Olive Garden Help!
 

My husband wants to take me out to dinner to the Olive Garden, when he gets home, in an hour. What can I eat?? Is this ok?

Artichoke spinach dip on celery
Salad with their Italian dressing
Tuscan T-bone with Green beans not potatoes
Side of Alfredo Sauce for the green beans?
WATER

I tried a google search but can't find ANY nutritional info ont he web. Plus I don't want to play twenty questions with the poor server if I can do it another way.
Jo

Tough to answer without knowing all the ingredients inside those things.

For example, how much artichoke is in the dip? What is the base for the dip - soour cream, mayo, low fat mayo?

I eat out occassionally and have personally found it is better to stick with "straight up" or undressed food..stuff that you can look at and tell right away if it is good.

Salad, with dressing on the side. If the dressing tastes sweet, ask for oil and vinegar. Thier italian dressing is delicious but I bet it has sugar in it.

Steak or hamburger without the bun? (probably not avaialbale at Olive garden). Broiled or steamed fish? Look for obvious things, and go into it claiming a victory if all you could choose was a good healthy salad. You can always nibble on protein when you get back home.

Good luck, and hug your husband for being sweet to take you out of the kitchen for an evening.

Olive garden regular here
 

I'm probably too late to rescue - but there's always next time.

We frequent Olive Garden quit often. I must say I usually don't loose when I eat dinner there, but I can have a nice dinner without gaining - which is just as okay sometimes.

Have lots of salad - free refills!!
Leave the bread alone.
I usually order the stuffed chicken parmesan with a side of steamed broccoli instead of pasta.

It's all quite filling, but not totally forbidden, except maybe during induction. Good luck and enjoy - just be smart :wave:

i get the rosemary t-bone steak and just ask to go light on the spices.

Angela, Dinky, Moonmist;
Thank you guys for your help on this! I went with the intention to just do the steak, salad and green beans. Unfortunately I couldn't pass up the Alfredo. That was a HUGE mistake. I woke up at 5 AM sick as a dog. Needless to say I won't do that again!
Next time I'm sticking to the Tbone, green beans and salad!
Thanks again,
Jo

Jo,
Sometimes you have to do it to learn why you shouldn't do it. Learning by making mistakes is a big part of learning. You learned something new from the experience. That's worth it's weight in gold.

The Alfredo......... that is the reason why the olive garden is a no-no for me. I just love the seafood alfredo w/ linguini. I used to crave it. Soooooo I make the stuff at home and just use cauliflower instead of pasta. Truly low carb and truly delicious.

wow, i just posted on this yesterday and im having olive garden in about an hour LOL.

will-power against carbs can be soooooo hard!!! i have trouble with sweets. but, it all takes self control. everytime you cheat you set yourself back, just think about how good you're going to look when you reach your goal whenever you wanna get carby, thats what i do.