5 Costco Meals That Cost Less Than Their Ingredients
If you’re a Costco shopper, you’ve likely seen its wide variety of premade meals in the deli area. From stick-to-your-ribs shepherd’s pie to stir-fry with seasoned chicken, you can find something that everyone in your family will eat.
These heat-and-eat meals can not only be a terrific time saver — but, in many cases, cheaper than making it yourself. The average prepared meal cost at Costco is around $20, which means you could load your cart with these five easy and filling dinners for around $100.
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Shepherd’s Pie
For around $20, you can pick up a shepherd’s pie at Costco, which is a crustless pie filled with meats and veggies and topped with a layer of creamy mashed potatoes. Shepherd’s pies like this require a lot of ingredients, including ground beef, potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, peas, garlic, chicken broth, milk tomato paste and seasonings.
Ground beef is around $6.50 per pound, and you’ll need 1.5 to 2 pounds to make a pie that has six servings like Costco’s version. Once you buy all of the other ingredients, you’ll likely have spent more than $20.
Chicken Street Tacos
A 12-count chicken street taco kit at Costco is $18. Considering you’ll likely spend $7 on both the fresh salsa and lime crema sauce, you’ll have only about $11 to spend on the rest of the ingredients, including meat, tortillas, cheese, shredded cabbage and limes. A 6-pack of chicken thighs is about $7, so it’s unlikely you’ll be able to purchase the rest of the ingredients for $4 or less.
Yakisoba Stir-Fry With Seasoned Chicken
You can pick up 3.4 pounds of Costco’s prepared Yakisoba Stir Fry with Seasoned Chicken for around $20. To make this meal at home, you’ll need Chuno sauce, which you might be able to find only at specialty stores. Amazon sells it for around $9, which is almost half of the prepared meal’s cost.
You can also make your own sauce with Worcestershire sauce, oyster sauce, ketchup, soy sauce and sugar. But if you don’t have those ingredients on hand, they can add up.
You’ll also need vegetables, such as yellow onion, green onion, carrots, shiitake mushrooms and cabbage. Yakisoba noodles and chicken round out the recipe. Chicken typically costs around $4 per pound.
Ravioli Lasagna
If you’re in the mood for a quick Italian meal, Costco’s ravioli lasagna with beef and pork Bolognese sauce is around $21. You could spend $20 or more on ingredients to make your own lasagna — especially if you make your own Bolognese sauce, which requires beef, pork, onion, garlic, chicken broth, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, milk and white wine. You’ll also need lasagna noodles and a variety of cheeses, which can run up your grocery bill.
Macaroni and Cheese
Believe it or not, it’s cheaper to buy Costco’s version of macaroni and cheese for $13.95 than make it at home. Although you can pick up a 16-ounce package of macaroni noodles for under $2, it’s the cheese that’s expensive. To make mac and cheese correctly, you can’t buy the pre-shredded cheese.
Shredded cheese is coated with an anticaking agent to prevent shreds from sticking together and does not melt well for the creamy sauce macaroni and cheese needs. Instead, you’ll need to buy more expensive block cheese. For instance, one macaroni recipe calls for 4 cups of sharp cheddar, equaling a 1-pound block of cheese priced at almost $7.
It also calls for half of a pound of gruyere cheese, which can cost $8 or more. Including the macaroni noodles, that’s $17. And you still need milk, heavy whipping cream, butter and flour — plus, any extras like bread crumbs and smoked paprika.
This article was provided by MoneyLion.com for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial, legal or tax advice.
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