Traeger Smoked Ribs

These Traeger ribs are coated in a bold dry rub and smoked to mouth-watering perfection! They fall right off the bone and are perfect for picnics and BBQs!

The Best Traeger Ribs Recipe

When I went out to South Carolina to meet Cade’s family, he took me to a traditional southern restaurant to try real southern BBQ for the first time. It was delicious!

I couldn’t believe that a dry rub was all that they needed as I’d only had ribs slathered in sauce, but more important than that, they were falling off of the bone. The tenderness could not be beat! I was sold! Since then we’ve tested and tested rib recipes and this one is one of the best smoked rib recipes ever.

We have several rib recipes on the blog that we love, like our slow cooker Asian sticky ribs or our smoky BBQ Instant Pot ribs. They are all different in cooking techniques and flavors, but this is our first smoked ribs recipe — you’re going to love it!

Make a batch of homemade BBQ sauce, and get ready for your mouth to water, your fingers to get messy, and for these Traeger smoked ribs to become a regular on your menu! They are the best ribs I’ve ever had!

Traeger Smoked Pork Ribs Ingredients 

These Traeger pork ribs are flavored both with a dry rub and additional flavorings that are added halfway through the smoking time. A dry rub is simply a blend of dry ingredients that gets rubbed on meat before smoking or grilling. 

Here’s what you’ll need to make the best smoked ribs: 

• Pork Ribs 
• Smoked Paprika
• Dark Brown Sugar
• Black Pepper
• Garlic Powder
• Cumin
• Kosher Salt
• Cayenne
• Honey
• Dijon Mustard
• Apple Cider 

Keep scrolling to the recipe card down below to find the measurements needed for each ingredient.

What Are the Best Ribs for Smoking?

We prefer St. Louis style ribs for smoking, but baby back ribs would also work great. St. Louis style ribs cook fast and have great flavor. Baby back ribs are meatier and may take a little longer to cook to a safe temperature. Spare ribs also work, but they tend to have less meat on them and will need even less time to smoke.

How to Smoke Ribs

We’ve given detailed instructions on how to make smoked pork ribs in the recipe card below. Are you ready for tender ribs that melt in your mouth?? Here are the basics to mastering this Traeger ribs recipe: 

1. Combine the smoked ribs rub ingredients in a small bowl and set it aside.
2. Mix together the mustard and apple cider and brush it all over both sides of the ribs (be sure to remove the silver skin first!).
3. Then, generously

Grilled Flank Steak- My Favorite Balsamic Marinade

There’s nothing quite like a perfect grilled steak and so I’m sharing my secrets on Grilled Flank Steak and my favorite balsamic marinade. 

We went over to one of our friends’ home the other night for dinner. We brought the meat and salad and they supplied side and dessert (oh my gosh it was the most delicious strawberry shortcake. A true favorite of mine!)

I got this recipe from a girl I went to Elementary and Junior High School with. Fast forward 5,000 years, we became friends on facebook and the rest is history! 

Anyway, this is hands down our new favorite way to cook flank steak. If there is one meat recipe you try from me this weekend, make it this one. You will love it forever.

What is Flank Steak?

Flank steak is a somewhat tough but lean cut of beef that is long and flat. It is still quite flavorful but it mostly benefits from a marinade that tenderizes the meat.

Prepared this way, marinated, cooked quickly at high heat, and thinly sliced, flank steak practically melts in your mouth.

What’s in the Marinade?

At first glance, this flank steak recipe might look like a lot of ingredients, but you’ll likely have most of them in your pantry or fridge already. Here is everything you will need…

• Soy Sauce– This adds a lot of flavor and a touch of salt to balance out the sweetness in the marinade.
• Oil– Vegetable is what we use, but you could use olive oil.
• Dark Brown Sugar– Dark brown sugar gives a touch of sweet and balances the salty of the soy sauce, but we prefer dark brown sugar to add a little more depth of flavor.
• Worcestershire Sauce– Umami is the flavor you forget about. Yes, there’s sweet, salty, bitter, sour but did you know umami is that earthy goodness? Worcestershire enhances that in a beef marinade.
• Dijon Mustard–

S’mores Sliders [+Video]

Looking for a fun twist on the classic s’mores? Try making s’mores sliders! These bite-sized treats offer a unique and delicious way to enjoy the classic campfire dessert.

All the classic s’more flavors, gooey marshmallows, melty chocolate and crunchy graham cracker, all loaded up between two sweet buttery Hawaiian rolls. And the best news…you can enjoy it any time of year because they bake right in the oven. No campfire needed!

I had a bag of Hawaiian rolls in the freezer that I needed to use. I wanted to try something new and not your typical savory slider. The idea for a s’mores version just popped into my head one day, and oh my gosh, I kid you not, the family went nuts over them!!!!! Way better than a regular smores imho! Dessert sliders are totally my thing now!

