We've been doing low carb and sugar free for 16 (?) years now. Sometimes following it fairly strict, other times, letting it lapse. I've learned through the years that trying to stick to it from November to January is so very difficult due to me baking 1000+ items for the holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, events and dinner parties, holiday open houses and three family birthdays - two of which are our daughter's, the week after Christmas.
The first week of January I clean out the pantry, pack away or give away all the baking supplies, the beans, crackers, pasta and other carby foods and we gear up to eat clean again. And it's that time! Yesterday I did the clean out and pack away. Although I wanted to start right in on the zero sugar, we ended up wanting to use up a bottle of BBQ my husband had bought months ago, so I told him we would use it up on dinner last night and then jump right into healthy eating again starting today.
I wanted to give everyone stopping into my site a heads up that there will be a mixture of low carb/keto/sugar free recipes heading this way but I'll still post other recipes too as I have about a hundred recipes and photos in my "draft" files waiting for me to get time to post!
My husband picked up this BBQ Sauce while at Lowe's (I know, right? Food products? Wasn't expecting that!) He said it was on sale, and looked good. But, admittedly it's sat in the pantry for months and months and months... but now that we are gearing up to go sugar free and low carb again, I gave him the choice of using it up last night or packing it away for a few months until we aren't low carbing as strict. He said "LET'S TRY IT!" So we did.
I was in no mood to try to come up with any creative dishes and I already had a roast thawed in the refrigerator so into the slow-cooker the roast went, covered in this sauce and a bit of salt and pepper. It slow cooked all day, and just before serving I popped it into the oven at 350 for about 30 minutes to brown the top and thicken the sauce a bit.
It was a winner!
Even though it says it's a 'citrus and jalapeno' sauce, the citrus nor the jalapeno really took front stage. As a matter of fact, the spicy jalapeno and citrus was more of an aftertaste and a regular bbq sauce flavor is what it was until after you swallowed and breathed out.
Overall we liked it. Although, it was 7 grams of sugar so it's not something we would have again any time soon as I opt for 0 sugar bbq sauces while we are low carbing.
As a side note: because we've had this in our pantry for about 6-9 months (???) I honestly don't even know if you can find it or buy it anymore. BUT if you have it in your kitchen cupboard and wonder how citrusy or spicy it is and if you should try it, I vote YES. I think it would be VERY good on grilled chicken. Marinate the chicken in part of it for 4-12 hours, then grill, basting with more sauce and serving with the rest of the sauce drizzled or on the side. YUM. But it was good on chuck roast as well; for my husband, I served it pulled apart and on homemade buns. I had mine bun-less for less carbs.
