TESTIMONY OF THE DAY
“Before I met Maria, I felt lost when it came to food! I had read so many conflicting reports the only foods I felt “healthy” eating fruits and 3 bananas a day! I was ALWAYS hungry within the hour of eating, so I was ALWAYS eating! I would “crash” quickly and feel distracted and nervous until I could eat my next “meal.” I allowed myself to eat only a few nuts and/or nut butter, a teeny tiny amount of cheese and a few bites of meat (I was terrified of all of the warnings of high fat and calories of these foods). FOOD WAS A MAJOR STRESS IN MY LIFE!!! After learning the facts about nutrition from Maria, my life has changed dramatically!!!!
1. I am so calm and happy!
2. I LOVE food and eating and preparing my food!
3. I always feel so satisfied and satiated after eating. I have no trouble going hours without food! (I never dreamed that to be a possibility)
4. I LOVE my body! I feel so good about myself and feel so healthy!
5. My periods are finally healthy and normal (a big change!).
6. My hair and nails grow so quickly! My hair also feels thicker.
7. My grocery bill has decreased dramatically! I used to spend $150.00 a week buying “healthy cereals” for my kids throughout the week. Now I don’t even need to go to the store! I buy my staples online and I buy my meats from the farmers. I’ve estimated an annual savings of at least $2,000 possibly more!
8. I am so happy not having to go to the store every week! It is so much less stressful!
9. My favorite preparation of meat are Maria “healthified” crock-pot ideas! Cannot get any easier than that!!!”
10. My triglycerides are 14!”
To get started on your transformation, click HERE.
“HEALTHIFIED” Broccoli Braid
2 cups diced, cooked chicken meat
1 cup fresh broccoli, chopped
1/2 cup red bell pepper, chopped
1 clove crushed garlic
1 cup shredded white Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup organic mayo
2 tsp dried dill weed
1/4 tsp Celtic sea salt
2 TBS slivered almonds
1/4 cup diced onion
BRAID:
1 1/2 cup blanched almond flour (5 oz) (or 1/2 cup coconut flour or 2.5 oz)
5 TBS psyllium husk powder (no substitutes) (45 grams) (must be a fine powder, not whole husks)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp Celtic sea salt
2 1/2 TBS apple cider vinegar (1 oz)
3 egg whites (6 egg whites if using coconut flour) (about 3.5 oz for almond flour option, 7 oz for coconut flour)
7/8 cup (a little less than a cup) BOILING water (or MARINARA – for more Tomato Basil Bread!) (7 oz)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, mix together chicken, broccoli, red bell pepper, garlic, Cheddar cheese, mayonnaise, dill weed, salt, almonds, and onion. Set aside.
In a medium-sized bowl, combine the flour, psyllium powder (no substitutes: flaxseed meal won’t work), baking powder, and salt. Mix until dry ingredients are well combined. Add in the eggs and vinegar and mix until a thick dough. Add boiling water or marinara into the bowl. Mix until well combined and dough firms up.
Place the dough onto a piece of greased parchment paper (I used THIS coconut oil spray). Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out in a rectangle shape with even thickness throughout. Using a knife or scissors, cut 1 inch wide strips in towards the center, starting on the long sides. There should be a solid strip about 3 inches wide down the center, with the cut strips forming a fringe down each side. Spread the chicken mixture along the center strip. Fold the side strips over chicken mixture, alternating strips from each side. Pinch or twist to seal.
Brush braided dough with the egg white. Bake in the preheated oven 28 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Makes 8 servings. Option: Make in individual oven-safe soup bowls (bake for 23 minutes).
NOTE! If you are having an issue with a bubble, try weighing your ingredients as listed above. I use this kitchen scale. 🙂
NUTRITIONAL COMPARISON (per serving)
“PAMPERED CHEF” Broccoli Braid = 247 calories, 13g fat, 12.5g protein, 17g carbs, trace fiber (17 effective carbs), AND TRANS FAT!
“Healthified” Broccoli Braid = 229 calories, 13g fat, 16.5g protein, 11.6 carbs, 5g fiber (6.6 effective carbs)
I thought this looked like Pampered Chef. I’m excited to try a healthier version. I’m not gluten free, and I wonder if whole wheat flour might work for the braid…Time to experiment.
NO! Whole wheat flour has a bigger blood sugar spike (Higher glycemic index) than regular flour! Read this. 🙂 http://mariahealth.blogspot.com/2012/07/toasted-sub-sandwich-and-panini.html
Can you tell me how many total servings this makes, so that I can figure out what one serving is?
Thanks,
Rebecca
8. I updated the recipe. 🙂
This looks absolutely AMAZING! How many servings does this make, though? (you give the information per serving, but not how many servings the recipe makes)
Thanks!
8. I updated the recipe. 🙂
I love that the crust is just coconut flour! And the filling looks both colorful and hearty. This is a beautiful recipe–I hope to try it soon!
Thank you!
It is DELISH, Lauren!! My family of 6 likes it so well, I have to make 2!!!
