how to start a sorta-detox

My friend and her hubs are going to kick the sugar/carb addiction and I'm pretty stoked that she asked me for advice. What a compliment! She has yet to decide whether her two teens will be doing the cleanse too. I don't have kids so I can't really weigh in there. But I can say that the cleanse didn't feel like a diet, so they might not even realize it's going on! So here's my breakdown of how to kick-off a sorta-detox.

1.) may I suggest that you don't look at the scales and that you don't count calories during your time on the sorta-detox? It's hard enough to plan to eat clean. Focus on eating things that are good for you, not worrying about calories. It's a short period of time and you are retraining yourself- don't let yourself get overwhelmed.  If you are hungry, eat. Also, only plan to do it for 10 days. That way you aren't thinking, I can never have a diet coke again and then give up.

2.)  watch one of the documentaries to pump you up before you start planning. If you have netflix search for food documentaries or one of the following:

Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead is a good one if you want to see dramatic change. This one follows a guy that had a litany of health problems (from obesity to a skin disorder) and he went on a juice fast and eventually became so healthy he didn't need his medicine anymore. amazing.
Hungry for Change is the one I watched right before the cleanse and convinced Jeff to get on board too. Although it's production could have been better, (it was a little cheesy) it was very, very interesting. It explains how processed food are addicting.
Forks over Knives is inspiring me to add more meatless meals into my diet. I was already doing that but this doc. really upped the ante focusing on studies which show that plant-based diet can reduce the risks of cancer. (The "knives" in the title is referring to surgery scalpels.)

3.) Pick your "rules." You can pick anything from just kicking out artificial sweeteners to a full scale detox where you go completely vegan and/or wheat free. It just depends on what you want. For me, somewhere in the middle was good.

My rules were nothing refined (foods that have been so broken down that they only have one nutrient: white sugar, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sugar, bleached flour, etc.); no artificial preservatives (sodium nitrates, etc. That means no deli meats, and most salad dressings are off limits.), no hormones (in my meat or dairy); organic for the dirty dozen; and no preventative antibiotics. So my rules allowed natural sugar. I ate honey, maple sugar, and fruit. I was really addicted to sugar and the second day I came home and just ate a spoonful of honey straight. I had to have something! But the honey isn't as addicting because it's whole. I don't think I would have been able to go off natural sugars too although some people do and swear by it. God bless em'.

Hint, if you are trying to save $, skip the organic fruits and veggies- In my opinion the pesticides hurt us less than the hormones and antibiotics, but the good thing about organics (fruit, veggies, dairy) is that they last longer. I don't know why, but they do. I guess when you poison something a little it dies faster. If your goal is just to kick the sugar/carb addiction, obviously you can skip the organics all together.

4.) Plan your 10 days. (or 14, or 30!)  It'll be difficult to stick to the game plan if you don't know exactly what to cook when you get home from work. As you know, cooking from scratch takes longer, so you don't want to be hungry and trying to think of what to have for dinner. (Hint: plan for snacks too.)  Here's what I planned.  (The red bean curry was amazing! The pumpkin spiced oatmeal was not. Surprising, no?)  You don't have to stay on your menu if you feel like free-styling. I mixed my breakfasts around. It's just good to have a game plan mostly for grocery shopping so that you won't have to make a mid-week run.    

5.) Go grocery shopping. Plan that it will take longer than your typical run and expect it to cost a little more. Produce is more expensive than processed carbs. And that's because the way our governmental subsidy system is set up.... but that's a long (and controversial) story. But I can say, it's not going to be as much as you think because you aren't going to have waste and you hopefully won't have to be making little trips to the grocery store on the way home.

6.) Have your last supper! Go out to eat and let someone else cook for you. Enjoy it, realize you aren't giving it up forever, and then pack your lunch for tomorrow!

