The 9 Best Costco Foods That Can Warm Up Your Winter

Humans don't hibernate. But when we schlep through the snow to Costco, intent on stocking up so we don't have to leave the house again for at least a week, the dream of hibernation doesn't feel too far off. The hope with every Costco run is that the freezer and pantry stay full for a good, long while. You also want some food that will fortify you. A bowl of soup, a plate of hot noodles, a mug of hot chocolate that tastes like your mom made it special — these are the ways we survive the temperatures that have bears sleeping in caves and birds flying south.

Looking for winter superfoods to boost immunity and help ward off sickness? Costco's got you covered. Just looking for some hearty soups or a giant-sized box of hot chocolate packages? The big warehouse has that stuff, too. Oh, and if you need a little liquid courage to face the freezing temperatures? Might as well choose the perfect winter wine to pair with dinner. Here are some of our favorite groceries to pick up when the weather turns nasty.

If ever there was a winter treat to buy in bulk at Costco, it's hot chocolate packets. Sure, you can make your drink the old fashioned way: Turn the stove on, heat milk, and melt chocolate chips that you've poured out of a Costco-sized bag. The problem with that method is that the fan-favorite Kirkland Signature chocolate chips have been discontinued. You can try hot chocolate bombs, but much of the Costco subreddit says that hot chocolate bombs are less than tasty, to put it delicately. We recommend the tried-and-true method of stocking the pantry with as many Starbucks or Swiss Miss hot chocolate packets that fit. Commenters on the Costco subreddit also agree with this recommendation.

Don't forget some shelf-stable almond milk, too. Since you can store it in the pantry, you can stock up without taking up fridge space. Grab a few cases of that stuff, and you won't have to keep venturing out into the cold for milk.

Another paramount winter dish is chicken noodle soup. At Costco, you can go one of two ways: First, you can treat yourself to a pre-made rotisserie chicken noodle soup. Costco rotisserie chicken is phenomenal, so why not try it in soup? Redditors agree, with one commenter saying the soup had an appropriate amount of salt and no shortage of chicken. Now, to put an exact number on that sodium content per serving, it's 650 milligrams, or 28% of the daily recommendation. Pre-made soups often have high amounts of sodium, so that's definitely something to keep yourself informed of when buying such a big container. Still, if the taste is right? Sign us up.

Alternatively, you can buy chicken thighs, egg noodles, veggies, and anything else you need for homemade soup from the store famous for selling items in huge quantities. Whether you make your own chicken stock or use store-bought broth is up to you, but Costco does have chicken stock under the Kirkland Signature label. With bulk soup stock, you can make more soup than you can eat and freeze the leftovers. Add in a few aromatics like lemon and ginger and you'll perk right up from those winter blues. That whole process is about a half day's worth of work, though, and it takes even longer if you make your own stock. So, if you're pressed for time, pick up that pre-made soup.

Pot roast might be the ultimate winter dinner. Slow cook it in a crock pot and warmth radiates throughout your living space all day. Hearty broth, tasty veggies, and at the center of it all, a big hunk of tender, slow-cooked beef. We recommend chuck roast as one of the best cuts of meat for pot roast. Now, where do you get a good price on a whole lot of beef chuck? That's right — Costco.

We've previously warned that you should avoid certain labels when buying beef at Costco, because of the practice of blade tenderizing. Blade tenderizing is a mechanical process to, well, tenderize beef. The downside is that the beef then has to be cooked to at least 145 degrees Fahrenheit — or medium — and then left to rest for at least three minutes to kill bacteria that were pushed from the surface to the center. Flavor-wise, cooking to medium is not ideal for, say, a ribeye steak. But with a cut like chuck, in a dish like pot roast, blade tenderizing is not a significant concern. When meat cooks for hours and hours, it kills any bacteria that needs killing before you dig in.

With Costco portions of veggies like carrots, celery, and potatoes, you can really make a big batch of pot roast. You can even get extra indulgent and add some Guinness to your pot roast. Luckily, Costco sells 24-packs of the beer. It's not a bad idea to wash your pot roast down with a Guinness, too.

Butternut squash is a versatile vegetable. It's tasty as a side for roasted chicken, as a component of a pasta dish, or covered in brown sugar and cinnamon. As a bonus, butternut squash is in season during the winter months, meaning the universe is practically begging for you to chow down on this delicious gourd. It's heartier than yellow squash or zucchini, and doesn't need much more than about 45 minutes to roast.

Don't limit yourself when it comes to preparation, though. A good roasted butternut squash is also great because you can turn it into a soup or a curry with relative ease. We've got some good tips on making the perfect butternut squash soup, if you need. Did we mention the health benefits? One of these big boys packs a hefty nutritious punch. There's fiber, vitamin C, and both alpha-carotene and beta-carotene, all fortifying your system when you eat butternut squash. If this isn't at the top of your grocery list when the weather starts making you shiver, consider this a friendly wake-up call.

