Double The Taste with Olive Garden's Buy One, Take One Promotion {Review & $75 Gift Certificate Giveaway}

(I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Olive Garden. I received a gift card to facilitate my review and a promotional item as a thank you for participating.)

Prior to having children, I didn't truly understand why going out to dinner could be considered an occasion all in itself. You're just going to a restaurant, picking what you wanted from a menu, and eating it. What's the big deal?

As a parent, it's a big deal. A night out to dinner is not only rare, but a fully-planned, highly anticipated event. What type of food? Are the kids ready? Will they be occupied? Is there something that everyone will enjoy? How far is the restaurant? Will there be a wait?

On the plus side, not only does taking the family out to eat mean a night off from cooking, but it removes the stress of planning, shopping, preparing and cleaning that goes along with it. Instead, we show up, enjoy a (hopefully) delicious meal and get to spend time together talking, laughing and connecting.

It's too bad that we can't combine the two, right? The ease of eating at home with the hassle-free experience of a restaurant?

Now you can. Thanks to the Buy One, Take One promotion at Olive Garden, you can now have the best of all worlds and extend it far beyond their walls.

With their signature Italian dishes and affordable prices, Olive Garden both satisfies our comfort food cravings and ensures the ease and convenience of dine-in and take-out dinner options. Is there anyone that doesn't leave fulfilled and happy after eating Olive Garden's delicious entrees, handmade soups and garden-fresh salads?

But as well as their traditionally tasty restaurant and menu, Olive Garden has made it even easier to enjoy their variety of foods with their Buy One, Take One promotion.

Simply enjoy one of five delicious entrees — served with unlimited soup or salad and breadsticks, of course — and then choose a second entree from their special menu to take home for later. When you're ready for your next meal, just pull it out, heat it up and enjoy... and the total for both meals is only $12.95!

Yum, right? Menu options include:

• Mezzaluna Ravioli with Five Cheese Marinara (new!)
• Smoked Mozzarella Chicken
• Spaghetti with Four Cheese Meat Sauce (new!)
• Five Cheese Ziti al Forno
• Fettucini Alfredo

Olive Garden has long been one of our family's favorite dining spots, as everything from the delicious food (on the regular as well as kids' menu) to the friendly service has resulted in a casual, positive experience.

But take an extra meal home so that we can extend our Olive Garden love into the next day? You don't have to ask us twice!

While there have been times that we have had to wait to be seated, during our recent visit we walked right in and were shown immediately to our table.

Now just to decide what to eat!

While all of the regular menu and the five Buy One, Take One options sounded tasty, I couldn't pass up trying the new Mezzaluna Ravioli (cheese ravioli in a crescent moon shape) and the opportunity to take home a dish of the Fettucini Ravioli (a big favorite of mine and Big Sister E's).

Instead of having to wait a great deal for our food to be cooked (and listening to the kids begin to complain about being hungry), in no time at all our salad and breadsticks arrived to satisfy everyone.

Even better, our server offered to bring out the kids' meals as soon as they were ready, so it was only a few minutes later when those showed up as well!

While there are times that I have ordered only the salad and bread due to how filling and tasty they are, I wasn't disappointed at all when our server arrived a short time later with my meal as well.

Yum, yum and yum! You know it is the sign of a good meal when the talking ceases in favor of filling our mouths with more food instead!

I'm sure I looked just as happy as the girls, as my Mezzaluna Ravioli was absolutely delicious! The cheese on the inside was just the right amount of richness and the sauce was the perfect complement — I would definitely order them again!

When it came time to leave, a "regular" restaurant experience would have ended there... and, in this case, we would have been happy. However, with the Buy One, Take One promotion, I was not only able to leave with the leftovers of my tasty raviolis, but a full serving of Fettucini Alfredo for the following day!

By the time dinnertime rolled around the following day, I could hardly wait to warm up my Fettucini Alfredo and dig right in! Olive Garden makes the whole process as foolproof as possible, as the meal comes chilled with its own directions on how to properly heat it.

Really, can this get much easier? All it took was to place both containers in the microwave for a few minutes and dinner was done! I can't imagine a busy mom that wouldn't love being able to have a night out to eat and then having the following night's dinner taken care of as well!

When it comes to knowing how to provide customers with the pleasure of enjoying a delicious, hassle free, casual night out to dinner, Olive Garden has long been a frontrunner in our list of favorite places to visit. But now with the Buy One, Take One promotion, being able to indulge in their tasty food two nights in a row for only $12.95 is a deal that can't be beat!

If you're looking for a way to bring the whole family together (or have a relaxing date night, perhaps?) leave the distractions or stress of preparing a meal from scratch at home and head to Olive Garden instead. But, as this great money-saving promo is only on for a limited time, be sure to hurry over soon!

And, thanks to this Italian favorite, one person will get to do just that, because...

One lucky person will win a $75 Olive Garden eGift card!

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