Another 9 days for your pleasure

So I'll be adding in a small amount of processed foods to this week's meal plan, but for the most part it is free of most isolates, added hormones, and preventative antibiotics. Caution on the bacon. I'll be consuming it in small quantities.

day 1
B- Soft Boiled Egg and Cheese
L- Salad with Guacamole and Black Beans
S- Honey Chocolate with Almonds and Coconut
D- Chicken with Chipolte Orange Glaze and side of Quinoa
*cook extra chicken for day 2's lunch and dinner and day 3's dinner
** substitute red peppers for the chipotle chilies in adobo sauce if the ingredients list has stuff you can't pronounce in it... or if your grocery doesn't carry it.

prep: dry ingredients for morning oatmeal

day 2
B- pumpkin oatmeal
L- salad w/ leftover chicken
S- Bananas
D- Bulgar Salad with Chicken and Feta Cheese served in a pita

prep: make roasted vegetable tomato soup (recipe previously posted) and divide into deli containers. After cooled, put some in freezer.

day 3   (I'm having company over, so meals will be a little more indulgent today and tomorrow)
B- Banana sliced in half longways with homemade peanut butter
L- Roasted tomato soup
S- Granola
D- Chipolte Chicken, Jalapeno, Mushroom, Bacon, Gouda whole wheat Pizza.
*freeze extra pizza dough.

prep: put ingredients in bread machine, set timer.

day 4
B- eggs and bacon with homemade bread
prep: marinade chicken
L- tomato soup with mozzarella grilled cheese
S- Apples with homemade Peanut Butter and Honey
D- Leftover bulgar salad with marinated chicken and side of broccoli dressed in garlic butter

day 5 (A Monday holiday! So my lunch and snack can be more time consuming and less portable.)
B- yogurt and blueberries
L- tomato soup with mozzarella grilled cheese
S- baked apple with oats, raisins, cinnamon, and honey 
D- Salmon with Quinoa
*cook extra salmon for day 6's lunch

day 6
B- bacon and eggs
*cook an extra slice of bacon for tonight's dinner and day 8's lunch. make 2 hard boiled eggs for day 7's and day 8's lunches.

L- Chilled Salmon on a Salad
S- yogurt with Blueberries and Almonds drizzled with honey
D- Naked Burritto: lettuce, chicken, black beans, corn, avocado, salsa, organic cheddar, bacon
*cook extra chicken for day 7's lunch

day 7
B- chia seeds in oatmeal
L- Salad with chicken and a hard boiled egg
S- granola
D- lemon garlic shrimp with veggies and side of quinoa
*cook and chill extra shrimp for day 8's lunch

day 8
B- yogurt and blueberries
L- chilled shrimp on spinach salad with tomatoes, hard boiled egg, mushrooms, bacon.
S- apple and peanuts
D- warming sweet potato and lentil salad
Dessert- vanilla roasted pears with granola sprinkled on top

prep: make day 9's meatballs

day 9-
B-soft boiled egg and cheese
L- tuna salad on greens
S- honey chocolate with almonds and coconut
D- lamb meatballs with lemon cumin yogurt sauce in a pita with feta
*make extra meatballs and freeze in accordance with recipe


P.S. I didn't list assembling the next day's lunch as prep, because I do that every night.
P.S.S. When I have a protein on my salad I'm perfectly content to skip salad dressing, but when I do make a salad dressing I use my friend Amanda's recipe for balsamic vinegar. But I'll save that for another day.           :)

sorta-detox, day 9: Nearly there, and Lent nearly here.

Nearly there

The sort of detox is nearly over. Tonight we are having an encore of the favorite new recipe, chicken curry over brown rice. And then tomorrow night we are all going out to eat where we will not scour the menu for something that fits within our guidelines. I'm looking forward to my Pink Lady Sushi Roll of Crab, Masago, Cucumber, Avocado, Crunch, Soy Wrap, with Creamy Spicy Sauce. Drool! However, I will not order a diet coke- a new habit I want to keep- I still crave a big fountain soda, but no more pop for yours truly.

My goal was to post more throughout these ten days, including our recipes, victories, and defeats. I will likely post the successful recipes a little later, but for now, I simply give you a very simple, blank meal planner that you can hopefully print for your own healthy eating goals.

