The Sweet Kale Vegetable Salad is my newest favorite salad. I don’t do a whole lot of copycat recipes, but this one, I can’t even tell you how much this one needed to be made.

This is a copycat recipe for Costco’s Sweet Kale Salad and I’m telling you now that you’re going to love it.

Sweet Kale Salad

The crunchy greens, sweet-tart cranberries, and crunchy-salty pumpkin seeds are tossed in a creamy poppyseed dressing to make this salad.

All of the flavors work together to make this salad worthy of our Thanksgiving table, and likely at least a dozen more tables as well before the end of the year.

I would have never guessed that this combination of flavors would work so well, but it does! My kids don’t typically love the “green stuff” in this salad, they watched me make it and were skeptical. However, one taste and they were sold; my middle son even asked for seconds.

Costco Kale Salad

A couple of weeks ago, while I was grocery shopping, there were two women standing in the icy cold produce room at Costco chatting about how amazing this salad is.

I don’t even remember the last time I bought a pre-made salad, (I have a thing for making salads, and rarely am I impressed with the store-bought varieties.) However, these ladies were so enthusiastic, I picked up a bag to try for myself.

Holy smokes. I loved it. Absolutely, positively, loved the Costco salad.

But I knew right away that we could improve on it. I’ve been making this poppyseed dressing for a few years now and every single person that tries it raves about it.

I knew that the homemade poppyseed dressing would take this salad combination right over the top and I wasn’t wrong. Plus, making the salad at home lets me add more of my favorite ingredients.

I went back to the grocery store the next day and picked up the ingredients to make this salad for myself. I made it that night and ate it for dinner, I ate it again the next day for lunch, for a snack, and with dinner again.

Even after tossing the salad with the dressing, it kept nicely for as long as it lasted in my house, about 36 hours.

All of my ramblings are simply to say that you really want to try this salad. If you’re not a b

Homemade Steak Sauce is tangy, barely sweetened, and just a little bit smoky. Perfect for steak dipping and burger topping, this sauce is all the best parts of A-1 and Heinz 57 sauce flavors, made at home.

You only need a couple of minutes to stir everything together, then it will simmer on its own. I served this sauce with these Steak Bites the first time I made it and there was hardly a bite leftover.

Homemade Steak Sauce

I know some steak lovers are purists and eschew sauce. Personally, I love the flavor a good sauce adds to meat.

What I don’t love are overly sweet sauces. However, I also don’t want my sauce to be so sour I can hardly eat it. I’m a little bit high maintenance that way, I guess.

Give me a sauce that’s tangy, smoky, and vinegary with just a little sweetness to finish things off. This homemade steak sauce definitely fits the bill. It’s the only one you’ll ever need!

How to Make Steak Sauce

Have you been buying steak sauce in a bottle your whole life? You’ll love how easy it is to make it at home. You may never reach for the store-bought stuff again.

Don’t let the long ingredients list fool you. All of the ingredients are things you’re likely to have on hand in your pantry already and it couldn’t be any easier to mix them all together.

The body of the sauce comes from a blend of ketchup, brown sugar, soy sauce, and vinegar. Both plain old white vinegar and white wine vinegar are delicious in the recipe. Use whichever you have on hand.

A little dijon mustard, garlic, and lemon juice add flavor and zest while the red pepper flakes give the sauce a touch of spice. Be sure to use dijon mustard, not the bright colored yellow stuff, for the right taste and texture.

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Sharing a recipe for gluten-free cashew chicken that will change your liiiiiife. Not even joking.

Hi hi! How’s it going? I hope you’re having a lovely morning. Today is a day off from the gym (taught dance cardio, barre, and aerobics all in a row and ya girl is spent), so I’m looking forward to reading by the pool with the crew and also getting some content done for an upcoming partner post with NOW Foods (you can use FITNESSISTA for 20% off sitewide! They have SO much amazing stuff). I also have a 1:1 client call and am getting some stuff done around the house.

For today’s post, I have a new quick and easy dinner recipe for you that was a home run: gluten-free cashew chicken.

