Olive garden?

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meg0112
meg0112 Posts: 344
in Food and Nutrition
Hey all! I'm going to Olive garden thursday night for a sorority thing and I have no ide what to order. Should I do soup, salad, and half a breadstick? Or get a half order of something? Is anything on the menu under 500 calories? I mean dang!!

HELP :noway:

Replies

  • meg0112
    meg0112 Posts: 344
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    Hey all! I'm going to Olive garden thursday night for a sorority thing and I have no ide what to order. Should I do soup, salad, and half a breadstick? Or get a half order of something? Is anything on the menu under 500 calories? I mean dang!!

    HELP :noway:
  • dolphin7
    dolphin7 Posts: 192 Member
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    Yeah good luck, I love Olive Garden, and most all there main dishes are heavy in calories. I usually get soup salad and eat one breadstick If you want a main dish i would stick to the one's that are tomato based, no cream based, and then maybe eat half and take the other half home. You can still eat out, just sensibly. Have fun, :drinker:
  • superduperbandnerd
    superduperbandnerd Posts: 80
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    just plan to work around it. Like work out a little more to allow those extra cals, or go a head and enjoy and eat a litlle less the rest of the week. It's good to give the body a curve ball everynow and then.
  • pjpr
    pjpr Posts: 6
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    Hi,

    I was there a few days ago for lunch and had the salad/soup selection. The salad was okay, but stay away from the bread sticks and the creamy soups. I attached a website that may help.

    http://www.thedailyplate.com/nutrition-calories/food/olive-garden

    Enjoy?
  • TheHottestMama
    TheHottestMama Posts: 141
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    my best friends a server there so we go eat there alot
    i get a diet coke and salad everytime
    no breadsticks because one breadstick is 140cals
    my husband calls me a food/calorie nazi
    which i am...im VERY strict hahaha
  • omid990
    omid990 Posts: 785 Member
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    the website http://www.menshealth.com/eatthis/index.php has some good choices when you're going out to eat. i know it has olive garden. the thing with olive garden is that it doesn't release its nutrition facts. makes you wonder what they're hiding...
  • katiechakos
    katiechakos Posts: 348 Member
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    How many calories are the breadsticks if you get them plain, without the butter? I know they'll do that for you, because I have a friend who orders a basket of them plain every time. I bet you could do that and still get the "thrill" of the breadstick. That's my FAV thing on the menu there!!!
  • meg0112
    meg0112 Posts: 344
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    good tips guys! Keep em coming
  • mjfer123
    mjfer123 Posts: 1,234 Member
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    All of it is loaded with salt.
    Even the soups.
    Your best bet is to cruise the nutritional info you can find on the internet and choose a meal that will taste good and go along with your daily plan.
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
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    Look it up before you go. I had the grilled shrimp which turned out to be 1500 cals and over 3000 grams of sodium.

    Soup (clear, minestrone is good) Salad, dressign on the side and a breadstick was plenty for me!

    have fun!:flowerforyou:
  • ladybug3
    ladybug3 Posts: 65
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    just plan to work around it. Like work out a little more to allow those extra cals, or go a head and enjoy and eat a litlle less the rest of the week. It's good to give the body a curve ball everynow and then.

    I agree:happy: It's okay to shock your system once in a while.

    24286.png
    Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Food Diary
  • jsmalla
    jsmalla Posts: 140 Member
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    I love their Venetian Apricot Chicken. I have lots of salad with their low fat ( or maybe even fat free) Italian dressing. Give it a whirl & let me know what you think.
  • psyknife
    psyknife Posts: 487 Member
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    Apricot Chicken... all the way. Stay away from the breadsticks (or if you must have one only have one!). For the salad... see if they'll give you dressing on the side or have a light option.
  • amycakes812
    amycakes812 Posts: 441
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    I used to work at the Olive Garden. Stay away from the salad dressing! It is loaded with fat and calories. They have a fat free Italian dressing you can request instead. I had women come in all the time and comment on how they were only ordering soup and salad and then eat several servings of salad loaded with dressing! Also, you can ask for plain breadsticks. The minestrone soup is the healthiest out of the 3 soups they offer. For an entree, go for the Shrimp Fra Diavlo, Chicken Giaradino, or pasta with marinara. They also now offer a whole wheat pasta, you have to request it. Look for anything with a "gf" symbol next to it. The garden fare items are all healthier, lower cal and fat options. :smile:
  • amycakes812
    amycakes812 Posts: 441
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    Oh, and I forgot! You can ask for a lunch portion so you won't be tempted to eat the entire dinner portion.
  • dolphin7
    dolphin7 Posts: 192 Member
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    Oh, and I forgot! You can ask for a lunch portion so you won't be tempted to eat the entire dinner portion.

    Thanks so much for these tips! My husband and I love Olive Garden, and go there quite often, I'm going to keep these suggestions in mind, didn't realize the regular salad dressing served on the salad could have so many calories in it.
  • Juliebean
    Juliebean Posts: 317
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    Minestrone soup and the venetian apricot chicken! Delicious! Love it! I'm actually going there for dinner tonight. Yummm.... :love:
  • lk14040
    lk14040 Posts: 90
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    I get the linguine alla marinara (basically spagetti) in wheat noodles. Its under 500 cals. I think its about 430, but the portion is huge, so half the portion, half the calories.
  • meg0112
    meg0112 Posts: 344
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    Apricot Chicken... all the way. Stay away from the breadsticks (or if you must have one only have one!). For the salad... see if they'll give you dressing on the side or have a light option.

    Yea I think the jury's in on this one- I'm gonna do the venetian appricot chicken and salad with no dressing-I can squeeze a lemon wedge over it- and NO BREADSTICKS!! lol thanks!
  • gnu1971
    gnu1971 Posts: 37 Member
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    Bumping for Men's Health link.
    http://www.menshealth.com/eatthis/index.php

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