How To Meal Prep With Olive Garden On The Cheap

If meal prepping is, by far, your least favorite part of the week, you've come to the right place. The act of cooking, portioning, and packing your food away for lunches and busy weeknights might not be your idea of a fun time, but it is necessary — especially if you're strapped for time during the week. Luckily, Olive Garden is here to help make meal prepping a bit easier. 

When you order any entree in-restaurant or for take-out, you will have the option to add a $6 entree to your order to take home. The selection for these reduced-priced entrees is limited; as at the time of writing, it only offered Spaghetti with Meat Sauce (normally around $15.99), Fettuccine Alfredo (normally $18.49), or Five Cheese Ziti al Forno (normally $17.29) — though it may offer limited edition dishes, like the Stuffed Fettuccine Alfredo, as well. They're all pretty basic dishes, and arguably not contenders for the title of the best Olive Garden pasta dish, but as long as you can find ways to integrate them into your weekly rotation of meals, you can take a little off your metaphorical meal-prepping plate.

While knowing the best way to reheat pasta can be helpful, it isn't usually a dish that tastes as great on day two, so you'll want to elevate these Olive Garden add-ons before packing them into your cute, little meal-prep containers. The Alfredo is easy to upgrade, as you can serve it as a side for your main protein or with a salad. You can also turn it into chicken fettuccine Alfredo by pairing it with grilled or air-fried chicken breast, or stretch your dish with the help of ground beef. The extra protein will help make this dish more filling and save you from a mid-day carb coma. As for the pasta dishes with a tomato sauce base, don't be afraid to add in some extra vegetables or fresh herbs to amp up the flavor and balance out the acidity (and richness) of the sauce. 

Folks who have utilized this discounted entree offer from Olive Garden report that it is the same size as the regular portion. Since it doesn't come with extra soup, salad, and breadsticks, some Reddit users have suggested ordering a separate jumbo salad, which feeds six and comes with its fan-favorite breadsticks, to bring home and eat throughout the week — once again, making meal prepping a breeze.