Bringing Olive Garden Home

Justin and I used to love Olive Garden, and we still like it okay, but usually prefer to find local Italian restaurants. Well, we haven't eaten out a lot lately so the other night, I brought Olive Garden to us. It started out with a plan to make just a pasta with Italian sausage. Then I saw someone post something about potato soup that night, and knowing that my husband doesn't consider soup as "dinner" I thought I would make it as an appetizer. He always gets Zupa Toscana at Olive Garden (instead of salad, anyone surprised really?), and I had potatoes and the sausage already. So then I decided to make a whole Olive Garden theme. As some of you know, I only sort-of follow recipes. I look at them and then I do what I want or have with them. So here is what turned out from what I had.


Garlic Breadsticks - I used some of the frozen rolls, let them thaw, stretch out and add garlic, olive oil and italian seasoning. These are really good!
Zupa Toscana - I didn't have kale, but I did have spinach. This is obviously my bowl.
This is obviously Justin's bowl, notice the lack of spinach:)
Sausage and Peppers Rustica - I used whole wheat rotini instead of penne, and I didn't make my own sauce:(
Tiramisu - This was the biggest stretch since I didn't have ladyfingers or marscapone cheese. I used ricotta and vanilla wafers, and you know it was pretty good.
It was so good, sometimes I wonder why we even go out to eat. But then again, of course its always fun to go out.