Olive Garden

[Tammy]

We just came home from taking Dad out for father's day. Olive Garden now has a "Torta di Chocolate" on the dessert menu. It says "no sugar added", which alway perks up my attention. Not holding much hope, and not telling Regina about it, I asked the waitress for the ingredients. After sending her back to the kitchen countless times, and still not trusting her, and her still denying me the box to read myself, the manager finally allowed her to bring the box for me to see. This thing is a chocolate cake, with chocolate fudge-type on it, with vanilla sauce and strawberries on the side.

Now of course the strawberries are out of the question, but it turns out that the chocolate cake with the fudge center is just fine. The vanilla sauce had sucralose in it. So..............we ordered it with the strawberries and sauce on a separate plate, (which I enjoyed very much) and Regina just LOVED the cake and filling part. Tasted like a warm brownie. She now says she has a new favorite restaurant. This is something, since that means it's overtaking McDonalds.

Look out Ronald............Ollie's moving in.

[kerrynz]

Hi Tammy
Congratulations to regina for finding a new reastraunt. That's great

Hope you are all well over there, we are in the middle of a drought breaking flood and not making to much light of it, because the natural disartster has destroyed a few lives we are still dry but going with outpower for days at a time has hightened my appreciation for how to keep this diet going under duress. especially for the baby that still vomits on banana. so puree all of zanoahs food seems the way to go and she is thriving.

Just to bring you up to date they have stoped argueing over her dx and have agrreed it's HFI with extra's

a] they now have a name for the extra hypo's we seem to experience with illness and excercise " ketotic hypoglyceamia " or accelereate starvation it basicly means she should eat regularily LOL. and explains the hunger through the night.

The other thing the endocrinoligist was doumbfounded by was no one has ever tested her blood for sugar levels so off to the needle we go again, not that i think it will show much, but i do remember fred saying they can test different types of sugar in the blood, it's intesesting. Any tips Fred?

B] kidney stones are ever present they appear about every 6 wks. We still wait for the specialist appoinment at the end of july because he LOL went to the USA for a holiday. thanks Maybe you guys can track him down for us.

Now i'm up to today's question i am finally closer to a lolly for z she still eats sweetarts. Does Regina and fred eat these?

Do you know if The Candies by Groovy "lollypops and Candy rolls" with dextrose and corn syrup are ok to try or have i got it wrong.

Another one is Hello Kitty with Glucose from corn and one more i have come across is glucose syrup but i'm pretty sure thats out,
but please advise me i have a little girl with a glint in her eye.

Its been so long i never know which one is the good and bad. Thanks for the help and enjoy your summer. i liked the idea of the diet soda in the food preserver sounds great.

Regards
Kerryn

[Tammy]

Hi Kerryn,
I'm so glad to hear that you are finally getting some answers. I'm sorry to hear about all the extras, but at least you can now deal with what you have to do.

As far as the candy, dextrose is fine, but I never go with the corn syrup unless I talk to the manufacturer itself since more times than not, it's not pure corn syrup. At least in the states, they always add fructose.

Glucose and glucose syrup is fine for HFI. So maybe that one will work for her.

Whenever you can't remember which one is which, here is about the best list of sugars we've come across. It's posted on Dr Tolan's website at the U. of Boston.
www.bu.edu/aldolase/HFI/treatment/sugar_table.htm
It lists pretty much all sugars and tells you if it's ok or not.

Sorry to hear about the drought/floods down your way. It's been pretty hot and dry here, compared to usual anyway. Our grass stays green and doesn't dry to about Aug. But here it is just the middle of June, and it's already dead in a lot of places. Oh well, just means we don't have to mow it.

I'll keep my eyes open. If I see your Dr wandering around the streets I'll put him back on the plane. lol.

[kerrynz]

Hi Tammy
Thanks for the insight on the sugars list you are right i have seen it before but until you posted the link i couldn't get into to take a look, maybe i have to be a member or something be cause i can't get passed the home page and it's very frustrating.

