I bought some xanthan gum to make my gravy with, but the package I bought doesn't have any nutritional information on it, and FitDay doesn't have info on xanthan gum (or any vegetable gum) on it. I'd like to be able to accurately count what I'm eating.

Also, I made an LC cranberry sauce this year but it didn't come out so good. I tried making it with just cranberries, water, and stevia, but it ended up very bitter tasting. I don't think that just adding more stevia is going to fix it. The texture came out great though!

I do have access to Splenda as my mom uses it regularly (and she lives right downstairs.) But I have fibromyalgia and I'm very chemically sensitive, and I'm not really sure how my body might react to sucralose. I'm also not sure how my body would react to sugar- obviously that would be a weight-loss concern but I'm not sure if it would be a health concern as well- in case it makes a difference I have the less processed "evaporated cane juice" in the house for my kids. I also have raw honey in the house- would that work in cranberry sauce?

So, my options for the sauce are:

1) Keep it the way it is and just not eat very much of it or enjoy it too much, or hope to aquire a taste for undersweetened cranberries.

2) Sweeten with sucralose and maybe have it make me sick

3) sweeten with sugar and make it higher carb

4) sweeten with raw honey and make it higher carb

OK, I found the answer to my xanthan gum question. http://www.netrition.com/now_xanthan_powder_page.html

I could still use some input on the cranberry sauce though!

I just use plain sucralose (actually Sweetzfree) to sweeten my cranberry sauce. It is slightly less firm than cranberry sauce made with sugar, but not so much that I've ever felt the need to add anything to thicken it. Some people add sf Jell-O to it, which in your case, might help overcome the bitterness, as well as thicken it a bit. I think if you googled something like "sugar-free cranberry sauce recipes" you get a lot of results.

Ok, but that doesn't really answer my question. SF jello, besides not being kosher, is going to have aspartame or sucralose in it. I don't know how my body responds to sucralose, and if it makes me sick I've wasted the entire batch of cranberry sauce- I can assure you that my kids won't eat it- they like the canned stuff.

The texture of the sauce is fine- it's the flavor I'm worried about.

MCSD is a bear.

Blend in a bit of honey, say a Tbsp to start, and use the Stevia. Taste for sweetness. Increase conservatively if needed. Together they are magic and just count the carbs, it's not much spread over a bunch of servings. Use just a titch of the xanthan, and maybe a bit (half a packet?) of Knox plain gelatin, does good things for the texture and thickens when cooled. Blending is good, for sweeteners and for thickeners. Grate/zest in some washed orange rind and a cinnamon stick if you have it, simmer for a bit.

Yum-O.

Enjoy.