When I was offered to review a Weber Smoker as part of the Girls Grill Too campaign, I was thrilled.

My husband loves smoked meat. Although we have  really nice grill, he has been wanting a smoker for a long time. When he was growing up his parents had a large smoker, and they used it often. He loved the meat they used to cook in it.

So, when my smoker came last week I could not wait to use it. I was excited to see how it worked, and how it would cook the meat.

First of all this was very easy to put together. It came in a large box, and my eight year old son and I had it put together in no time. Assembling it was easy.

Now for the cooking part. I will admit I was a little nervous about it. I have cooked on a grill using charcoal before, but I had never used a smoker. After reading through the directions, I gave it a try.

This was so easy. Once I got it going, there was really nothing to do but check on it occasionally throughout the day. Now, this is not something you can start and leave to go shopping. You really do need to do this when you are going to be home, and able to keep an eye on it, but it was easy.

Smoking meat is a little time consuming, so I decided that if I was going to take the time to smoke meat, I was going to smoke enough meat to last for several meals. I decided to try a whole chicken and a large pork roast.

This worked really well, because this smoker holds a lot of meat. In fact I only used the top rack. I could have fit a lot more meat into it, and I probably will next time. I love the fact that I can cook a lot of meat at one time and serve it for several meals.

Both the pork and chicken turned out really well. It was some of the best smoked meat that I have had. I could not believe the results I got using this smoker, it really was some of the best barbecued/smoked meat that I have had. It was certainly the best that I have cooked myself.

For the chicken, I simply followed the directions that came with the smoker.

For the pork roast I used a rub recipe from the Weber cookbook, Weber’s Real Grilling that I bought several years ago. (The author of this cookbook has a great website with lots of tips and recipes) It was really good and would actually work well on other kinds of meat.

I can’t wait to try other cuts of meat in this. I am thinking a turkey would be really good.

Do any of you own a smoker?

Pork Rub

• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt ( kosher salt really does work best in rubs)
• 1  5-6 lb pork shoulder roast
• barbecue sauce for serving (If you have a good homemade sauce you can use it, I used our favorite local barbecue sauce)

Allow the meat to stand at room temperature for about 20 minutes. Then massage the rub mixture all over the roast. Cook according to smoker directions. We cooked ours for about 7 hours, but a smaller roast would not take quite as long. You can shred this and mix in the sauce, like you would a pulled pork, but we liked to place the sauce on it when we served it. This way we each got the amount of sauce that we want.

And don’t forget to enter my giveaway for a Weber One Touch Charcoal Grill.

Disclosure: I received a free Weber Smoker for participating in the Girls Grill Too Campaign, but my thoughts and opinions are my own.

Subscribe and get posts delivered to your inbox.

Follow me on Twitter.

I have posted before how easy it is to do a quick barbecue pork in the crockpot. It is also a great meal to serve a large group because it is easy and pretty frugal.

I simple place a pork roast, usually a shoulder roast, into the crockpot and add about 1 cup of barbecue sauce.

I use Head Country brand of sauce, which is a local one, but you can use your favorite sauce. I then cook on low for 7-8 hours. When it is done, I shred the meat and add a little more sauce to it.

Recently though, one of my husband’s staff members kept telling me that I should add a Dr. Pepper to my crockpot barbecue pork.

At first I was not sure what to think of this idea. First, of all we do not drink much pop. We rarely have any in the house.

Secondly, I was not sure what it would add or how it would enhance the flavor very much. But after several of my husband’s staff kept telling me how good it was, I decided to give it a try.

I simply added about 12 ounces of Dr. Pepper to my pork and barbecue sauce when I put it in the crockpot and cooked it that same as I always had.

I was really surprised at how good this tasted and how much it added to my regular barbecue pork. It gave it a bit of a caramelized taste. It also gave it a little different texture than it normally had. It was really good. My whole family enjoyed this.

I might just have to keep a can of Dr. Pepper in the house to use in this recipe.

Have any of you tried this before? Or do you have another secret ingredient that you add to yours?

This post linked to Frugal Fridays.

Subscribe and get posts delivered to your inbox.

Follow me on Twitter.

One of the things I love about this time of year is grilling. Not only do I like the taste of grilled food, it is so much cheaper and easier to cook outside during warmer weather.

We enjoy grilling steaks, hamburgers, chicken, pizza, quesadillas, and even breakfast sausage.

Yes, breakfast sausage. It makes basically no mess when I cook it outside on the grill.

What is your favorite thing to cook on the grill?

For more frugal tips see Frugal Friday.

Subscribe and get posts delivered to your inbox.

Follow me on Twitter.

