It’s pretty rare that I have a Sunday at home, but when I do, and it’s raining out, we ALWAYS go to Costco… and believe it or not, it can be really fun. It just takes the right company, the right mindset, and the right knowledge of what the heck to buy and how to get out FAST on a budget.

Here is a look into the Bruner Costco trip – from how we tackle the adventure, to what we buy. Hopefully you can gain a new appreciation for the chaos that is Costco in all it’s excess!

STEP 1: Bring a buddy!

There is no doubt that every adventure is better with friends, so I always tackle Costco with my best friend. This way we can people watch and judge others’ carts together. And, that way, I always have a cart-pusher…

STEP 2: It’s all about the mindset

Leave yourself at least an hour, don’t be in a rush, and understand there will be lines and lots of crazy people pushing you to get to samples. If you go in knowing this, it makes it much easier to laugh when you lose your buddy in a mob of people… Plus, standing in a line like this one allows for some pretty stellar people watching. Plus you can look at other peoples’ carts, and feel so good about all of your clean choices… this was a particularly good one, fat free milk, chex cereal, nutri grain bars, and pastries, oh my! (is it bad to judge?)

STEP 3: What to buy???

Here is our cart… I’ll break it down item by item below, with links so you can check out each thing. It is surprisingly easy to shop VERY clean (even paleo) at Costco. There are tons of ORGANIC options to choose from, which we find to be very important (click on the link to see why).

Protein:

• True Story organic deli meat
• Gold Rush Creamery organic cheese (we both feel great eating this… remember, you are your own experiment)
• Great Range bison (which by law must be pasture-raised with no antibiotics or hormones)
• Wild Planet Sardines and Tuna
• True Story organic chicken sausages
• pastured eggs from Alexandre farms

Fresh Produce (I always prefer to get produce locally, but in a pinch this is great stuff):

• organic Taylor Farms power greens
• organic Taylor Farms baby kale
• organic Earthbound Farms broccolette
• organic Nature’s Pride sweet potatoes
• avocados (one of the few things we don’t worry about buying organic)
• organic roasted Love beets (perfect for salads)

Extras:

• organic Nutivia coconut oil
• organic Nutivia coconut flour
• organic Scenic Fruit frozen blueberries
• organic Bolthouse Farms 100% carrot juice
• organic Classico tomato sauce (cleanest I have found)
• organic Kirkland oven dried tomatoes in a jar
• organic Nutivia chia seeds (great for all kinds of stuff – expect a post soon)
• organic Made in Nature dried figs (Rusty eats these like candy)
• paper towels (to clean up my messes after I am done in the kitchen)

Hopefully this helps. We like to make a list ahead of time, but we ALWAYS end up getting some extras. Like this time, I added the chia seeds, so I could experiment with some new recipes for you guys.

STEP 4: Load up!

When you check out ALWAYS ask for them to load your stuff in boxes… trust me on this one, it’ll save a lot of heartache. Once you finally make it out of there and get those boxes into your car, make sure to ride the cart all the way back to the cart station… I let Rusty have it this time, but make sure to share the fun…

STEP 5: Unload!

Once you get home, organization is key! Decide right away about what goes in the freezer, what you will use within the week, and what you can prep right away. Without some planning, it’s possible to let some of that great produce go to waste, so plan people!

We always stick about 2/3 of the meat in the freezer. I also always leave out one whole chicken, one bag of brocolletes and 4-5 sweet potatoes to prep right away right away. This allows for less headache when it comes to fitting everything in its proper place.

And if you have a kid or a dog (or two), those boxes will serve another purpose… play time! Nym and Kali played with the boxes for at least an hour.

STEP 6: Food prep

This takes about 5 minutes of prep total, plus an hour of keeping an eye on the food in the oven, but you have easy meals for the next few days!

First the chicken:

• pull out your crock pot, and pop your chicken inside (I put a dollop of ghee or organic butter in there first)
• sprinkle some sea salt and pepper to taste, flip and repeat
• make sure your bird is breast down and cover it up
• cook for 8 hours on low (I do this overnight)
• pull it out, pull the meat off, and out it in a tupperware to enjoy as desired!

Next the sweet potatoes and broccoli:

• preheat oven to 350 degrees
• heat two spoonfulls of coconut oil on the stove
• rinse your broccoli, lay it on a cookie sheet, and cover it with the melted oil
• sprinkle with sea salt
• stick it in the oven for 15 minutes
• rinse and cut your sweet potatoes in half
• poke with a fork
• cover the flat side with coconut oil (I just spread it with a spoon)
• cook face down on another cookie sheet for an hour
• take out, place in glass tupperware, and enjoy as desired! (I used mine for an upcoming post on paleo sweet potato pancakes!)

 Happy Tuesday, everyone! I hope you have an awesome week…. expect some pretty good recipes this week, including tonights dinner, PALEO PORK BBQ BABY BACK RIBS!!!

Feel free to leave questions to comments!