13 Costco Freezer Finds Under $15 We Buy Every Time

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No matter how short or long your grocery list, shopping at Costco requires at least some degree of restraint. Still, both freezers and Costco were invented so that you could have a lot of food on hand when needed. One of the greatest benefits of heading to the warehouse is knowing you'll return home stocked up, ready for emergencies — or at the very least, freed from the burden of grocery shopping for a while.

The restraint has to come when you consider how big your storage space is, and how many people you're feeding. In my house, it's me, my wife, and our young son, who eats like someone twice his age. We also don't live in a house, we live in a two-bedroom duplex in Chicago, meaning we have a relatively small freezer. No room for something like a deep freezer, either. All that is to say that when I go to Costco, I don't quite have the luxury of filling my cart with whatever catches my eye. I'm pretty practiced at avoiding Costco freezer aisle mistakes, and I know about all of the hidden treasures. Here are some freezer items that always go in my cart.

Mangoes are an absolute top tier fruit for smoothies and punch garnishes. Mangoes are naturally sweet, substantial, and pretty to look at. Being a tropical fruit, though, means that mangoes aren't always available in most parts of the U.S. Having Valle Nuevo Organic Mango Chunks on hand means any day can feel like a beach day, no matter what time of year it is.

When The Daily Meal was compiling a list of the best frozen fruits at Costco, mangoes easily made the cut. Speaking of cutting, a big advantage to buying frozen mango chunks is that you can trust them to be perfectly cut. There are people out there who can slice the skin off of a mango in mere minutes — we've seen them at farmer's markets — but those are knife skills a little beyond the average home cook. That's fine. Home cooks don't have to be pro level at everything. In fact, shortcuts are almost as important as skill for home cooks. Frozen produce can be a great way to save some time as well as reduce food waste, since the food stays frozen until you're ready to eat. 

Blueberries are great, but a pack of fresh ones can go bad quickly. Either that, or you go scouring the aisle for the perfect carton of blueberries, only to get all the way home and find mold radiating from the center of a wet blueberry cluster. Frustrating moments like those are off the table when you buy Kirkland Organic Frozen Blueberries. Plus, having a massive, Kirkland-sized bag in your freezer basically means you always have blueberries.

Keeping a three-pound bag of frozen blueberries has a myriad of uses. In my house, everyone uses them for different things: I put them in smoothies, my wife makes jam, and our kid enjoys them as a pop-able frozen treat. Actually, all of us enjoy the icy bite of a frozen blueberry. Once your teeth get over the initial shock — the same as biting into an ice cream sandwich or popsicle, really — what you're left with is a pleasantly cold, slightly sweet bite of fruit. Unlike ice cream or popsicles, blueberries are loaded with vitamins C and K, as well as fiber and manganese. Pretty solid afternoon snack, if you ask us. 

Broccoli is a wonderful, versatile vegetable, but it's a pain to chop. Enter Kirkland Organic Broccoli Florets. These bags of frozen florets are an excellent companion to any sheet pan dinner, or can fill out pastas and rice dishes. This broccoli even works on the grill, provided you have a something like a Weber Deluxe Grilling Basket to keep the veggies off of the direct flame. Just make sure to cook over a low heat or on a spot with cooler grates. Grills can char frozen broccoli quickly, but leave cold spots in the florets. In fact, it's not a bad idea to partially thaw the bag in the fridge for something like 30 minutes prior to cooking.

Personally, my family goes through at least two per week. One of the metrics of whether or not it's time to go to Costco again is if we're out of bags of frozen broccoli. Not to the mention the vegetable's high vitamin K and vitamin C count, making it versatile and incredibly nutritious.

Coming in at $14.95, this vegetable mixture barely makes the cut, but it's worth it. This hearty combination of zucchini, peppers, and onions is so tasty when served over rice or pasta. Also, being a frozen veggie blend, you don't have to wait until spring to enjoy it. That's not even the best part, though. The biggest advantage to the PuraVida Fire Roasted Primavera Mistura is not laboring over a cutting board for 45 minutes on a busy weeknight.

