Pumpkin and Spice

I love barbeque. No, scratch that. I love barbeque sauce (isn't the meat just there to give me something to put sauce on?). The problem is, I'm frequently disappointed by store bought barbeque sauce. I've bought dozens of brands, and they're either too smoky, not sweet enough, too sweet, artificial tasting... it's frustrating. I do like KC Masterpiece, but within the past couple years, I've been trying to avoid products containing High Fructose Corn Syrup*. (Take a look at a bottle of barbeque sauce- even if HFCS isn't the first ingredient, regular corn syrup or sugar is! That's a lot of sweetener!)

On top of that, I try to eat healthy ("try" really is the operative word). Admittedly, in the past year with my ready access to pastries, cakes, icings and croissants, I have put on a pound or two... or six. So, recently, especially I have been trying to watch my figure, lest my physique start to resemble a pumpkin! It is with this in mind that I present to you my mind-bogglingly easy (and low fat!) pulled pork with homemade BBQ sauce!

Usually pulled pork is made with pork shoulder (which has about 145cal and 10g of fat in a 3oz serving) or Boston Butt (which has about 197cal and 12g fat per 3oz serving.) My recipe uses pork tenderloin, which is a very lean cut, clocking in at about 125cal and 3g of fat. Of course, you can use shoulder or Boston Butt if you want, it just won't be as lean.

The barbeque sauce is easy-peasy, and is very customizable to your personal sauce tastes. It's made with ketchup (going back to the HCFS thing, I use organic ketchup, which uses cane sugar instead of HCFS), dried spices and molasses, which give it a wonderful richness. As written, this sauce is sweet, spicy with just a hint of smokiness. If you like yours less sweet, leave out the honey. If you like it less spicy, leave out the cayanne. Just taste as you go and adjust accordingly. (Keep in mind, as it cooks, it gets spicier- so don't go too spicy!)

Easy Pulled Pork with Homemade BBQ Sauce
Serves 6-8

• 2-3lb extra lean pork tenderloin, trimmed of visable fat
• 1 large sweet onion (like vadalia)

For the sauce~

• 2c ketchup (I use Publix Greenwise Organic Ketchup)
• 2T granulated garlic
• 1t smoked paprika (optional- this gives it smokiness)
• 2t ground ginger
• 2t dry mustard
• 1/2t cayanne (optional)
• 1t ground black pepper
• 2T molasses
• 2T honey (optional)
• 2-4T apple cider vinegar (to taste)

In the ceramic liner of your slow cooker, combine all the sauce ingredients. Cut the onion in half lengthwise and peel. Cut into thin half rings and mix onions into sauce. Make sure your loins are trimmed of visable fat- look to see if there is any silverskin. This will look like a greyish-white streak on the surface of the loin. Carefully work your knife under it, and "fillet" it off the loin. (The silverskin is a tendon, and while not bad for you, it won't cook down, and will be tough and chewy.) Lay the tenderloins in the pot and cover in sauce. At this point, you can put the liner in the fridge and cook it the next day. To cook- put liner in slow cooker, set to low, and cook 6 hours, or until pork is cooked through. To shred the pork, hold one end of the loin with a pair of tongs. Scrape the loin with a fork to shred the meat. Mix meat and sauce together.
Serve on whole wheat buns with pickles and your favorite BBQ fixin's.

*I know that there really aren't any conclusive studies that prove that HFCS definately has negative health impacts on humans. I also know that most things are okay in moderation. But, HFCS is in so many food products we buy today, from bread to cereal to sweets, sodas and fruit drinks... being in so many products "moderation" is difficult. My personal choice is to avoid it when possible.