olive garden

Darden Partners With Michelle Obama to Make Olive Garden, Red Lobster Healthier
Food News

Olive Garden, Red Lobster Get a Healthy Makeover With Help From First Lady

Dining out just got a little bit healthier.
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Dining out just got a little bit healthier. This morning, Darden, the world's largest full-service restaurant company, announced today that it's partnering with Michelle Obama and her "Let's Move!" campaign to cut calories and sodium in its menu items.

Over the next five years, Darden's portfolio of restaurants — which includes The Olive Garden and Red Lobster — will aim to cut calories and sodium by 10 percent. Over the next decade, the goal is to reformulate, re-size, or remove offerings in order to slash calories and sodium by 20 percent. Fruits and vegetables will now be the default side dish options on Darden's children's menus.

It's great to hear that one of America's most influential restaurant groups has just made a vow to help America get healthier. Will this impact how often you frequent Red Lobster, The Olive Garden, or any of Darden's other restaurants?

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Fast & Easy Recipe For Olive Garden's Garden Salad
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Summer of Salads: Garden Salad

Although I hold appreciation for foie gras bon-bons and osetra caviar, haute cuisine isn't the only food I'll open my heart (and stomach) to: Since I've never been able to outgrow my love for Americana staples such as processed cheese and the McDonald's Egg McMuffin, I simply embrace them.
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Although I hold appreciation for foie gras bon-bons and osetra caviar, haute cuisine isn't the only food I'll open my heart (and stomach) to: Since I've never been able to outgrow my love for Americana staples such as processed cheese and the McDonald's Egg McMuffin, I simply embrace them.

Another big-chain menu item I crave? The enormous bowl of garden salad that's a part of every visit to the Olive Garden. On the rare occasion that I find myself dining at the restaurant, there's something about the ultracrisp lettuce leaves, the mildly earthy black olives, and the pickled juice that squirts out of the pepperoncini that calls to my senses. So when I recently came across a test kitchen attempt to replicate the salad, I couldn't resist trying it at home. For a crunch-quenching side that's perfect for a 4th of July celebration, keep reading

Can an Unwanted Spokesperson Ruin a Restaurant's Image?
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Can an Unwanted Spokesperson Ruin a Restaurant's Image?

Like many young American women, Kendra Wilkinson loves the food at Olive Garden.
by partysugar

Like many young American women, Kendra Wilkinson loves the food at Olive Garden. However, unlike the majority of these women, Kendra is a Playboy Playmate, girlfriend to Hugh Hefner, and star of the reality show The Girls Next Door. On the series, she expresses her profound love for the Italian chain's artichoke dip and unlimited breadsticks. She's not a spokesperson for the brand, and her public, undying love is not returned. Rumor has it the officials at Olive Garden would like her to stop inadvertently promoting the restaurant. They've worked hard to craft their family-friendly image, and a Playboy playmate doesn't exactly fit into that picture. Although many brands welcome a celebrity's endorsement, if the celebrity doesn't match the brand's image, problems can arise.

I think it's an interesting topic, and wonder what you have to say about the matter. Can an unwanted spokesperson ruin a restaurant's reputation?

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Olive Garden is Making Us Sick Too!
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Olive Garden is Making Us Sick Too!

Here we go again... Three people have been hospitalized and more than 300 people claimed they became ill (nausea, vomiting, fever and diarrhea) after eating at an Indiana Olive Garden restaurant last weekend on Indianapolis' north side.
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Here we go again...

Three people have been hospitalized and more than 300 people claimed they became ill (nausea, vomiting, fever and diarrhea) after eating at an Indiana Olive Garden restaurant last weekend on Indianapolis' north side.

No word on the cause but so far health officials are sayings it is not E. coli which has wrecked havoc on Taco Bell's and Taco Johns' customers.

I'll let you know what happens but until then, since mainstream restaurants are making us sick, check out YumSugar.com for great recipes so you can cook (and eat) at home.