If you haven’t noticed, I liked quick and easy meals. I love to cook, but for most days, I need meals that I can put on the table in very little time.

However, just because I need quick and easy meals, does not mean that I want them to come from a box or jar. There are many meals that I can put together quickly without compromising on taste or quality.

This meal is just that. This is quick and easy, yet full of flavor. Not only that, it is a pretty healthy meal to serve.

Pasta with Easy Ragu

• 2 tablespoons of oil
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 lb sausage
• 1 cup milk
• 1 – 6 ounce can tomato paste
• 1 lb pasta, I like to use spaghetti noodles for this

1. Bring large pot of water to boil, and cook pasta according to directions.
2. While the pasta is cooking, cook onion in oil until tender.
3. Add sausage and cook until sausage is nicely browned.
4. Drain fat off sausage if needed.
5. Then add milk and tomato paste to meat/onion mixture.
6. Simmer for 5 minutes.
7. Salt and pepper to taste.
8. If it becomes too thick add about ¼ cup of the pasta water to the sauce.
9. Serve over cooked noodles and enjoy!

For more tomato recipes see the Ultimate Recipe Swap and Tasty Tuesday.

Subscribe and get posts delivered to your inbox.

Follow me on Twitter.

I love spaghetti carbonara. It is a perfect quick and easy meal.

I have another Spaghetti Carbonara on this site. It is a great recipe and my family enjoys it. However, I think I may have a new favorite Spaghetti Carbonara.

Since going gluten free, I find myself tweaking and trying different things with main dish recipes. I have found that if I really maximize the flavor of the main dish, we do not miss the bread, or other side dishes, that we can no longer have. If the main dish is really flavorful, and the star of the meal, then it really does not feel like we are missing anything.

I recently saw a recipe for Spaghetti Carbonara in a Rachael Ray magazine. She changed her Spaghetti Carbonara up a little by using white wine in it. I thought this sounded like a great idea because I knew that it would add a lot of flavor to it.

I decided to just use a basic Spaghetti Carbonara recipe, but add wine to it. The results were wonderful. In fact it was the best that I have ever made.

The wine added just a little something extra and different to it.  It gave it an extra depth of flavor, yet it didn’t taste like wine.

I don’t like wine. I like to use it in cooking for extra flavor and for tenderizing, however I do not like my food to taste like wine. I like it to give it just a subtle depth of flavor without being overpowering. This recipe does just that.

Spaghetti Carbonara

• ¼ pound bacon, cut into pieces
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/3 cup white wine
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1/3 cup parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 lb of spaghetti noodles

1. Cook noodles according to directions on the package and drain. When noodles are done reserve ½ cup of pasta water.
2. Meanwhile cook bacon until lightly browned.
3. Drain off most of the fat. You so want to leave about 2 tablespoons of it though.
4. Add garlic and cook for about 1 minute.
5. Carefully and slowly add wine.
6. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until wine has reduced by about 1/2.
7. In a large bowl combine eggs and cheese.
8. Working quickly, add hot pasta to egg and cheese mixture. Stir until combined.
9. Then add bacon/wine mixture.
10. Add reserved pasta water to achieve desired consistency. I like to add about ¼ cup of reserved water.
11. Serve and enjoy!

Subscribe and get posts delivered to your inbox.

Follow me on Twitter.

I decided to call this recipe  tortilla quiche, but I am not really sure that it is the best name for it. It is not really a quiche, but it sort of is because it contains milk, eggs, and cheese. No matter what you call it, my family really enjoyed this.

This is one of those recipes that I just put together. I needed a quick and easy dinner. I had some tortillas that needed used up. I had the rest of the ingredients on hand, so I put it all together in a quiche like dish, and hoped for the best.

We ended up loving this. I was so glad because when you just throw some things together and hope for the best, the best doesn’t always turn out.

I love this because not only is it quick and easy, it is one of those meals that you could eat for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

My husband thought this needed some spiciness to it, so he added salsa to his. I think you could easily add salsa to this when you are making it, and I might try that next time.

Tortilla Quiche

• 7 corn tortillas
• 1  1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 lb of sausage
• 6 eggs
• 1  1/2 cups milk

Cook sausage and set aside.

Cut 6 tortillas in half and one tortilla in quarters.

Mix together eggs and milk and set aside.

Place on layer of tortillas on the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate or similar type pan.

Sprinkle 1/3 of the cooked sausage and 1/4 of the cheese on top.

Then place another layer of tortillas on top of that. Continuing layering, ending with tortillas.

Carefully pour egg and milk mixture over top. This will be really full so pour it slowly and carefully. ( Or you could also use a larger pan.)

Bake 375 for 45 minutes or until done.

