black Bean Burger

It has been a long time since I posted and a lot has happened. The Holidays came and went and I got a great gift for Christmas:  A New Job!  That and a few other things have been a distraction but it is time to return to blogging.


As time goes buy, I will probably be posting a few things that I have not gotten around to over the past few months but I do hope to keep more current with what we are cooking and eating.


As for this dish: my wife and I are very fond of those lovely  black bean burgers we get from Costco.   They are great being served as burgers, but for a long time, I have wondered how they would work as an ingredient in a recipe.  One night, I came home from work and my wonderful wife answered the question for me.


She took some of that wonderful spinach we get from Costco and mixed it with some of the crumbled black bean burgers.  Then, she tossed them with some pierogies.  She was thinking the dish would either be a disaster or a big success and guess what, we both thought it was a big success. And it was interesting to look at too.

The flavors really worked well together.  The black bean burger gave a bit of zing without being heat for the sake of heat. The spinach gave a lively, fresh vegetable flavor to the dish. Finally, the pierogies added some nice heartiness to the meal. And all this came from what we had on hand, so the dish went together in minutes.

I am sure we will do more with the black bean burgers and we will probably do this particular variation again.

White Bean Dip With Mission Tortilla Strips And Baby Carrots

Food is a way I express affection and appreciation, so bringing in something for my coworkers to enjoy made a lot of sense.  One of my coworkers has Celiac's Disease, so making something gluten free seemed like a great idea.  As I am very fond of the tortilla strips and baby carrots we buy at Costco, some sort of dip to serve them with seemed pretty natural and the first one that came to mind was this white bean dip.

This recipe was simple, delicious, easy to make and gluten free for my friend.  And it certainly was a big success at work.

Costco Coupon Book 11/10 To 11/27

Thanks again to my wonderful friends at Addicted To Costco, I have a link to the upcoming coupon book.
Enjoy!

Ham And Cheese Pinwheels Plus A Review of Flatout Multigrain Flatbread

I have made this recipe for ham and cheese pinwheels a number of times and they are always well received.  For a change of pace, I thought I would make them with some Flatout brand flatbread instead of tortillas.  I made a double batch and used three of the Flatout multi-grain bread.  Below is a photo of the finished pinwheels.

The pinwheels were well received at the party I brought them too and there were no leftovers to take home.

However, I don't think we are likely to buy these again. It is a good product but for only two people, 18 pieces of flatbread is a huge quantity.  So my review of them is this:

Good product, good taste and useful, but for two people, the package at Costco is just two big. For larger families or for parties, this is a good product to buy.

Peppers And Tomatoes Stuffed With Quinoa And Chorizo

While watching the most recent season of "The Next Food Network Star", I was intrigued by a dish of chicken and quinoa stuffed peppers.  I thought the idea of using something hearty and healthy to stuff peppers with sounded like a great idea, but I thought I could put my own spin on it. After some thought, I decided to use cooked chorizo as the meat in the dish.

But that was not the only way I experimented with the dish. While discussing this idea with my wife, she suggested adding a poblano chili to the stuffing and I thought that was an excellent idea. Then, to round out the flavors, we put in some chopped onion.  Finally, since my wife is not fond of cooked peppers, we stuffed some tomatoes to suit her tastes. The final dish was as follows:

1 small sweet onion chopped
1 pound chorizo
1 poblano, seeded and chopped
1 cup quinoa, cooked according to directions
About 1 tablespoon of chia (Available from Costco)
Peppers and tomatoes, tops cut off and centers cleaned for stuffing

Oven was preheated to 350 degrees.

The chorizo and onion were sauteed together, until the chorizo was cooked through. The chopped poblano was then added and cooked for a few moments. Finally, the cooked quinoa was added, along with chia.  The filling was mixed together and then the vegetables were stuffed.

The stuffed vegetables were placed in the oven and cooked until the tops were browned a bit, about 20 minutes. (Please feel free to cook these to your preference).