TBH, I LOVE Chinese takeout. It makes my soul so happy, but I typically end up feeling a little bloated afterwards and kind of blah. Fried food just doesn’t love me back, so I don’t eat it super often.

I was craving cashew chicken, but didn’t have the things I usually like to coat chicken for air frying: out of almond flour, coconut flour, arrowroot, everything.

In the pantry, I saw this bag of pancake mix staring at me, and figured I’d give it a whirl.

This is a game changer, friends.

It has so many great ingredients for coating or breading chicken (you could totally use this for fish, shrimp, or tofu) and very little mixing required. Just season the heck out of it with salt and pepper, make a little egg bath (about 2 eggs with a little water) and you’re good to go.

Heads up with this recipe: you do need an Air Fryer. (It’s $87 right now!)

I fought buying one for at least two years and now that I have one, I’m like how the heck did I live without you for so long?! You can cook so many things in the air fryer, but our favorites are frozen fries (they crisp up beautifully), teriyaki salmon, chicken wings, bacon (the BEST way to cook regular and turkey bacon!) and quick veggie and protein dinners (like chopped chicken sausage, veggies, and potatoes).

I coated some diced chicken with egg and then popped it into a bowl with the pancake mix, and stirred to coat. Next I sprayed the air fryer basket (preheated at 375), added the chicken and cooked for 12-15 minutes, flipping once. I made sure it was done – always use a meat thermomet

From the very first bite, these Buttered Steak Bites and Mushrooms became an instant favorite for my whole family. This is the most tender steak you can imagine and my whole family goes nuts for it.

Steak Bites with Mushrooms

I have two boys who aren’t the biggest fans of steak. (Yes, I know, it’s hard to imagine!) However, they dive right into these steak bites and always ask for seconds.

Served with Salt Potatoes and Honey Sriracha Roasted Broccoli, I love every bite of this meal.

Bite-size pieces of tender steak are seared in a hot skillet just for a couple minutes until each bite is crisply browned outside and juicy inside.

Then the mushrooms are seared in the same pan to absorb all of that delicious buttery flavor left in the pan.

How To Cook Steak Bites

The goal when cooking steak bites is to create a crisply browned outside and a lovely pink and juicy center for each piece of meat.

As the meat is cooking, if a piece is slightly larger and has a side that looks like it hasn’t browned, flip to that side again for 20-30 seconds. Take caution not to overcook the steak.

Steak Bites and Mushrooms

1. Cut the steak into bite-size pieces, about 1/2″ – 3/4″ in size. Sprinkle the meat generously with 3/4 teaspoon salt and pepper. Heat a heavy, flat bottomed stainless skillet over medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon of butter. When the butter has melted, swirl to coat the pan. Add about a third of the meat and spread it across the pan.
2. Cook for 1 minute and then use a large spatula to fli

Jello Popcorn

Jello in popcorn? You only need 4 simple ingredients for this fun snack! Jello popcorn is our family’s latest obsession and you can use any flavor Jello you like best!

I was totally and completely obsessed with Jello growing up and this would have been one more amazing way for me to enjoy it but the truth is, I just learned about it a few months ago. Our neighbors, Rod and Tawya, totally hooked us up with a batch one weekend and I’ve been utterly obsessed ever since. 

I honestly can’t even explain this treat to you. It’s better than caramel popcorn IMHO, and it’s also easier than caramel popcorn so it’s a huge win at our house. The kids love how bright and gooey it is and it has started all sorts of kid conversations about what else we should take from classic to new and wild.

So far Claire has requested Muddy Buddies Rice Krispies Treats. 

Thoughts? Should we try it out?

Ingredients for Jello Popcorn

I mentioned that you only need 4 ingredients for this recipe. So simple! Here they are:

• Jello (3oz)
• Butter (unsalted)
• Mini Marshmallows
• Popcorn

Do you have them in the pantry already?? I’ve started to just buy mini mallows every time I grocery shop. The measurements for each can be found in the recipe card at the end of the post.