My liitle girl is so excited to hope the we can try the glucose syrup, i'm a bit worried i hope if i let her have a little she can tell me by taste if it's allright. Don't get me wrong it's a dangerous way but she is so fast to spit out i don't normally worry because she doesn't get enough to make a big problem. Its only with the glucose i wonder if she will be able to taste it soon enough. I'll have to sit and ponder this one. Or if any body has any experience i'd like to hear it.

Sorry to hear you guys are hot. We have just had our third natural disarste so say the people in charge. it was a cat 2 cyclone , but it missed us apparently because the snow blizzard type thing got in its way and now we are all freezing instead of being wet.

All i know is the 100 foot high gum tree out side my kitchen window is now on the fence and needing a good fire . Go figured we missed the winds they tell us. But then these trees fall out of the ground after all the rain we had.

Regards
Kerryn

[nancyrandall]

We are going out to eat tonight!!!!! I hate taking the kids out to eat with family who order desert. I usually bring something or we get something at home after but, I can tell it bugs my 7 year old. We found that the restraunt "Good Earth" has oats cream Ice Cream that they can have.

Do you just have buttered noodles or have you branched out? I have not checked any of their food so we would just stick to noodles and maybe some plain chicken.

Nancy

[Tammy]

We stick to buttered pasta. Sometimes we get some plain, grilled shrimp for on it. I leave it up to her. Sometimes she just doesn't want it. She likes the angel hair pasta the best. She eats a lot of chicken at home, and since I don't like shrimp, I never make that at home. That is the only reason she will pick shrimp over chicken when we are out.

Actually, I'm not really sure she even likes the shrimp that much, it's more of a case of since Mom doesn't like it - and big brother does, she eats it whether she thinks its good or not. She can be such a brat at times.

She is still talking about "her favorite restaurant" so I'm sure it won't be too long before we are back there again, too.

[toothfairy 2]

Torta Di Chocolate (no sugar added)
sold at Olive Garden is made by
Dianne's Gourmet Deserts
Le Center MN 56057
item number 7740181048

Ingredients eggs,chocolate flavored coating (maltitol,chocolate liquor,(processed with alkali )cocoa butter, milk fat, soya lecithin(emulsifier) vanilla,sugar substitute(maltitol,inulin,erythritol,ploy-dextrose,acesulfame,locust bean gum) chocolate liquor. CONTAINS EGGS, SOY, AND MILK
made in a plant that manufactures product with peanuts and nuts
for those watching their waist it's 470 calories (worth it, it tastes that good)

The restaurant was kind enough to give me a label .
This is the best tasting chocolate desert .. He ate this OK so I'm hunting for the source to sell to individuals. Thanks Tammy it was nice to go out and him have DESERT!!!!!!!

[colormist]

Desserts are SO over-rated. I'll take Bisquick biscuits any day over dessert.

[julienc]

Mmmmmmm....Biscuits.
I'm partial to Jiffy mix, though.

[sarahk]

I agree with Julie, I loveeee the Jiffy Mix. I'll make my own sometimes, I have this tasty chive recipe.

[lisa]

I saw a desert recipe recently that I bet would turn out great in an HFI version. Here's the basic idea: Make fresh biscuit dough. In center of each uncooked biscuit insert a marshmallow and a square of chocolate. Press the dough so that it completely covers the marshmallow and chocolate. Roll the biscuit in a cinnamon/dextrose mix. Bake and enjoy.

Oh, Dove makes a few different flavors (regular, mint and raspberry) of SF dark chocolate. I found it in the bagged candy section of my grocery store. I think it has maltitol...

I am surprised that noone is having trouble with the polydextrose and inulin in the dessert at Olive Garden.

[Tammy]

I think I'll try putting the chocolate in. I think Regina would like that. I have put cheese in a pastry dough already, but never thought about chocolate. Maybe I'll try it for Christmas. Sounds good.