Aside from being good eats, I thought the results were attractive:

This was definitely a success. The stuffing of the quinoa and chorizo was flavorful and very satisfying.  As a stuffed vegetable dish this was wonderful, but my wife also had some of the stuffing for leftovers later and she commented it also works well as a stand alone dish.

This was easy, flavorful, and fun and it works well using both the peppers and the tomatoes. It is our guess that this would probably also work well with squash.

If you are looking for a hearty, meaty use of quinoa, this a great idea and I highly recommend this.

Sacrilegious Black Bean Burger With Bacon And Pepper Jack Cheese

We are huge fans of the Morningstar Farms Chipotle Black Bean Burgers.  They are delicious, easy to cook and nutritious.  One day I suggested to my wonderful wife that they would be great with bacon and cheese and she was a bit taken aback.  While we are definitely meat eaters, she thought the idea of putting meat and cheese on a vegan product was blasphemous.  I, however, thought it sounded pretty yummy and we went ahead and did it.

The bacon and spicy cheese went very well with these burgers.  The flavors and textures all complimented each other very nicely and it was an exceptionally satisfying combination.

My wife made the comment to me that this was a great way to serve these burgers and I am sure we will do something like this again.

If you like meat, this is a great way to have some serious fun with these black bean burgers

Costo Coupon Book For October 13 to November 6

Courtesy my wonderful friends at Addicted To Costco, here is a link to this month's coupon book.

Among other items, both the Take and Bake pizza and the Palermo frozen pizza are on our list.

Enjoy!

Leveraging Caprese Salad: First A Great Salad, Then A Great Sandwich

We are quite  fond of the Belgioioso fresh mozzarella that we get from Costco.  One of our favorite dishes with it is a Caprese salad.  As you can see from the photo below, it is as beautiful as it is delicious.

As delicious as this salad was, there was so much of it we didn't finish it in one meal and that gave me an idea.  I thought it would make a great base for a sandwich so we got some sandwich rolls and toasted them lightly.  Then, on the bottom half, we put some cappocolla and topped it with some of the leftover caprese salad.  It was then put under the broiler just long enough to melt the cheese a bit and warm everything up.  

The finished product definitely met my expectations.  The flavors from the salad had blended together very nicely and by just warming it through with some gentle melting, the cheese was soft, warm and delicious.  Finally, the Italian lunch meat made this a complete sandwich. This was an absolute success and I am positive we will do something like this again.


Also, it is a great example of making one dish and leveraging it into multiple meals in different ways.

A Dinner To Celebrate The Anniversary Of Our First Date: Baked Salmon, Mashed Potatoes and Green Beans

Now that I am settled into my new 1st shift job, I have a lot more time to spend with my lovely wife.  Normally, to celebrate the anniversary of our first date, we go out of town or have dinner out. But my wonderful wife thought it would be romantic to have a nice dinner at home and watch a movie, and I concurred.

However, as much as we wanted a nice dinner at home, we had no desire to spend three hours in the kitchen, so we came up with this elegant, simple and quick meal to celebrate eight years together as a couple.

For the main course, my wife  took some Kirkland Signature Atlantic Salmon and cooked it in parchment paper with butter, dried dill, salt, pepper and a little lemon juice. She set the oven to 350 and baked it for 20 minutes.  While that was going, I snapped some fresh green beans and my wife cooked up some pancetta from the local Italian deli.  After steaming the beans, we added the pancetta to them and they were good to go.

For the potatoes, I made some Honest Earth potatoes we bought from Costco and dressed them up with bacon bits and dried chives.  The resulting dinner, along with being tasty, was also quite attractive.

The salmon comes in individually wrapped portions, which made the preparation of them simple, neat and quick.  The potatoes were also a snap to prepare, but as I said, adding the chives and bacon (real bacon!) made them more upscale.

The salmon was tasty and a great value for the dollar and we have already decide to make a meal like this again for entertaining my mother.

Once again, Costco gave us some great food at a great price that was easy to cook with.

