15 Reasons Why Costco is Awesome

Where else can you buy a case of baked beans, a flat screen TV and an 18ft swimming pool? I haven’t ended up with a swimming pool in my trolley yet but I don’t think I’ve ever been to Costco and not come out with something I had no idea that I needed or wanted…which is half the fun of a Costco treasure hunt.

My go to end of the week meal when the fridge is bare is a noodle soup with these gyozas. You only need a packet of noodles and a few toppings (spring onions, few slices of chillies, tin of bamboo shoots etc) to make you feel like your back in Wagamama’s slurping down ramen. Even though it takes very little time and effort it’s secretly my favourite meal of the week.

You won’t hear this from the Marmite marketing department but apparently there are an equal amount of people out there who don’t love or hate Marmite but just think it’s ok. My household is firmly in the love camp and we especially love these jumbo pots which are much easier to scoop out every last dollop from.

This giant pack of felt tips blew my 4 year old’s mind. He’s still young enough to think that bigger is always better when it comes to gifts so he was chuffed to bits when I bought these home. Washable ink too which played a big part in my decision making. However, now I have 65 pen lids to pick up off the floor after every crafting session.

I’ve made countless numbers of these shelves over the last few years. We use them extensively at Bakedin for keeping everything in order but more recently I finally got around to sorting out my garage. Everything is in a box, with a label, on a shelf. So satisfying and I can finally use my garage gym….I don’t…but I could.

Joe’s wife is hedgehog obsessed. She dreams of running a hedgehog sanctuary one day but in the meantime provides free food and lodging to any wild hog that wonders into her garden. She always has a giant bag of this cat food ready to cut with her luxury hedgehog food to keep her little spikey friends well fed.

A favourite weekend activity in my house is to make super simple homemade ice-cream with evaporated milk, double cream, sugar and weird and wonderful things mixed in (more is more in a toddler’s mind). You don’t need an ice-cream machine or even to keep taking it out of the freezer to stir. It also makes epic millionaire's shortbread.

THE.BEST.MANGO.CHUTNEY.EVER. I always keep a few packs of cook at home poppadum’s in the cupboard to dip into Geeta’s mango chutney. I stir it into curries to give a little sweetness, it bubbles away in cheese toasties and is great with BBQ’d meats.

A bit of an investment but you can definitely taste the difference. You can roast, grill, and cook your meats low and slow until everything is super tender. Great for pizzas and we even roasted a whole turkey last year when we ran out of oven space at Christmas.

I bought this tent after a…challenging…camping trip last year. It rained all weekend and the giant monstrosity I borrowed from Joe leaked within minutes. I also think I spent more time putting it up and taking it down than I did sitting in it. The friends we went with had this tent and were living a life of luxury. It’s super quick to erect and all-round windows and standing height room means you won’t get that claustrophobic feeling.

On every visit my wife tells me that our TV is plenty big enough and whisks me away from the electronics section at the front of the store. I secretly hope that my toddler knocks over my 10 year old TV soon so I can visit Costco for an upgrade. I wonder how big I’ll be allowed to go…probably not 75 inches.

I always buy one of these giant pots of Olives and somehow think that it will last more than a few days but with a toddler and a 4 year old who seem to like them more than chocolate buttons, there’s rarely any left by the time I break out a bottle of Merlot at the weekend. I must remember to buy two at a time on my next visit.

Great welfare standards and incredible quality, Costco meat is genuinely restaurant quality. I eat a lot less meat these days and try to savour it when I do. Every few weeks we’ll treat ourselves to a juicy rib-eye steak marbled with fat and cooked medium rare on the BBQ. I serve mine with a little seasoned butter and homemade chips.

We launched one of my favourite Bakedin products this year in Costco - a 4 pack of our iced cinnamon bun kits, enough to make 40 buns. Easy and fun to make, there’s no better weekend treat than serving these up on a lazy Sunday morning. They’re Great Taste award winning and contain local flour from Wessex Mill in Wantage. They’re also ridiculously good value in Costco and I always get a buzz out of buying one of our own products every time I’m there.

Ah the famous Costco pizza. I think I may have managed to leave a Costco once without a giant slice but I can’t be sure about that. I’ve never been to New York but this is how I imagine a slice of pizza tastes there. however I doubt it’s £1.85 for a slice as big as your head in the Big Apple.