If you need a warming, vegetable-heavy soup on a cold night, you could do a lot worse than a minestrone. Costco has carried a pre-made minestrone soup in the past, but does not appear to offer one at the time of writing. Luckily, it's pretty simple to throw together. This is not a soup where you need to adhere to a set recipe as if it were a map to buried treasure or something. A good minestrone is about process. Plus, every ingredient you need is at Costco. Grab some beans, some broth, and whatever vegetables you feel like, and this soup can be yours in a matter of hours.

If you're looking for something to shake up your soup routine, try adding some V8 for an unexpected ingredient in minestrone. One chef on Reddit added purple cabbage — a delicious and hearty winter vegetable – to their minestrone. This is a great winter recipe to take a crack at if you're trying to eat veggies that are in season.

Macaroni and cheese — a warm blanket, but in food form — is one of the best dishes, no matter what season it is. One Redditor said they like to have mac and cheese as a side with pork schnitzel and warm applesauce — now there's a winter meal. Of course, making your own baked mac and cheese means buying a ton of ingredients and putting in a ton of effort. Luckily, Kirkland Signature makes a pretty decent mac and cheese that you can pick up on your way home from work.

A good mac and cheese makes winter feel less cold and lonely. It's also entirely customizable. Kirkland Signature's pasta dish is pretty standard, with cheddar as the primary cheesy component, plus a dash of parmesan for some depth of flavor. That means this Kirkland Signature product has a solid foundation of mac and cheese taste, but if you want to spice things up, that's totally your prerogative. Add more cheese, or things like breadcrumbs for some crunch, or even some meat and veggies to make a full meal out of your pasta.

Frozen stir-fry veggies — talk about a bag you always want to keep in the freezer. A stir-fry is a versatile dish to have in your winter rotation, and with this bag from Costco, it doesn't have to take a lot of effort. Sure, you can plan out something specific, like beef and broccoli, or throw whatever leftovers are in the fridge into a hot skillet with rice or noodles and call it a dinner. No matter what you're working with, it's totally possible to make restaurant-level stir-fry at home. We just love how easy it is to buy a pack of Kirkland Signature frozen stir-fry veggies, cook it with whatever meat and starch, and boom! Stir fry done.

The Kirkland Signature stir-fry bag comes with nine different types of veggies, including staples like broccoli, carrots, and mushrooms. There's a colorful variety here, great for anyone trying to eat the rainbow. Of course, no stir-fry is complete without a garnish of green onions, so don't forget to pick up some of those at Costco, too.

Keeping a pack of Kirkland Signature frozen meatballs in your freezer is going to come in handy at some point. Spaghetti and meatballs, meatball subs — heck, even just meatballs by themselves. A hearty food with a few different applications that'll get you through the coldest nights, meatballs are also something of an effort to make. They not only require a lot of ingredients, they require a lot of working with raw meat. Look, it's good to understand what your food is and where it comes from. Rolling out a bunch of meatballs by hand on some random Wednesday night, though? That's asking a lot. There is absolutely no shame in picking up some premade meatballs.

Kirkland Signature has some excellent frozen meatballs, and you can mix them with more than just marinara sauce. Cranberry sauce, Thai peanut sauce, Swedish meatballs — you could take a world tour of meatballs with the Kirkland Signature bag. As one person on Reddit put it: "Kirkland Signature frozen Italian-style meatballs deserve all of the praise in the world." One commenter on the same thread said they eat these once a week.

Trust us with this advice: Stock your freezer with some Kirkland Signature pizza. The four-pack of cheese pizza is a great cheap Costco freezer find. We especially like this product because it's so easily modified. You can use the Kirkland Signature cheese pizza as a base for all sorts of tasty experiments. Add extra meat or veggies, shake some dried herbs or spices over the top, or, hey — toss some extra cheese on there. A frozen plain pie might as well be a blank canvas. 

Why is it really important to have a bunch of these crust and cheese discs in your freezer? Well, when it's 10 below zero, the roads are iced over, and Domino's tells you only carryout is available, then you'll want some frozen pies around the house. Making a frozen pie at home has the added benefit of not getting cold in transit, too.

It's not just the four-cheese pie that's a good buy at Costco. Kirkland's cauliflower crust pizza is an excellent gluten-free option, while pepperoni thin crust is an absolute classic. If you're looking to change things up and try something new, maybe take a chance on a deep-dish Authentic Motor City Pizza Co pie. Detroit-style deep-dish is a rectangular pizza with an extra crispy crust, and Costco stocks plenty of this uniquely delicious pizza.