Just remember — these veggies are already seasoned! You don't want to add any extra salt, as these come in at 180 mg per serving. That's only 8% of the daily recommendation, but still something to keep in mind. This slightly limits the range of dishes the primavera mistura can complement. The trade-off, of course, is that by not having to worry about your veggies as much, you can make a fancier kind of meat or carb for dinner. This is an Italian vegetable blend, so maybe Primavera Mistura night is the night you finally break out that homemade pasta machine.

This blend of unseasoned corn, peas, carrots, and green beans is my go-to side for any pork dish. Kirkland Organic Mixed Vegetables practically demand you cook them in butter. It blends beautifully with rice. In fact, if you're making your own fried rice? You could do a lot worse than this pack and a diced yellow onion as your fried rice veggies.

Since it's just the veggies in this bag, you can customize whatever seasonings you want to suit whatever dish you're cooking. Salt and pepper are a classic combination, of course. Garlic powder or onion powder are great ways to boost the umami flavor, complementing the sweet brightness of the corn and peas. One of my favorite seasoning combos for these veggies is turmeric, garlic powder, and a touch of cayenne. If you're cooking with butter, the turmeric makes everything in the pan flow a wonderful orange hue. The final taste is warm and comforting, and a pretty impressive end result for a humble frozen side.

Thanks to innovations in frozen food and the invention of the air fryer, good fries aren't something you have to dine out for anymore. Kirkland Signature Extra Crispy Fries have a decent amount of salt on them, but there's still room to customize with extra seasoning if you want. Maybe a touch extra pepper rounds out the flavor, maybe a little garlic powder kicks things up a notch. It's always great to actually chop up a potato and make fries yourself — we applaud the fast food chains that serve fresh fries — but these frozen fries taste so good that you'll be happy you saved yourself the time and effort. 

The point is, frozen fries are an excellent side to complete a dinner plate that already includes meat and broccoli. Sure, things like rice or baked potatoes aren't difficult to make, but almost nothing is as low-effort as tossing some fries in the air fryer or spreading them over a sheet pan and setting a timer.

If you didn't know that Kirkland made a good pizza, it's never too late to enjoy good food. Obviously, the hot slices at the Costco food court are divine, but if we're talking about all of the Kirkland Signature frozen meals that you need to know about? Pizza is definitely up there. The best thing about the Kirkland Signature Cheese Pizza pack is that it's a pack. Four pizzas for under $15 is a great deal, any way you slice it. 

The great thing about frozen cheese pizza is you can customize it if you like. Simply treat the cheese pizza as a canvas, and add whatever meat and veggie combo sounds good. Dice up some onions and peppers, maybe add a little leftover meat from a meal you had the other day — throwing stuff on top of a cheese pizza is a great way to empty your fridge. Maybe have a salad that comes from a kit on the side. Boom, an easy, tasty dinner for a busy week night. If you eat pizza once a week, just one Kirkland box gets a different pizza every week of the month.

No frozen food is ever going to be as good something made fresh in a restaurant, but Tipiak Pull Apart Garlic Cheese Bread comes close. Frozen appetizers should, to some degree, mimic the decadent abandon with which restaurants butter and salt their food. A garlic cheesebread is not the most difficult snack to assemble with ingredients you probably have in your pantry. The question is will you add as much oil and salt and heaps of cheese necessary to make taste as beautifully buttery and soul-satisfying as if you'd gone to your neighborhood Italian spot? We say throw caution to the wind when it comes to sodium counts and enjoy a Tipiak Pull Apart Garlic Cheese Bread every now and again.

This product is all but guaranteed to be a hit if you're hosting, too. Garlic, cheese, and bread are three exciting things on their own. Combine them together, and you have a massive hit at parties. Keep some Tipiak Pull Apart Garlic Cheese Bread in the back of your freezer, and you'll never be caught empty-handed if unexpected guests drop in.

