Healthy Restaurant Eating at Olive Garden Restaurant!

I love Italian food but am always a bit less enthusiastic when I read through the listings of calories, fats, and carbs in Italian restaurant food!

My husband was in the mood for some Italian food and considering we don't have many independent Italian restaurants in our area with great Italian food, we ended up at Olive Garden Restaurant. I was determined to stick with my healthy eating routine since we had splurged on high calorie food only several days ago.

The Olive Garden menu, like the menu in most Italian restaurants, is heavy on pasta dishes. In fact just about every entree listed comes with pasta in some form or another. Since pasta isn't exactly known for it's low calorie or carbohydrate content, it makes it a challenge to order a healthy entree at most Italian eateries. When you add to that the high fat sauces on many of the pastas, you've added quite a few calories to your meal.

Olive Garden does have some healthy options if you're creative enough to think a little out of the box. I politely asked my waitress and was informed that it's fine to substitute steamed vegetables for the pasta for most of the entrees. This certainly added some health options! I finally ended up choosing the Chicken Giardino which consisted of a sauteed piece of chicken served with a variety of vegetables which could include on any particular day a mixture of diced red peppers, broccoli, carrots, squash, zucchini, , spinach, asparagus, diced tomatoes, and peas. It does come with a butter based sauce, so if you're really being diligent, you could ask for the sauce on the side. The entire meal checks in at around 460 calories and 8 grams of fat. Not too bad. Plus, the taste was actually quite good. When served along with the unlimited salad, it makes quite a filling meal.

Some other options for eating healthy at Olive Garden would include the::