New Favorite Salad

So I am about the worst blogger ever!!! I'm sorry I haved posted anything in a long time. Life is just super busy and after being on a computer all day long, the last thing I want to do when I get home is get on the computer at home.

In other news, I made the best salad ever on Saturday. Angi was nice enough to have me over for dinner with her and her husband. She made the best lasagna and you should check out her post about it at www.angiy.blogspot.com. (I still need to learn how to do links on words!) But I asked her want she wanted me to bring, and she suggested a salad, like Olive Garden's house salad. Which is awesome!!! Well I googled Olive Garden's salad and found a recipe, which turns out that I already had it in my computer files!

Here is the recipe that I have (I don't remember where I got it or else I would give them the credit):
Olive Garden Salad

Olive Garden Salad Dressing:
½ c. mayonnaise
1/3 c. white vinegar
1 tsp vegetable oil
2 Tb. corn syrup
2 Tb. Parmesan cheese
2 Tb. Romano cheese
¼ tsp garlic salt – or one clove garlic, minced
½ tsp Italian seasoning
½ tsp parsley flakes
1 Tb. lemon juice

Salad:
1 large head romaine lettuce
slices red onion
black olives
2-4 banana peppers
2 small tomatoes, quartered
½ c. croutons
freshly grated Parmesan cheese

For homemade croutons:
4 slices sandwich bread
1 clove garlic, minced
3 Tb. butter
salt and pepper
dried parsley flakes

Mix all dressing ingredients in a blender until well mixed. If this is a little too tart for your own personal tastes, add a little extra sugar.
Chill one salad bowl in freezer for at least 30 minutes. Put lettuce in bowl. Place on top of lettuce red onions, black olives, banana peppers, tomatoes, and croutons. Add some freshly grated Parmesan cheese if you like, and add plenty of Olive Garden Salad Dressing on top.

For the homemade croutons:
Cut off crusts of sandwich bread, and cut bread into cubes. Melt butter in small saucepan and add minced garlic. Toss sandwich cubes in the butter and spread out in a pan. Sprinkle salt and pepper and parsley flakes to taste. Bake for 15 minutes at 350°, turning half way through baking.

Sorry I don't have any pictures, I forgot to take my camera to Angi's. The best part of the salad was definitely the croutons though. The are so easy and SO good!!