Leveraging Homemade Corn Salsa Through Costco

Recently, my wonderful wife made some fresh corn salsa.  Absolutely delicious stuff and versatile too.  Her first use of it with Costco items was to make some scrambled eggs along with a quesadilla filled with the Jarlsberg cheese we get from Costco. Then she finished the meal by stuffing a tomato with the salsa. This was a complete meal nutritionally and it was tasty and beautiful.

 

We also used the salsa with those wonderful black bean burgers we get from Costco. These burgers are always delicious but the  corn salsa really added a vibrant, fresh flavor to them that really was just wonderful.

Fruit Bars and Limoncello, A Tasty Combination

We stocked up big time on the Edy's Fruit Bars that were on sale earlier this summer. They are tasty, refreshing, fat free and low calorie: how much better can a sweet treat get?

My lovely wife discovered a fun way to have a little alcohol with them.  She buys Limoncello at Costco and gives the fruit bars a quick dip in them as she eats them.

This adds another layer of flavor to the fruit bars, plus it adds a tinch of alcohol to make it festive for for grownups.

So dunk and enjoy!

One Last Chance At This Month's Coupons Expiring 9/11/11

If you have time to run out to Costco today, you can get one last tray of the Alfredo on sale, or for that matter, a lot of other fun items on that they have coupons for this month.

Here is the link courtesy of my friends at Addicted To Costco.

Chicken Salad With Cannellini Beans, Sun Dried Tomatoes, Green Pepper and Sweet Onion

We had a rotisserie chicken from Costco recently and my wonderful wife decided to make chicken using salad using it.  Here is her list of ingredients

Rotisserie chicken-from Costco
Cannellini beans
Green bell Peppers
Sweet onion
Romaine lettuce-from Costco
Bella Sun Luci tomatoes-from Costco
Meyer lemon olive oil

The salad was colorful, easy to eat and refreshing-a perfect summer lunch or light dinner. I liked how she combined the crunchy with the chewy. Also, using mostly fresh ingredients gave this a nice, bright flavor profile.

While chicken and lettuce are the basis of this salad, it is the rest of the ingredients that sets this apart and makes it a home run.

Perdue Farms Bourbon Chicken Wrap With Peppers, Chives and Romaine Lettuce

With my lovely wife being off work for the summer, she has been doing the majority of lunch making. This lovely wrap consists of Perdue Farms Bourbon Chicken, fresh peppers, chives and romaine lettuce, all wrapped up in a flour tortilla. For dressing, she added just a little bit of lite salsa ranch dressing. As you can see, the dish is as attractive as it is tasty.

This was a wonderful idea and my wife executed it well. It was tasty, easy, quick and pretty to look at.  The tangy flavor and meaty texture of the chicken was well complimented by the crisp vegetables and the soft flour tortilla.

The bourbon chicken from Costco makes for great finger food, but with a little creativity, you can also use it to make a fun and easy lunch or dinner.  It works well in both sandwiches and salads and I am sure it will be it will be in our freezer on a regular basis.

Costco Coupon Book-July 14 To August 7

Once again, I would like to thank my friends at Addicted To Costco for posting this month's coupon book online.

Our freezer is still fairly full of lots of Costco items, so we probably won't be stocking up on frozen foods this month.

But I would be very surprised if we didn't get the cookies at some point!

Pizza with Foster Farms Chicken Strips, Dole Pineapple, Sweet Onion and Barbecue Sauce

I saw some lovely Dole Pineapples at Costco recently and I thought a chicken pizza with some barbecue sauce would be a great use of this fruit. My wife agreed and while I was at work, she made the following pizza using:

• 1- 12 inch pizza crust
• 1/4 of a Fresh Golden Dole Pineapple, diced
• 1/2 large Vidalia Onion cut into thirds and thingly sliced
• 1 cup Foster Farms Chicken strips, cut into chunks
• Barbecue sauce to lightly coat the pizza

Below is a photo of the pizza before it went into the oven.

And here it is, cooked and delicious! It was in the oven for about 15 minutes at 425-450 degrees.

As you can see from the photo below, for a pizza, it has a variety of colors and textures going on, plus a very pleasing range of flavors.

