Olive Garden Chicken Giardino

Few people know that the Olive Garden (OG) has some recipes on it's website! Not all of their recipes are on there but many of the dishes they "discontinued" serving are listed, so check it out!  My best friend and I LOVE this dish, we would drive an hour to the OG just to get Chicken Giardino, breadsticks and salad.  We were devastated when they stopped serving it so it was awesome when we found this recipe, we made it immediately!  This dish takes some time to make and it makes A LOT (probably like 8 LARGE servings) but it's definitely worth it! You can just freeze the left overs and it almost tastes better re-heated.

Chicken Giardino!

INGREDIENTS:

Sauce: **We doubled the sauce recipe listed on the site because the ingredients actually turn out to be a lot more than expected and who doesn't love extra sauce right?
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 tsp dry thyme
1 tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
2 tsp garlic pepper
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup white wine
2 Tbsp milk
2 tsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Chicken:
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced width-wise into ½” strips
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 small rosemary sprigs
1 clove garlic, finely minced
Juice of ½ lemon

Vegetables:
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
½ bunch fresh asparagus (remove bottom inch of stem; cut remainder into 1” pieces)
1 zucchini, julienne cut
1 yellow summer squash, julienne cut
2 roma tomatoes, cut into ½” pieces
½ red bell pepper, julienne cut
1 cup broccoli florets, blanched
½ cup frozen peas
1 cup spinach, cut into ½” pieces
½ cup carrots, julienne cut

Pasta:
1 lb farfalle pasta (bow ties), cooked according to package directions

DIRECTIONS:

Sauce Preparation:

1. MELT butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir in thyme, garlic pepper and rosemary. Whisk to thoroughly blend and cook for 1 minute.
2. COMBINE chicken broth, water, wine, milk, and lemon juice in a mixing bowl. Add cornstarch and whisk until cornstarch has dissolved and there are no lumps.
3. ADD liquid mixture to sauce pan. Whisk all ingredients together and bring to a boil. Season with salt and pepper to taste, then remove from heat.

Chicken & Vegetables Preparation:

1. COMBINE all chicken ingredients in a mixing bowl and blend well.
2. MARINATE for 30 minutes.
3. HEAT a saute pan over medium high heat. Add ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil.
4. SAUTE chicken strips until internal temperature reaches 165°F. ***I grilled the chicken on a George Foreman grill instead of sauteing them
5. ADD all vegetables and sauté until cooked through.
6. ADD cooked, drained pasta and sauce to sauté pan. Stir until pasta is thoroughly coated with sauce.
7. TRANSFER to a serving platter and garnish with chopped parsley.

PICTURES OF PROCESS:


Veggies and all other ingredients!

Grilled Chicken and Mini Farfalle Pasta (yes, mini, I love mini pasta!)

Mixing the sauce

Cooked veggies, then putting everything together

Chicken Giardino with some shredded Parmesan cheese, time to eat!



Low-Fat Light and Fluffy Waffles

Yummy, waffle with Canadian maple syrup and whipped cream!

I recently purchased a Oster 3883 Belgian Wafflemaker, Chrome and decided to modify their recipe for the "Light and Fluffly Waffle" and make it low-fat by subsitituting applesauce for oil and skim milk for whole milk.

Ingredients: 

2 egg yolk
2 cups skim milk
1/3 cup applesauce (I like to use the natural, unsweetened stuff)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 egg whites, stiffly beaten.

Directions:

Preheat Waffle Maker. Put all ingredients, EXCEPT egg whites, in a large bowl and beat until smooth on low-med speed.  Next in another bowl beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.  It is important the eggs whites are stiff and not left watery or else the waffles will not be fluffy.  Next, by hand, gently fold in beaten
egg whites until all lumps are gone. Since the batter lacks oil, before pouring the batter onto the waffle maker, lightly spray the grids with some cooking oil in order to prevent the waffles from sticking.  Pour 3/4 cup batter in a circle over grids (this will vary depending on the waffle maker you are using). Close waffle maker and bake until no more steam is coming out of the waffle maker, this will take 3 – 5 minutes depending on your appliance.  Next, enjoy! By serving and eating them with your favorite toppings!

Makes: 7-8 waffles (depending on waffle maker size)

Tips: 

-By hand, fold blueberries or chocolate chips into the batter after adding the eggs whites in order to make different type of waffles.

-After allowing waffles to cool, place them in a Ziploc bag and store in the refrigerator or freezer for a quick meal later in the week.

-If you are making waffles for multiple individuals at once, heat up your oven to the lowest setting and place waffles in the oven until ready to serve.  This will prevent your waffles from getting soggy/soft, keeping them nice and crispy.

**I guesstimated the amount of calories per waffle based on the ingredients I used, if I make 8 waffles from each waffle only contains about 160 calories (and 12 fat cals) each!

My bf and family loved these waffles since they were light and crispy the way waffles should be!