Olive Garden Salad. . . more like might as well eat french fries!

Today my hubby and I decided to have a romantic lunch for two at Olive Garden :). Before I left to meet him, I thought to myself, hmmmmm. I wonder which items on the Olive Garden menu would be healthiest to eat. I decided to check out the Olive Garden Website. I was a little mortified when I discovered that one serving of their bottomless salad was 300 calories. Now I am sorry, while salad is tasty, if I am going to spend 300 calories on a serving give me the calamari baby!

After a little investigating, we realized that we could make the salad healthier if we asked our server to 1: not to put any dressing on the salad and 2: instead of regular Italian dressing request fat free Italian dressing on the side.

Presto! Now you have your good ole 100 cal salad. Just the way a salad is supposed to be :) Tasteless and low in calories.

Easy Dish

One thing that none of us seem to have a lot of, whether you are a resident, a RN, an attending, or not in the medical filed at all, is time.

No wonder it is difficult to find time to make a meal, when the decision to order take out or stop at fast food joint is so enticing because it requires little time, little effort, and is ready and waiting instantly.

Well my friends, I can't solve your time issues, but I can share with you an easy recipe that tastes great and will impress those around you and trick them into believing that you are actually a great chief (I mean of course you are:)

Potato casserole! (Vegetarian style or carnivore style)

Ingredients
Potatoes
Canned kernel corn
Canned peas
Canned mixed vegetables
Canned broccoli
Onions
One large can of low sodium cream of mushroom soup
One large can of clam chowder
Optional: Your choice of meat: Shrimp, ground beef, ground turkey, whatever you like
Green Pesto Powder

Directions:
1. In a pasta strainer, was the sodium off of the canned vegetables to get rid of all that extra sodium in canned foods
2. Next chop your potatoes into thin slices (they don't have to be super thin) and chop your onions as well
3. In a casserole dish combine your washed canned veggies, potatoes, onions, and your can of cream of mushroom and clam chowder.
-Optional step (add your frozen shrimp or cooked ground beef/turkey)
4. Add your pesto seasoning and stir.
5. Cover and place into the oven at 450 degrees and allow to cook for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally (no need to preheat oven)
6. Remove pot and serve! So easy. The nice part is that you decreased the sodium content by washing your canned veggies (also a tip you can provide to patients who rely on canned goods for their vegetables)

Enjoy, and make sure to comment on how it turns out!