Originally, I suggested that we put mozzarella on it, but my lovely wife thought that was not the best idea and I am glad she omitted it.  The final pizza is definitely  much better off without the cheese in this case. This dish has a lot of bright, sweet and tangy flavors and cheese would have muddled that combination.

This meal was a huge success and it will be repeated.  I highly recommend picking up a pineapple at Costco now and then. They are fun, tasty and easy to work with in a wide variety of applications.

Free Cookbooks

Here is a link to a variety of cookbooks that are available for free download.

If you don't have Kindle software, you can get it here by following the various links to the software you need.

Enjoy!

Open Face Black Bean Burger Sandwich: An Old Post But A Great Post

Note: With the Morning Star Chipotle Black Bean Burgers on sale this month, I felt that a repeat of this post was in order. My lovely wife and I just love these burgers and you can serve them up very quickly and easily.                 

Recently we bought some of the black bean burgers from Morningstar Farms at Costco.  They are frozen and are less than $14 per box of 12. That makes them convenient and reasonably priced.

We buy some delicious black pepper bread from our local farmer's market and toast it for the base of the sandwich. Meanwhile, we grill the burgers on our Griddler.

After the toasting and grilling, we put the burger on the toast, top it with some of the Jack's Special Medium Salsa and some cheddar cheese and we are good to go.

We love this meal.  The burgers have just the right amount of zing and they are filling and certainly healthier than a beef burger. The toasted bread compliments the spicy flavor of the burger and give a chewy bread in contrast to the "meatiness" of the burger.  The salsa and cheese provide a vegetable and dairy balance to the meal and a sense of completeness.

I can't say enough about how tasty this meal is.  I could certainly see something like this on the menu at a restaurant by someone like Bobby Flay.  Yes, it is that good.  And the time, effort and money involved are very reasonable.

And the meal is just plain fun, too.

Costco Coupon Book- June 9 to July 3

Once again I would like to thank my friends at Addicted to Costco for posting this month's coupon book.

I know we will be getting the black bean burgers, the Iam's dog food (to donate to our local shelter) and the take and bake pizza.

Enjoy!

Pasta Prima Chicken & Mozzarella Ravioli With A Spicy Italian Brats Tomato Sauce

My wife and I are very fond of the Pasta Prima raviolis that we get at Costco. We had some of the fresh Chicken and Mozzarella variety in the fridge and it was calling to me. Given the more subdued flavors of the ravioli, I thought a sauce with a little excitement to it would be fun.  My wife agreed and after gathering all the elements for the sauce that we had on hand, I finished the provisioning by getting some spicy Italian brats from  a local meat shop, Montello's. The ingredient list this dish was pretty simple:

• EVOO
• 2 cloves garlic; peeled, pressed and chopped
• 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced
• Crushed red pepper
• 1 pound Italian brats, casings removed
• 1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes
• Fresh herbs: parsley, oregano and thyme

While my lovely wife removed the casings from the sausage, I sauteed the onion, garlic and crushed red pepper. Then we added the brats and I broke them up with a spoon as I cooked them.  After the brats were cooked, the tomatoes were added and I let it come to temperature and cook a bit as my wife got the fresh herbs.  The herbs were added just moments before serving and then we garnished our portions as we saw fit with grated cheese.

As you can see, it was a pretty dish and it went together in minutes.  As for the taste, it was excellent. My wife and I both commented that Italian brats were a lower fat alternative to typical Italian sausage, although I do think standard pork sausage would still work very well in this dish.

As we hoped, the sausage and the red pepper added some zing to the dish without making it just flavorless heat and spice.  The tomato and onion helped to add at least some vegetable, so you really have a good variety of meat, dairy, pasta and vegetables in this dish, making it a true one dish meal.

This was absolutely a home run: delicious, easy, affordable and quick.  I am sure we will be doing something very similar to this again.

Chicken Taco Salad With Tostitos Garlic and Black Bean Chips

We make taco salads on a fairly occasional basis but they have always been beef based. For a change of pace, I thought we should try one that was chicken based.

