read ALL the labels first

I don't know if you read my response to Kay's "what's on your menu" yesterday, but I have been searching dilgently for low fat, low cal, low carb, high protein dinners that my WHOLE family will enjoy. I have always loved www.allrecipes.com so that's the first place I went. They have a healthy living section that is all light recipes. The great thing is they give you the nutritional info for every recipe. Yesterday I made Chicken Perkelt (http://chicken.allrecipes.com/az/ChicknPrklt.asp) and right now I am cooking Slow Cooker Sweet and Tangy Chicken (http://chicken.allrecipes.com/az/SlowCookerSweetandTangyChi.asp) Well my reason for posting this is that even though these recipes are light we can make them lighter still by buying FF, RF, or SF ingredients. For the chicken I am cooking now it called for BBQ sauce. My first thought was "Carb Options" BBQ sauce (3 carbs per serving). Well all that low carb stuff is expensive. So I started reading labels on regular BBQ sauce and guess what!! KC Masterpiece Classic Blend BBQ only has 2 carbs per serving, 0 fat, and 10 calories!!! Needless to say it was about $1.50 cheaper too!! So my words of wisdom for all of you are this: read ALL the labels, you might find something better and cheaper!! Dawn

Hi Dawn! great advice! I have to say I have used Carb Options A-1 Sauce and I actually did quite well with it.... Another thing to watch is sometimes when going for salad dressing, FF may have more sugar / carbs in it than RF so that's something to consider as well. Thanks again and have a great day! ~amber~

You can make your own low carb bbq sauce. I have a great recipe for it...somewhere! But yes we must read labels! I have done it for many years and it has just become habit, I think. Chele

I found that out early with peanut butter. Reg. pb only has 3g sugar, low carb is 1 or 2, not a big difference. Fat is only a few g. lower also. Not enough to make a big difference either. So I buy and enjoy the real stuff. in the reverse, look at the stuff that says low and 0 carbs. They play a game with good and bad stuff, some things cancel out carbs, even though they still have a fair amount. The only thing I buy low carb is my protein drink and salad dressing.