Olive Garden soup, salad and breadsticks

(recipe taken from this blog http://eastridgerecipes.blogspot.com/)

**** So i had to post this one. My husband who is not a salad eater has fallen in love with Olive garden salad. I found this recipe for their dressing and the Zupa Toscana soup, and lets just say he said this is the best meal I have ever made for him. It was so good! I put the whole meal together in about 35 min too. the dressing was a little milkier in color than the one at olive garden, but the taste was really close to the real thing, and i think the soup is better than Olive Garden's.

Olive Garden Salad Dressing


1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup white vinegar
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons corn syrup
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons romano cheese
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon parsley flakes
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Mix all ingredients in a blender until well mixed. If this is a little to tart for your own personal tastes please add a little extra sugar.

For salad- use iceburg lettuce, olives, fresh tomato, croutons and parmesan cheese. They also put on red onion slices and whole jalapeno's but I left that off.


Zupa Toscana (just like Olive Garden's)


1 pound ground Italian sausage

1 large onion, chopped

2 large russet baking potatoes, sliced in half, and then in ¼-inch slices

2 cans chicken broth (or 2 chicken bouillon cubes + 2 cups water)

1 quart water

2 cloves garlic, minced

½ can or jar of bacon bits (I just chopped up cooked bacon)

2 c. kale or Swiss chard, chopped ( i just cut up a 8 0z block of swiss)

1 c. heavy whipping cream

Cook sausage thoroughly. Drain on paper towels. Place onions, potatoes, chicken broth, water and garlic in a pot and cook on medium heat until potatoes are done. Add sausage and bacon. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for another 10 minutes. Turn to low heat. Add kale and cream. Heat through and serve.

p.s. I added crushed red pepper to spice it up. The first time I added too much, the second time probably not enough. You'll have to experiment with how spicy you like it!

Breadsticks-
you can be fancy and make your own, but i just used the large rhodes rolls and after they thawed a bit i rolled them in butter and garlic powder, then rolled them out into breadstick form, let them raise until double in size, cooked them for like 15-18 min on 350 degrees.