To start the process, I took some of those Foster Farms chicken strips we bought at Costco a while back and tossed them with some chili powder and EVOO and put them in the fridge to thaw.

When my wife got home, she finished heating them up in a pan on the stove. I chopped some romaine lettuce, pulled the cheese out of the fridge along with some salsa and got those Tostitos Garlic and Black Bean chips that I reviewed recently.

Our conclusion: this worked really well and it was a fun, tasty dinner. There are a lot of different textures and flavors going on here.  The romaine lettuce and the chips give some crunch, while there is a meaty texture from the chicken.  The lettuce gives a fresh flavor while the salsa and the chips give a little spice and zing.

The value from this is pretty good too. A salad like this is probably going to set you back $16 to $20 for two people at someplace like Applebees. And unless you live next door to a restaurant, chances are you can put this together in less time than it takes to drive there and back.

So the next time you crave a taco salad, take a look in your cupboard, your fridge and your freezer. You very well might be able to make something delicious in less time than it takes to get to the restaurant.

Pasta Prima Chicken Mozzarella Ravioli With Pancetta And Vidalia Onions

We stocked up on the Pasta Prima Chicken Mozzarella Ravioli that was on sale last month and I thought it would be a good idea to make very simple sauce to help highlight the elegant flavor of the ravioli. This dish had only four components:

Pasta Prima Chicken and Mozzarella Ravioli-one package
About an inch think slice of pancetta, cubed
Half of a large vidalia onion, chopped
EVOO

All there was to cooking this dish was just browning the onion and pancetta and then just adding a bit of EVOO to have enough liquid to balance out the sauce.  By serving it with a romaine lettuce salad we had a fine and complete meal in just minutes.

My wife and I were both very pleased with how this turned out and it was definitely a success. The hearty taste of the pancetta complimented the more delicate flavor of the ravioli and the sweet, light taste of the onion.

Our only negative was that the dish is just a bit salty due to the pancetta being a salty meat. But let me be clear, it was a very sucessful dish. I am only saying that if we could figure a way to temper the saltiness of the meat in it a little, it would be perfect.

As it stands, it was a lovely meal and the return on our time was fabulous.

Costco Coupon Book For May 12 to June 5 2011

Once again I would like to thank my wonderful friends at Addicted To Costco for putting this month's coupon book online.

Some of the things we will be getting this month include the bourbon chicken, the M&M's and the fruit bars.

I will have more on these items later.

Tostitos Garlic & Black Bean Chips-A Quick Review

You still have until tomorrow to buy these chips on sale and if you are a salty snacker like I am, I highly recommend stocking up on them.

While I generally eat my tortilla chips with salsa or as part of taco salad, I found these chips flavorful enough to eat on their own. The garlic and black bean flavors are present and enhancing, without being overpowering.  Also, these chips have more fiber than your typical tortilla chip, so they are a slightly less guilty pleasure. And while they are great by  themselves, they still work well with salsa.  And at some point we will make a chicken taco salad with some chicken strips we bought from Costco.

At $6.59 for a 26 ounce bag, these are definitely a better value than the bag you buy in the grocery store.  Then add in the coupon and you are paying about the same price for a 26 ounce bag as you pay for a 13 ounce bag in your typical supermarket.

Once again, Costco sells a great product at a great price. If you like tortilla chips, I highly recommend picking up some before the sales ends on May 8.

Quinoa With Ham, Pineapple, Black Beans and Vegetables

Sorry about the delay in posting. We went on vacation and then when we got back, we had a bunch of mundane chores to do like car shopping.  But it is time to start into posting again. Here is a fun, colorful dish that was easy to make to help me get into the swing of things again.

After Easter, my mother in law offered me all the ham I wanted, so I took her up on the offer.  I thought it might be fun to do something with quinoa and after some research, I came up with this dish.