Fried rice is a real treat. The balance of soy — and sesame-flavored rice, bright veggies like carrots and edamame, and sweet shrimp is one of the greater combinations humankind has ever come up with. Some grocery stores sell bags of fried rice, but the Bibigo Shrimp Fried Rice at Costco takes a different approach. Here, you're buying not just one, but six perfectly lunch-portioned containers of fried rice. Not only that, but it's a shrimp product for $11.69. For those of us who enjoy crustaceans, that's a pretty exciting price.

One word of caution: like many pre-packaged frozen meals, the Bibigo Shrimp Fried Rice has a wildly high sodium count, with 720 mg per serving, or 31% of the daily recommendation. That's quite a bit for a mere six ounces of food. Maybe the sodium count means you shouldn't have this for lunch every day, but having it on hand for indecisive days — or days where you need a tasty pick-me-up — is a lifesaver.

Bursting with flavor and perfect suited for parties, Bibigo Chicken & Cilantro Mini Wontons are a real frozen aisle treat. You can pan fry or steam these. You can even use them to make wonton soup, if you're one of those adventurers that likes to make takeout favorites at home. It's hard to go wrong. The cilantro is bright and bursting, and it really complements the savory chicken well. 

One of the great reasons to buy frozen food is getting an item that you've decided is too much effort to make yourself. We have a lot of respect for people with the patience and dexterity that it takes to make and fold wontons. That said, even the most adventurous home cooks have their limits. Chicken & Cilantro Mini Wontons are an incredible late-night snack, and you don't even have to learn to fold your own wontons. Not to mention the fact that they're way cheaper than ordering Chinese takeout.

Okay, definitely not a Costco exclusive item. We'll grant that. But we're willing to bet most parents of young children can identify the benefits of paying a measly $13 for a 72-count box of Eggo waffles. Especially if you've reached the age where you're hosting sleepovers. Then again, even adults can appreciate a breakfast that toasts in the same amount of time it takes coffee to brew. Eggo waffles are great, and buying a huge box of them means you don't have to think too hard about breakfast for a while.

There are some nutrients in these waffles, too. One serving — two waffles — is a measly 180 calories, so you should feel satiated instead of stuffed after breakfast. The waffles also have nine vitamins and minerals, like vitamin A, iron, and calcium. Swap out the standard topping of maple syrup in exchange for some of that frozen fruit you also bought at Costco, and you've got yourself a decently healthy breakfast.

DeeBee's Organic Superfruit Freeze Pops are delightful little fruit treats that immediately conjure bygone memories of pool parties and summer camp. What's great about DeeBee's, though, is that the pops are made entirely of fruit juice and fruit puree. Popsicles made of fruit blends, with no added sugar? That's a healthier option that still tastes good. You don't need to be the parent of a young child to understand the appeal of one of these on a hot summer day.

That said, if you are the parent of a young child or two, you'll absolutely want to line your freezer with these. How else do you become the cool parent on the block? If you're low on freezer space, you can always keep the box in your pantry, then toss a handful of pops into the freezer at night to have ready to go in the morning.

Used to be, you had to get to a Disney park or fly all the way to Hawaii to experience the wonders of a Dole Whip. Lucky us, this treat is becoming less exclusive. A potion-like blend of pineapple and vanilla ice cream, Dole Whip is smooth and refreshing. Maybe the Dole Whip Pineapple Cups that are sold at Costco aren't precisely the same as getting one at Disney Land, but still a pretty magical treat if you can have it whenever you want.

Pro tip for party-throwers: use these to level up your rum punches. A good punch always leave space to improvise, but we'd recommend starting with something like white rum, pineapple juice, orange juice, and Dole Whip. Mix to your desired booziness in a punch bowl, then add the Dole Whip last. The great thing about this is that the Dole Whip has the same cooling effect as ice, without watering down the drink. Add a splash of grenadine to give the whole thing a sunset pink hue.