Olive Garden Salad Knock-Off

Even though I may be a food industry professional who generally avoids big chain restaurants, even I have to admit that Olive Garden’s all-you-can-eat salad and bread-sticks are hard to pass up!

Not that we are frequent diners at Olive Garden. In fact, I believe the only times we’ve eaten there in the past decade have been on road trips.

This is the salad I made for work-weary Marissa and Jeff on Friday night. I have a few more photos of the apartment kitchen too. Here you can see that 6′ 3″ Jeff doesn’t have to stretch much to touch both ends of the kitchen at the same time.

After I complained about how dark the sink area was at night, Dave went to Costco and bought a cool light strip that Jeff and I installed around the kitchen and over the sink. It even has a remote and you can have a full-color light show! Most importantly, it really lights up the place.

Lastly, Marissa used the velvet pumpkins I made for her last year, to cover up and camouflage the TV cords and components on her mantel. Cute!

And most wonderful of all… I found the Jarrahdale pumpkins, which I so love, at Marissa’s corner market which is only two blocks from her house. I smuggled home three of them in our luggage! So excited!

Olive Garden Salad Knock-Off

Salad Dressing
1/3 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon Romano cheese
1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon parsley flakes

Salad
1 bag Dole American Blend Salad
5 slices red onion, each cut into quarters
6 black olives, halved
4 pepperoncini, sliced
1 cup croutons
3 small tomatoes, quartered
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Dressing:  In a medium bowl, whisk together the vinegar, mayonnaise, olive oil, honey, and lemon juice.

Whisk in the cheeses, garlic salt, Italian seasoning, and parsley flakes. Cover and chill until ready to serve.

Salad: Chill a large salad bowl in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.

Place bag of salad blend in the bowl.  Top the lettuce with red onion, black olives, pepperoncini, and tomatoes. Add the croutons and the Parmesan cheese just before serving and tossing with the chilled dressing.

Serves 4 to 6