Hi Maria – the recipe sounds wonderful and I’m interested in making it! Planning for tomorrow’s dinner once I go shopping. Have a question though – other then the fibre aspect, does psyllium husk powder do anything else for the recipe? I am react very unpleasantly to psyllium, so I am wondering if I can skip it – or replace it with say – chia seed ground?? Thanks so much for all your delicious recipes.
Thanks! The psullium is neede to give it the bread texture, sorry.
In my experience ground flax seeds perform very similarly.
When you make bread with the psyllium husk powder it looks so pretty, when I make it the bread turns a blueish color and I can’t bear the taste, any suggestions?
I think the key is to add the boiling water and just mix until combined and then form the dough in to buns, etc and cook. The more you work the dough or wait to bake it, the more purple and gel’d up it gets. 😉
can you enlarge upon what staples you buy online and where? I am new to all this, have some health challenges, limited energy and money. Would be so much easier to do these things online rather than running for all these items for recipes that have long lists of ingredients. I have gotten a meager start and just don’t know where to begin. I have blood sugar issues as well. thank you. 🙂
My astore has everything I recommend. The big baking substitutions (Blanched almond flour, coconut flour and Swerve) are much cheaper online. I buy in bulk and store the almond flour in the freezer. It easy to measure out even when frozen. Good Luck! http://astore.amazon.com/marisnutran05-20?_encoding=UTF8&node=3
Maria, thanks for this wonderful recipe! I am going to make it in individual servings for my lunches.
Anonymous…I agree with Maria that it is usually less expensive to buy online. However, there are many items I can find at my local grocery store or Wal-Mart. Target, also, has great choices in organic and/or gluten-free food. I started watching my carbs back in the 1970’s, and we didn’t have internet choices back then, so I tend toward old school.
Almond flour, flaxmeal, psyllium husks, and coconut oil seem to be the main staples you need when you’re starting out. Coconut flour came later for me, but I don’t want to be without it now.
Maria…when I am low-carbing a family favorite recipe, I use almond flour to sub for wheat flour and coconut flour to sub for cornmeal. Do you find yourself doing the same thing?
Also, when using flaxmeal…is there a way to get rid of the taste? There are times that just the thought of using flaxmeal makes me gag.
Thanks! I tend to use almond or coconut flour as the base (flour base) and adjusting liquids for each, not a replacement for cornmeal as you suggest. But if that works for you that’s great! I don’t cook a lot with flax meal so sorry, I can’t help you with that one. 🙂
This did not turn out for us ;( the whole dish was very dry. It seems to have some potential because the taste was good. We just had to choke it down because of how dry both the filling and the crust were. Also, our “braid” didn’t turn out and was very crumbly and dry. To save the dinner, I patted 3/4 of it down in a 9×13 glass pan and crumbled the remaining 1/4 of it on top.
Did you use coconut flour or almond flour? They would be very dry with coconut flour. It isn’t interchangeable.
I redid the recipe and adjusted the recipe for less coconut flour and more water. It should be much better now. Sorry. 🙂
I made it without the psyllium husk powder tonight, but made a crust instead of a braid because it was too crumbly, but it tasted really good! I’ll use the powder next time when I buy it.
I redid the recipe and adjusted the recipe for less coconut flour and more water. It should be much better now. Sorry. 🙂
This turned out very dry for me as well. I saved it by adding at least two more cups water. Is it really one and a half cups coconut flour and one cup water? I could hardly
stir it…
I redid the recipe and adjusted the recipe for less coconut flour and more water. It should be much better now. Sorry. 🙂
Hi there! Just wondering about the comment about it requiring 54 molecules of magnesium to process 1 molecule of sugar. Do you have a source for this info?
Thanks!
There isn’t anything about that in this post. What are you referring to?
hi maria –
i just finished eating the last serving of this braid. (apparently i didn’t roll the dough out quite thin enough because it wasn’t fully cooked inside when i made it – but a quick nuke fixed that). it struck me tho that this dough is very good. not too coconut-y and nice and soft and flexible. i might try using it for a pizza dough, bread, or cracker recipe – altering a bit as necessary. unless you have already, of course! (i added a bit extra salt as well).
thanks! erica
Thanks! That should work just fine. Let me know how it works if you try it. 🙂
Realize this is an old post, but what’s the size of the rolled rectangle & about how thick should it be? Can’t wait to make this. Thank you for awesome recipes & wonderful nutritional info.
Try to roll it out about 12-14 inches by about 8-10 inches. Thanks! 🙂
I wish youd post a video of making this recipie. It would be so much easier to have visual
Pleaseeeeee
I’ve just made it using almond flour (using the exact quantities specified for that part of the recipe) and unfortunately the dough was too fragile/wet, and it fell apart when trying to gold the strips over into a braid. 🙁
The recipe has conflicting information regarding butter too — it mentions butter in the coconut flour version, but not in the almond. Currently waiting to see if the oven performs some magic, and will see if it’s salvageable at all
I don’t see butter or oil in the recipe? Is that only for the coconut flour version? How much? In a medium sized bowl, stir together the coconut flour, psyllium husks, salt and spices. Add the butter or coconut oil. Stir continuously as you add the hot broth or water, it will melt the butter or oil. Thanks!