Olive Garden's Alfredo Sauce

I won't take you on the whole journey of my brain, but I saw a mention of Olive Garden on facebook and a comment about there being lard in the Alfredo Sauce.  Since Olive Garden's Alfredo sauce is absolutely my favorite dish, I did some research.  Here is the recipe from the Olive Garden website: Olive Garden's Alfredo Sauce.  No lard!  Obviously, they don't feel threatened that we will make it ourselves and not visit their restaurant.

When we treat ourselves to Olive Garden, I order the Herbed Salmon Alfredo--sub extra broccoli for the pasta.  (Even when I'm not on Atkins, I don't like pasta.)  It is delicious!

After reading and calculating the nutritional info on the Alfredo sauce, this definitely has to be a treat.  But, it is still Atkins-friendly and a great choice--as long as you substitute broccoli for the pasta.  


Volley's notes: 

• Notice that, as served at Olive Garden, the sauce is 9.3 gr of carbohydrates.  That's for 1/4 of the recipe, which is almost 1 cup of sauce.  
• I think I'd make the recipe and figure out how many servings it would be for 1/4 cup (the portion size for commercially-canned sauce).  
• If you use all heavy cream (instead of 1.5 cups of milk) and divide the whole into 4 servings, you drop the carbs down to 7.6 nC per serving.   

Here is the nutritional info (just the sauce, not the salmon or veggies), from SparkPeople RecipeBuilder, as usual.  

	Nutrition Facts   4 Servings Amount Per Serving   Calories 638.7   Total Fat 55.9 g       Saturated Fat 33.3 g       Polyunsaturated Fat 2.6 g       Monounsaturated Fat 16.3 g   Cholesterol 483.8 mg   Sodium 751.5 mg   Potassium 138.0 mg   Total Carbohydrate 9.3 g       Dietary Fiber 0.0 g       Sugars 4.6 g   Protein 25.3 g   Vitamin A 39.6 %   Vitamin B-12 20.3 %   Vitamin B-6 7.7 %   Vitamin C 0.9 %   Vitamin D 27.7 %   Vitamin E 8.5 %   Calcium 75.2 %   Copper 2.0 %   Folate 10.9 %   Iron 6.1 %   Magnesium 7.1 %   Manganese 1.2 %   Niacin 0.5 %   Pantothenic Acid     11.9 %   Phosphorus     52.3 %   Riboflavin 24.1 %   Selenium 32.6 %   Thiamin 5.5 %   Zinc 14.0 % *Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.