lightened up chicken divan

Yes, yes I do intend to keep blogging.  It’s been so long since my last post that I was starting to wonder myself.  I’ve been a little crazy, what with Oldest’s 11^th birthday and then my parents’ 50^th wedding anniversary.  But I have to say I was pleased with how they both turned out.

This is Oldest’s cake.  He is obsessed with everything Titanic, and in honor of the one-hundreth anniversary of its sinking, he asked for a Titanic cake.  Needless to say my little heart fell.  I had no idea how I was going to pull it off!  But if you ignore the fact that the window gel ran (they were supposed to look like portholes, since I was too tired to make little yellow squares) I think I didn’t do too awfully bad a job.  He loved it and said it was the best birthday ever.  Yay mom!

And this is the table and one of the centerpieces from my parents’ party.  Due to a schedule conflict with the party planner I was going to hire, I ended up doing all the decorations myself.  So grateful to my brother and his wife for doing the food, the music and the video presentation.  I think they had fun.

Needless to say, with all the partying (not to mention the clean-up, put away and recovery) blogging just hasn’t been much of a priority.  To be honest, dinner hasn’t either.  But I found myself seriously craving my mom’s chicken divan.  Since my husband is trying hard to eat healthier ~ and the rest of us could seriously use some of that too ~ I looked up a couple of lighter recipes on the internet.  None of them were even close to my mom’s version, and not what I was craving.  Must have been the curry.  So I pulled my mom’s recipe out and tried to figure out how I could lighten it up a bit.  Thanks so Chef Tess’s wonderful homemade cream of... soup recipe this tasted... well, divine.

Lightened-Up Chicken Divan

20 ounces frozen broccoli

2 cups cooked diced chicken (I used this)

½ cup flour

2 tablespoons chicken boullion granules (I used these)

2 tablespoons dry onion flakes (I used 1 tablespoon of onion powder)

1 teaspoon Chef Tess All purpose seasoning (or a Mrs. Dash of your choice)

½ teaspoon curry powder

1 cup light or better for you mayonnaise (I used this)

1 teaspoon lemon juice

low-fat milk (I used 2%)

1 cup shredded low-fat mozzarella

½ cup bread crumbs

1 tablespoon butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350°.

Cook broccoli; layer in bottom of casserole pan.  Mix flour, boullion, onion flakes (or powder), seasoning and curry powder in a medium-sized bowl.  Stir in mayonnaise and lemon juice.  Add enough milk to reach desired consistency.  Stir in chicken and layer over broccoli.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Mix butter and bread crumbs and sprinkle over top.  Bake for 30 minutes.