Costco Wholesale helps me serve a healthy dinner in just 15 minutes

A Codfish Medley with organic spinach, organic diced tomatoes, pitted olives and shredded cheese cooks in less than 15 minutes in a preheated oven.

Editor's note: We continue to spend most of our food dollars at Costco Wholesale, but on our last visit to the Teterboro warehouse, some of the prices for fresh fruit seemed high.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Costco Wholesale may have a limited selection of wild-caught fish, but I never get tired of the fresh cod fillets from Iceland for only $7.99 a pound.

On Tuesday night, I prepared a Codfish Medley with about 2.3 pounds of the wild-caught skinless-and-boneless fillets, and other ingredients from the Teterboro Costco.

They include organic spinach (1 pound for $4.49), organic diced tomatoes and shredded Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese (1-pound jar for $10.59 after an instant coupon).

I preheated the oven to 400 degrees, and lined a large pan with aluminum foil.

Then, I added the ingredients in layers: 

Spinach to cover the bottom of the pan and a generous drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, followed by lightly salted fish portions, ground red pepper, organic diced tomatoes spooned from the can, pitted olives, shredded cheese and the juice of a Meyer Lemon.

I placed the pan in the oven, and the fish was translucent and flaked beautifully in about 15 minutes.

I poured a glass of red wine, and finished my meal with a big salad of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix (1 pound for $4.29 at Costco) dressed with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Thanks to The Fish Dock, an Icelandic fish store in Closter, for inspiring me to prepare a medley.

I've also prepared a medley at home with Icelandic flounder fillets from the Teterboro Costco, and the store's fresh Canadian flounder is a third possibility.

And nothing says you couldn't use wild-caught shrimp in a medley.

Other ingredients in the homemade Codfish Medley include extra-virgin olive oil, Meyer Lemon, sea salt and Aleppo red pepper. 

This morning, I had Codfish Medley leftovers with leftover organic brown rice, which I prepared this week in an electric cooker with whole peeled garlic cloves and organic diced tomatoes from Costco Wholesale, and organic black beans from ShopRite.

Fresh fruit at Costco

On Tuesday, the Teterboro Costco was selling 4 pounds of large fresh strawberries for $9.99, and an 18-ounce container of blueberries was $8.99.

In February, that same container of blueberries was only $4.99.

We did buy a 4-pound package of Red Seedless Grapes for $8.99. A large Golden Pineapple was $2.99.

And 3 pounds of Organic Bananas were only $1.99, the lowest price in North Jersey.

We also bought 24 Organic Eggs, $6.99; Wild Alaskan Smoked Sockeye Salmon, 1 pound for $14.89; three large Gourmet Cucumbers, $3.39; and a 3-pound bag of raw California Almonds for $16.99.

We roast the almonds at home (275 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes), and dust them with Saigon Cinnamon from Costco for an after-dinner snack, with or without fresh fruit and cheese.