1 cup quinoa, cooked and just so lightly salted
About 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh ginger, chopped
2 cloves garlic crushed
1 small onion, diced
About 1 cup chopped baby carrots
About 1 cup chopped celery
Canola oil
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
A portion of a fresh pineapple, chopped, with some juice from the pineapple
Freshly ground black pepper
Freshly ground red pepper
Some freshly ground curry mix
Dried dill, crushed

I cooked the quinoa per directions. While that was happening I sauted  the ginger and garlic in the canola. After they had cooked a bit, I added the onions, then the celery and carrots. When they to about the right consistency, I added the quinoa, pineapple and beans. The last step was to season it and honestly, I just kept adding the spices until it had the flavors I wanted.

Due to our complex schedules, the first meal we had of it was for lunch the next day, so maybe that helped the flavors to meld. In any case, I think I got the seasoning pretty close to where I needed it. The ginger adds a fun, bright flavor while all the rest of the spices help to make the flavor profile broad enough that the dish was a little more complex, but not too busy.

My wife and I both rated this a success and I think we will try ham and quinoa together again.


I took a lot of inspiration from this recipe. However, as it is typical of me, I didn't bother measuring any of the seasonings.  Also, I eliminated the powdered milk and added onions. Finally, I used fresh pineapple and fresh ginger. I think those are probably the biggest changes since they help give the dish a lively, fresh and invigorating zing. (Eliminating the powdered milk also makes this dish a little brighter). I think this recipe definitely has a similar ingredient list to the one I referenced, but I think the few changes I made help to make it significantly different.  But I do want to be honest, I did get some good ideas from the dish I referenced.

Also, the quinoa and the black beans make this a pretty healthy dish, so you can enjoy the wide variety of flavors and textures this dish has to offer without any guilt.

Costco Canine Cuisine-Kirkland Signature Dog Food

As much as we buy cheese, Nutella, quinoa and other foods from Costco, the #1 food we buy by weight from Costco is our dog food. As it is with so many items at Costco, they offer exceptional value.  The Kirkland Signature food we get is less than IAMs and other name brands, but it is of excellent quality.  When we got our new dog from the local animal rescue, they were already feeding her this brand of food and she was certainly seemed to be doing well.  The day we brought here home, we took her to the vet for a baseline checkup and I showed the ingredient list to our vet.  He reviewed the list of ingredients, noted her health was excellent and gave his approval to keep using it.



Our pet's health is important to us and we appreciate that fact that Costco sells such a good product at such a reasonable price.  This is definitely another example of Costco offering excellent value.

As for our dog Layla, I am sure the photo below will illustrate what a happy, healthy and pretty dog she is and we thank Costco for making a great product that helps keep her that way.

Costco Coupons For April 14 To May 8

Once again, my friends at Addicted To Costco have published the upcoming coupon book.

Among the items I know we will be getting will be the Potstickers, the Tostitos Garlic Black Bean Tortilla Chips and the Welch's White Grape Cherry Juice.

I would like to thank my friends at Addicted To Costco. They have a lot of great info for Costco members.

Grilled Corn Beef Sandwich On Rye With Jarlsberg Cheese

My wife recently made a wonderful corn beef brisket in the crockpot. A delicious and versatile meat, it struck us that it would be great to make a sandwich out of it.  My wife and I are are very fond of the Jarlsberg cheese we buy at Costco and thought that would be an excellent cheese to mesh with the meat.  It is a great cheese for snacking and sandwiches, and Costco has a low price on it.

Given how tasty the meat was, this could be a pretty simple sandwich. We sliced the meat and the cheese and just dressed the rye bread with some Polish mustard.  Then after a few on the Griddler, we were ready for hot, cheesy, meaty goodness!

Honestly, this was an absolutely fabulous sandwich.  The corn beef and Jarlsberg work wonderfully together and the rye and the mustard added just the right flavors to put this over the top.

We have another brisket in the fridge and I can guarantee you, some of it will end up in a sandwich like this one.

Costco Cuisine Recipes on Pasta Prima Website

My wife and I love the Pasta Prima Ravioli and with our permission, they have posted some links to a couple of recipes on our blog.

I have added a link to their site to my list of links.

I am sure we will continue to use this fine product. It is tasty, affordable and easy to work with. Ravioli can have more than just a simple red sauce, so I encourage everyone to do some experimentation with it.