Ingredients Needed to Make S’mores Sliders

You only need 5 ingredients to make this totally irresistible easy s’mores dessert! You’ll need the usual trio…grahams, chocolate and mallows, then just two more items and you’re set. Here are the details:

• Hawaiian Sweet Rolls
• Hershey Bars
• Large Marshmallows
• Butter
• Graham Cracker Crumbs

The measurement for each ingredient can be found in the recipe card at the end of the post.

How to Make S’mores Sliders

This might be the most quick and easy smores dessert you’ll ever make. It’s just a few simple steps and some time baking in the oven, and then you can dig in! An irresistible dessert for a crowd in under a half hour! Here are the basic steps:

• Prep: Preheat the oven 350° F, brush the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking dish with melted butter, and sprinkle graham crackers all over it.
• Cut: Using a sharp bread knife, cut the full sheet of rolls in half and then place the bottom half in the baking sheet.
• Layer: Cover the bottom rolls with a later of chocolate bars followed by a layer of marshmallows.
• Top: Place the lid of the rolls on top and pour the rest of the butter over the top of the rolls, using a pastry brush to spread the butter all over the rolls.
• Sprinkle: Using the remaining graham cracker crumbs, sprinkle them all over the top of the buttery rolls.
• Bake: Cover baking dish with foil and bake for 10 minutes. Then

With an abundance of sweet ripe berries, fresh green spinach, chewy pasta, and a bright and flavorful light balsamic dressing, this strawberry spinach salad is an unexpected and delicious pasta salad that is certain to become one of your family’s new favorites.

Strawberry Spinach Salad

This is not your average spinach pasta salad. With strawberry season on its way (and blueberry season not far behind), this strawberry and spinach salad should be on your radar as you plan your summer meals. It is the perfect light lunch or side dish for a summertime dinner.

In the abundance of pasta salad recipes, there’s something especially irresistible about the sweet bite of berries in this particular dish. I often use a combination of strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries for a uniquely delicious combination of flavors and textures.

A sprinkle of goat cheese adds a salty, savory tang that ties all the flavors in this salad together. I’ve used both honey goat cheese and regular goat cheese in this recipe and they were both delicious.

Strawberries are the ultimate sweet bite in many of our favorite recipes. I’m always amazed by how much flavor strawberries add to a simple salad. As it turns out, pasta salad is no exception!

While I often use a combination of blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries in this particular strawberry spinach pasta salad, if you don’t have all those types of berries you can easily substitute with all of one kind of berry.

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5 Minute Avocado Salad

This avocado salad is bright and fresh and only takes 5 short minutes to make! Creamy avocados topped with a simple tangy dressing, toasted pine nuts and chunks of manchego cheese. It’s just a lovely salad!

Avocado is one of my love languages. They are pretty much the best little fruit ever. I mean, how many foods out there can you eat for any and every meal? They are healthy and satisfying. They are beautiful and so creamy. Throw them on some toast, mash them into guacamole, add them to a taco, wrap them with bacon, blend them into a dressing, or in this case, make them the base of a salad. Winning, winning, winning!

Ingredients for Avocado Salad

I love coming up with new salad recipes and this one is a little out of the box (i.e. I didn’t find another salad quite like it out there on the interwebs) but it seriously just works! All you need is a few avocados, a couple of simple ingredients for a zesty dressing and a few fun add-ins that just make dish come alive! Here is what you will need:

• Avocados: you’ll want ripe hass avocados, see my section below on how to pick ripe avocados
• Lime Juice: fresh is best, like by far the best
• White Wine Vinegar: combined with the lime juice, this is just the acid you want to balance out of the creamy richness of the avos
• Manchego Cheese: a semi-hard Spanish cheese made from sheep’s milk that is buttery in texture and similar in flavor to pecorino romano
• Pine Nuts: toasting the pine nuts gives them a little crunch and enhances their flavor
• Salt: adds and enhances flavors
• Cilantro: adds a fresh herby pop of flavor and is my favorite herb to pair with avocados

The measurements for each ingredient can be found in the recipe card at the end of this post.

Possible Substitutions:

Ok, I realize that some of these might not be common ingredients to have on hand, so here are some possible substitutes, but I highly recommend hitting the grocery store and trying the original recipe.

Avocados – no substitutes here because nothing can replace the heaven of an avocado

Lime Juice – you could try lemon juice, but lime and avocado just belong together

White Wine Vinegar – try red wine vinegar or rice vinegar (not seasoned)

Manchego – pecorino romano, asiago or monterey jack are ok substitutes

Pine Nuts – pistachios, toasted almonds or chopped cashews

How to Pick a Ripe Avocado

There are few things better than a perfectly ripe avocado and there are few things worse than an over- or underripe avocado! To pick a r