Meal Planner
	Breakfast	Lunch	Snack	Dinner	ingredients needed	prep ahead tonight
Saturday
Sunday
M
T
W
Th
F

I've found it takes far more time than expected to eat whole, or clean, or whatever you want to call it. It's a lot harder to get more calories than you need when there is no instant gratification and when you plan your meals. I haven't felt deprived, other than when I want something specific (cookies, ice cream) or just immediately (drive throughs). We've ate like kings yet we've lost weight. But the absolute best thing is that I haven't had headaches. Usually I get a headache every other day. Sometimes more, sometimes a little less- but through these ten days I haven't had more than an, 'I'm hungry headache' that went away within five minutes of eating. I don't know if the headaches are synced with my hormonal cycle so I've made another meal plan for the next 10 days and see if I can keep this thing going. I'm really curious to see if I'll go another stint without a headache.

Lent nearly here

Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, is really early this year: February 13th, in fact. I suspect my Lenten exercise will have something to do with this little sorta-detox experiment. I usually try to pick one of the seven deadly sins/heavenly virtues to work on in a specific way. Wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony. Last year was greed, only spending what I had to so that I would give the extra to a charity. Before that was sloth, getting up as soon as the alarm went off, not putting off tasks, exercising, and other ways of practicing diligence.  Sometime before that was pride, avoiding mirrors- (I think I misunderstood pride a little back then.) It's been awhile since I've hit gluttony, and I think this year I should revisit it. The last time I worked on gluttony/temperance I simply fasted, to better understand hunger, which so many of my brethren live with, and to practice the ancient tradition which I had never really fully embraced. This year, perhaps I'll continue on this path of whole foods and change it a little to make Lent special. I've learned that when you only eat what you've prepared and only whole foods, it can shift your thinking from living to eat to eating to live. I've not once ate out of boredom or regretted eating something these past ten days. I've been truly hungry each time I've ate and each meal has nourished me, not just filled me up. I plugged in a few of my days to my fitness pal, curious about the amount of potassium I was getting instead of trying to squeeze the most out of my caloric alotment. (Turns out I was coming in under the caloric budget every day, even with snacks)
Often when I say grace, I try to quickly realize where each food comes from, what it took to get in front of me, and pray for that farmer, or thank God for the animal, etc. With this practice, that process can happen earlier are allow you more time to consider it when you are cooking, and sometimes even when you are shopping. You feel and wash each item. When you do buy something packaged, you read the ingredients. Any ideas on how I could incorporate this eating exercise into a Lenten practice would be welcomed in the comments section.

sorta-detox: days 2 & 3

So I'm not sticking to the meal plan super strict, it's more to give me options so I don't have to think about it throughout the week.

Monday Dinner: Mediterranean tomatoes over chicken and green beans.
dessert: apple slices dipped in homemade peanut butter and honey.

For some reason my blog account isn't wanting to upload pictures anymore, so you'll have to use your imagination for awhile.

We baked the tomatoes over chicken, but now I think it would be tastier if you grilled the chicken and then had the tomatoes as a side.

http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2012/08/mediterranean-baked-feta-with-tomatoes/

Tuesday breakfast:  stoneyfield yogurt, almonds, blueberries, and a drizzle of honey. 10x better than cold cereal and only took about 30 seconds to prepare. 
green tea with jasmine at work.

lunch: steak salad

gobble up snack as soon as you get home to avoid eating cauldron-sized bowl of cereal : pear and handful of peanuts

dinner: Holy Moley Amazing Curry Chicken. Actually, it was supposed to be red beans instead of chicken, but the red beans didn't turn out. Holy fortuitous mishap. We threw in some chicken and it was this beautiful, turmeric golden thing whose smell nearly made the four of us dance in my tiney tiny kitchen.

But the best was sitting around my little dining room table and applauding the cooks as we tried to slow ourselves from eating the curry too quickly. We recounted the day, then pulled ourselves back from talking too much about work, and instead listened to an entertaining story about one of the sorta-detoxers nearly being labeled a felon in a foreign country. This sorta-detox is turning out to be as much a social exercise as a diet.

http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2009/02/red-kidney-bean-curry/ 

Wednesday breakfast: two medium boiled eggs and half a serving of cheddar cheese. It was so sharp that I had to put half of it back!
darjeeling tea at work

lunch: salad with chicken, red onions, cranberries, and feta cheese.

