Bowled over by quality ingredients from Costco

My dinner at home Friday was served in bowls: CedarLane Chopped Vegetable & Barley Soup, above, and below with grated Pecorino Romano Cheese; and an Earthbound Farm salad, bottom photo, all from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

You can sip or drink many soups, but the spoon isn't optional with this thick, chewy vegetarian soup in a light tomato broth. You'll find corn, carrot, barley, potato, onion and more in the soup. The container was in the freezer with a use-by date of 11/26/12.

Sunset-brand hothouse beefsteak tomato and gourmet cucumber top an Organic Spring Mix salad from Earthbound Farm in a dressing of extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. All the produce is from Costco Wholesale.

Organic whole-wheat spaghetti with salted cod fish complements fresh, wild-caught Icelandic haddock coated with a Super Spice Mixture (a combination of every spice in your cupboard). Cod fish, haddock and the lime came from Costco. The pasta is from Trader Joe's.

A Jamaican specialty called ackee and salt fish was made with cod from Costco.

Above, two of the ingredients in a frittata with beefsteak tomato and homemade pesto that I finished under the broiler, below. I combined whole organic eggs, egg whites, grated cheese and low-fat milk to make the fluffy frittata, which I started on the stove. Everything but the pesto came from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

I added the sliced tomato and pesto while the 10-inch pan was on the stove and moved the frittata to the oven after the bottom was set.

Kirkland Signature Organic No-Salt Seasoning is a blend of 21 spices, dried herbs and other ingredients.

Neither the Sunset Campari Tomatoes, above, or Beefsteak Tomatoes, below, looked very good today at the Hackensack warehouse store. They varied in color and ripeness, and many looked like they had been handled by customers. The small tomatoes were $5.49 for 2 pounds and the bigger ones were $6.99 for 5 pounds. I bought a trio of Sunset Gourmet Cucumbers instead for $3.99. Sunset is based in Canada, but all of the tomatoes and cucumbers were grown in Mexico.

Costco instant coupons were available today on Kashi Trail Mix Chewy Granola Bars, above left, and 32-ounce jars of Classico Tomato & Basil Pasta Sauce, below left. Thirty Kashi bars were $8.79 ($3 off) and the pasta sauce was $4.79 ($2 off) or about $1.60 a bottle.

I passed up a $6-off instant coupon on Kashi GoLean Crisp Variety Pack, because those bars have more calories, fat and sodium than Kashi Trail Mix bars, which help me skip lunch.