Olive Garden-Inspired Lunch Boxes

I volunteered to make lunch for arobotics camp at our local high school, and today's lunch box was Olive Gardenthemed. I started with making dessert because it needed some time to chill. Iam making a chocolate lasagna. Now, obviously, I can't make Olive Garden'sversion. That would have taken way more time than I had, but I made a no-bakeversion with an Oreo crust, a cheesecake layer, chocolate pudding, Cool Whip, andI finished it with crushed Oreos and shaved chocolate on top. I assembledthem right in these clear cups because I thought it'd be fun to actually see allof the layers. One thing I have learned making these lunches is that I amconstantly weighing cost against effort. For example, I really wanted to includebreadsticks, and I wanted everyone to get two. But buying five boxes of frozenbreadsticks would have been expensive, and making them completely from scratchjust wasn't realistic. So, I took a shortcut with these thaw, rise, and bakedinner rolls. Once they're thawed, I rolled them into breadsticks and letthem proof while I worked on everything else. Today's main dish was inspired byOlive Garden's five-cheese ziti al forno. And for the first time this week,everyone was eating the exact same meal because it was naturally vegetarian. Icooked the ziti first, and then I made a creamy tomato sauce using three jars oftomato, basil, and garlic pasta sauce, added some heavy cream, ricotta cheese,and Italian cheese blend. I made sure to buy a vegetarian-friendly cheese soeveryone could enjoy it. And once everything was melted together, itturned into this rich, creamy, five-cheese sauce. Instead of making onebaked pasta dish, I assembled individual portions in these little loaf pans. Eachone got a layer of pasta, plenty of sauce, and topped with seasonedbreadcrumbs and extra cheese before heading into the oven until they werehot, bubbly, and golden brown. And of course, it wouldn't be Olive Gardenwithout the salad. Last week, I found these clear containers at Dollar Tree,and I threw them in my cart because I figured I'd find a use for themeventually. Turns out they were the perfect size for individual salads. Ilayered in lettuce, tomato, red onions, pepperoncini, black olives, andcroutons. And I thought about portioning the dressing, too, but in the end I justsent the whole bottle with the lunches, so everyone can add as much or as littleas they wanted. Once the breadsticks came out of the oven, I brushed themwith melted butter and sprinkled them with garlic powder, and then it wasfinally time to pack everything up. These loaf pans fit almost perfectlyinside the lunch boxes with a breadstick, napkin, and fork. The saladand desserts had to ride separately today, but honestly, I really love howeverything turned out. This was my final lunch I got to make for the roboticscamp, and I genuinely had so much fun doing this. It was a lot of work, butfrom everything I've heard, the students have absolutely loved the lunches. Foodhas always been one of my favorite ways to show people I care, and getting tospend this week doing that for a group of students was something reallyspecial, and I hope I get the chance to do it again next year.