I have to confess, if it weren't for the three other people doing this with me, I'd be tapping out about now. We're all so busy that we don't get to cooking until 7 and by the time we're done cleaning, we're not finished until after 9. I have to think that the longer you do this, the faster you get at it. You know some meals without having to look at a recipe. You have whole food staples in your kitchen. And when you have multiple cooks working in a small space, you are inevitably going to have a bigger mess than if you were cooking in your own kitchen. I clean as I work when I cook solo and am able to coordinate the recipe so that I only have to use one cutting board, one knife, one mixing bowl, that sort of thing. But when you start delegating chopping over here, and peeling over there, you can't avoid a mess... a mess which takes less time to create, i.e. to get dinner on the table, but longer to clean. Fortunately, the sorta-detox clan has been staying around to help with that task too. I'm grateful that they are sticking with it and encouraging me to do the same, lest I would probably be eating a mound of chocolate about now.

sorta-detox day one

Yesterday's dinner was the first meal on the "sorta-detox" - After a busy Sunday, the four of us went to Sam's Club to look for what we could (fruits and veggies not on the dirty dozen and some organic greens) and then to Martin's (our local grocery) for the rest. It was somewhat expensive, (especially organic cheese!) but not as bad as we expected. Looking at every label did make the shopping experience a long one, even with dividing and conquering . okay boys, you go get chicken and steak. We're going to go get seeds, cheese, and beans!

Then we got to my place and started making dinner and lunches for the next day. One of our sorta-detox cronnies had a bible study the next evening so we assembled the prep for her dinner too. Actually cooking, even a simple meal of a london broil, microwaved sweet potato, and sauteed green beans, takes a long time on a school night! I knew that already, I mean I cook more complicated menus than that for guests, but I guess it just seemed super long because I realized we'd be doing that every night for 10 days. I was pooped after we finally got my kitchen clean.

But the fruit of our labor was something that reminded me of home. I had a colorful plate that had been made with the food groups in mind and was meant to nourish us, not just fill us. It was great, and it made me appreciate my mom. Years and years she had worked full time and came home to cook me a balanced dinner. She rarely picked something up from a fast food resturant and always made sure that there was a meat, a fruit, and a veggie on my plate. That took time, that took sacrifice, and that took love. And it made me want to read this.

Alas, I forgot my prepared steak salad and delicious homemade balsamic vinaigrette in my fridge this morning! Grumble grumble. I guess I have my lunch for tomorrow on deck. So I had to track down a meal in this city an hour from my apartment. It was harder than I thought. I ended up going to a restaurant that toted itself online as being organic, but once I got in there, I didn't see any mention of organics. I tried to get something safe, I asked for the veggie veggie sandwich but on a salad. I suspect the pepper jack cheese in it was not organic, but I made the best out of what I had available and didn't veer too far off of the diet plan. It was just frustrating to have to go off the plan before 24 hours had past.

Anywhosal, below I've posted my shopping list and menu plan. (Which we've already adjusted because the grocery store ran out of broccoli- have you ever heard of such a thing?) The main idea of planning it out was to have a grocery list with minimal waste, limited amounts of sugar, and the other food groups balanced. I highlighted things like wheat, dairy, meat, and sugar to keep a visual of what each day looked like. I wanted to be sure that I didn't fall into my usual ruts of eating too many carbs, etc. I'll post some of the recipes as we go.  :)

P.S. Did you know how delicious a baked sweet potato is?! I didn't! I'd only ever tried to make them as fries and this was wayyyy better! They just came out of the microwave and we sprinkled cinnamon on them and boom. Freakin' like candy.

PROTEIN

ÿ        Eggs

ÿ        Chickpeas

ÿ        Red Kidney Beans

ÿ        Ground Turkey

ÿ        Chicken

ÿ        3 steaks

VEGGIES

ÿ        Onion

ÿ        Red Onion

ÿ        Carrots

ÿ        Peppers (Red)