This post linked to Frugal Fridays and $5 Dinners.

Subscribe and get posts delivered to your inbox.

Follow me on Twitter.

I have recently read a lot about Spaghetti A La Philly on several other food sites. It is basically spaghetti that has been doctored up by using cream cheese.

I liked the basic idea because it was a quick and easy recipe, but I thought it needed a little more to it.

I thought I could make it just a little different, and something more like my family would enjoy by adding spinach to it. I also thought sausage would be good in place of the ground beef.

Now this recipe calls for a jar of spaghetti sauce. I will admit that I am not a big fan of jarred spaghetti sauce. For most things I would much rather make my Easy Pasta Sauce, but I do usually keep a jar or two of spaghetti sauce in my pantry. I do not use them often, but for meals like this it works great.

Creamy Pasta and Spinach

• 12 ounces spaghetti, uncooked ( I used gf spaghetti)
• 1 lb.  ground sausage ( you can also use beef, but we like sausage and I have a freezer full of it)
• 1 jar (24 oz.) spaghetti sauce
• 4 oz.  Cream Cheese, cubed
• 1 cup frozen spinach, thawed and drained

Cook spaghetti as directed on package.

While spaghetti noodles are cooking, brown meat in large skillet. Stir in sauce and cook on low heat 3 to 5 minutes, add cream cheese and spinach and stir until cream cheese is melted and until blended through.

Drain spaghetti and add to sauce. Mix together and serve.

This post linked to $5 Dinner Challenge.

Subscribe and get posts delivered to your inbox.

Follow me on Twitter.

I hope you aren’t tired of quiches yet, because I love them. But if you are a regular reader you already know that. I have quite a few recipes for quiche, a pepperoni quiche, a salmon, and a few others.

Last time I posted on quiche, several readers said that they had never made one. Well, if you have never made a quiche, you really should give it a try. They are so versatile and easy.

What I love about quiches is that they make a great dish for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. They are a frugal and easy meal to put on the table at any time. However, quiches can be boring. Many quiches are basically the same thing eggs, meat, milk, and cheese, so I am always trying to find ways to change quiches and make them different.

Since going gluten free I have also had to rethink quiches. I have made several crustless quiches, that  have turned out well, but I have been wanting to experiment even more. When I saw a recipe in a Taste of Home Cookbook, for a rice quiche, it got me thinking about how I could adapt it for my family.

I made a few changes and came up with a version that my family really enjoyed. This quiche was easy to make, but not only that it was a great way to use up leftover rice. Using rice as the crust also makes this a little healthier than a quiche with a regular pie crust. Healthier and lower fat is always a good thing.

You can change up the flavors of this by using different meats and cheeses. By doing this you can use the same basic recipe over and over again without serving the exact same meal. I love it when I can do that.

Rice Crusted Quiche

• 2 cups cooked rice
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1-1/2 cups cooked bacon, sausage, or ham
• 1 cup  shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 cup shredded jack or Swiss cheese, both work fine
• Several drops of hot pepper sauce
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/8 teaspoon onion powder

Press the rice into a greased 9-in. pie plate to form a crust. Drizzle with butter. Combine sausage (or the meat you are using), cheeses, and hot pepper sauce and spread over rice. Beat eggs, milk, garlic powder and onion powder over  pour over sausage over mixture. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

This post linked to $5 Dinners and Tasty Tuesday.

Subscribe and get posts delivered to your inbox.

Follow me on Twitter.

Subscribe and get posts delivered to your inbox.

Follow me on Twitter.

This time of year I love to use my crockpot, but not all crockpot recipes are quick to put together. When I am really busy, I need quick and easy crockpot recipes. It is so nice to be able to put something quickly in the crockpot early in the day and have dinner waiting for me at 6:00 or whenever I need it.

I love this version of baked beans because it is a little different than your average baked beans.

This is a meal I have fixed many times over the last 10 years. My kids really like this version of baked beans. I like it not only because it is so quick and easy to put together, but because it is a frugal meal to serve.

Crockpot Baked Beans and Sausage

• 1 pound  kielbasa type sausage
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 cup ketchup
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 2 tablespoons prepared mustard
• 3 cans (15-1/2 ounces each) great northern beans, rinsed and drained (I use beans I had cooked ahead and put in the freezer)

1. Mix together ketchup, sugars, vinegar, molasses, and mustard. Set aside.
2. Cut kielbasa into bite sized pieces.
3. In a crockpot mix together the kielbasa, onion, and beans. Add ketchup mixture and stir well.
4. Cook on low for 4-6 hrs.

For more recipes see What’s In Your Crockpot.

Subscribe and get posts delivered to your inbox.

Follow me on Twitter.