ÿ        Tomatoes

ÿ        Avocado

ÿ        Green Beans

ÿ        Salad

ÿ        Garlic

ÿ        Mushrooms

FRUITS

ÿ        Apples

ÿ        Pears

ÿ        Oranges

ÿ        Lemon

DAIRY

ÿ        Feta

ÿ        Parmesan

ÿ        Cheddar

ÿ        Plain yogurt

OTHER FOOD

ÿ        Cilantro

ÿ        Flat leaf parsley

ÿ        Beef broth

ÿ        salsa

OTHER OTHER

ÿ        Disposable dressing containers

ÿ        nut milk bag

	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snacks or Dessert
Sunday	X	X	Salad, Sweet Potato, Broccoli, Steak
Monday	Yogurt, granola, almond, fruit parfait	Roasted Veggies Tomato Soup w mozz and a side salad with cucumbers, broccoli, red onion, chick peas	Mediterranean veggies and chicken w side of steamed broccoli	Oatmeal and raisin stuffed apples
Tuesday	Oatmeal with nuts, cranberries, and maple syrup	Salad w Grilled Chicken, black beans,  avocado	Red Kidney Bean and Curry over brown rice
Wednesday	2 Soft boiled eggs and a piece of cheese	Brown rice, chicken, black bean, avocado, salsa bowl	Warming lentil and sweet potato salad	Pumpkin granola
Thursday	Green smoothie with protein powder	Peanut butter on  apple slices, Tomato Soup	Salad, 100% Whole wheat bread (from my 5 minute a day book) Panini’s  (caramelized onion, roasted red peppers, cheese, Chicken)	Vanilla roasted pears
Friday	Pumpkin spiced oatmeal	Greek chicken salad	Bulgur Salad w Chickpeas, Roasted Red Peppers ,Spiced Cumin Dressing	Almonds and dried cranberries
Saturday	2 Soft boiled eggs and a piece of cheese	Pesto Salad Tomatoes and Mozzarella Some protein?	Quinoa and lemon chicken
Sunday	Yogurt, granola, almond, cranberry parfait	Curried apple chicken salad over salad	Roasted veggies and turkey meatballs	Peanut butter on whole wheat English muffin
Monday	1 orange 1 egg	Pear, cranberry, feta, balsamic salad w leftover Quinoa	Turkey Chili	Cherry, walnut, cocoa cookie
Tuesday	Apple Chia seeds and yogurt	Curried apple chicken salad over salad	Salad with Pears and Gorz and bals. Mushroom Bourguignon Sautéed Green beans
Wednesday!	2 Soft boiled eggs and a piece of cheese	Turkey Chili	Chicken m’room marsala  with Green beans

sorta detox

So if you read this blog, you likely know me in real life, and may have heard my relatively recent understanding about how all sin is a perversion of something that was originally good and how such perversions are intrinsically harmful to our health (whether it be physically, emotionally, or as a society), often in ways that we don't recognize. So when God instructs us not to do something, it usually is for our own benefit. For example, sex outside of marriage and masturbation is a perversion of the sexuality God gifts us and harms our current or future spouse, ourselves, and harms society as a whole, messing with an individual's or society's ability to commit and creates families that have the odds stacked against them.

I also think that the root of most of our food/weight issues follow this same framework. Gluttony is a perversion of enjoying the bounty God provides for us. And it makes us fat, sick, and sad. God gave us diligence to work for his Glory, or 'stick-with-it-ness' to overcome difficulties in life. The human body is perfectly made for labor, but when we move away from that we embrace sloth. Sloth is a perversion and it makes us fat, sick, unsuccessful, and sad. On this note, I have also been more aware of the theory that when we mess with the make up of our food, we are treading this line of perversion that may harm us in ways we don't know. 

When we shove all our beef into concentrated animal feeding operations ("CAFOs") the cows stand in their own excrement, therefore we have to prevent them from getting sick and passing that sickness onto other animals and to us by using preventative antibiotics. That paired with growth hormones or steroids makes for some pretty altered food. I'm not saying that doctoring sick animals is bad, and I'm not saying that you're going to Hell for eating McDonald's. However, what I am saying is that this dramatic alteration of our food may be harming us in ways we don't understand. We're building tolerances to antibiotics, we're finding more and more people with endocrinology problems (raises hand), and even fish in our water supply are showing the effects of our country's dependence on medicinal hormones. http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/what-the-pill-is-doing-to-our-water-supply/

So, I'm swearing off soda, foods that have been genetically modified, and foods that have been so broken down that they only have one nutrient (white sugar, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sugar, bleached flour)for 10 days. I'm also skipping any artificial preservatives (sodium nitrate, that means no deli meats), picking organic fruits and veggies when able ($), and most importantly, avoiding any animal, or animal product, that has been raised with steroids, other hormones, or preventive antibiotics.

source: smitten kitchen

I'm only doing this for 10 days for a few reasons. #1. I'm expecting it will be expensive. #2 It's going to take a lot of meal planning, beyond what I usually do. #3 I'm addicted to carbs, breads, and cookies and to find/bake without processed flour and sugar is going to be very difficult for yours truly.  Fortunately though, I have two buddies willing to take the plunge with me to spur me on and to help absorb some of the duties of cooking and the cost of the groceries. I really shouldn't call it a detox because we're still going to eat a small amount of : complex carbs, sugar in the form of honey, meat, and dairy. Really, we're just trying to eat the way we should be already and searching for food in its original form without excessive poking and prodding from the food industry.

Here's an example of what a day will likely look like:

  Breakfast                                    Lunch                                        Dinner

Pumpkin spiced oatmeal

Greek chicken salad

Bulgur Salad with Chickpeas, Roasted Red Peppers and Spiced Cumin Dressing

See, no deprivation. But none of the foods are instant and they are in their original form.

If this is a success and isn't as difficult as we thought, I'm planning on doing a longer diet for lent.

I'll post my whole 10-day meal plan with some of the recipes here in a few days in case you want to do it with us. We start the 6th and go until the 16th.

I'll also post some of the names of documentaries that are great motivation for changing your diet. They are better at explaining how the body works with processed foods than I can explain. Sometimes they can get a little preachy and conspiracy laden, but they'll inspire you to forgo the 3pm diet coke and cheetos.......... Jesus help me; I love me some cheetos.

Roasted Tomato Basil Soup

As you might have noticed in a previous entry, I have this thing for buying resturant take-out containers. Probably because I have this thing for washing dishes, namely hate. So I happily clapped my hands when fedex sent me an email confirming delivery of these. Yes these dandies hold 2 cups of deliciousness that I can write on with a sharpie and throw in the freezer or take spill free to work! And it can withstand temperatures from 0 to 250 degrees Fahrenheit, so hopefully I won't have to worry about toxins and all that nasty jazz when I microwave these bad boys. They will also stand up to dishwasher and reuse for days I'm feeling more earth friendly. At least I'm switching to tote bags instead of plastic bags they give you in the grocery store to off set this a bit.

Anywhosal, I find that I eat so much better throughout the week when I can take a night and cook like crazy, throwing together tons of single serving meals, ready to go. Not to mention, when you're a single girl it's hard to cook for one! This way, I don't have to- I can make a big pot of this delicious tomato soup and -boom-sauce- no waste and a supply of soup in the freezer for another day.

I stole this one from Ina Garten and you can go straight to the site here. I've only made a few modifications to make the recipe smaller, come together with fewer manhours, and to make the end product smoother- a personal preference. If you have the time and a big enough pot, I would suggest using the original recipe. The smell of tomatoes roasting is surprizingly heavenly. You might notice from the picture that I threw in a pepper and some carrots too. Although, if you decide to do the pepper too, remember to cool and peel off the skin of the pepper before blending. I also just used mainly canned tomatos and roasted a few cherry tomatoes I needed to use up. The end product was delicious, so no harm, no foul.

Ingredients

• 1/2 tablespoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1chopped yellow onion
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 dash of crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 28-ounce and 1 15-ounce canned (plum and different varieties) tomatoes, with their juice
• 2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (if you've got em. If not, use 1/4 teaspoon dried. You can throw some oregeno in there too.)
• 1 10-ounce can of chicken stock (or if you want to be vegetarian friendly, substitute water or veggie broth)
• have some olive oil on hand.

Directions

In an 4-quart stockpot over medium heat, (I use my dutch oven) saute the onion and garlic with 1 tablespoons of olive oil, the butter, and red pepper flakes for 10 minutes, until the onions start to brown. Add the canned tomatoes, basil, thyme, and chicken stock. Bring to a boil and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Let cool for at least 20 minutes. Once cooled a bit, put in your sturdy blender and blend to the consistency of your preference. I prefer to do it in two batches, leaving one batch more chunky.

I filled up 4 of these two cup containers with my recipe with a little left over for slurping. Only about 185 calories for a 1 and a half cup serving not to mention it was a super cheap recipe.