Applebee’s believes in providing variety in their menus. Recently they started to cater to people who prefer to eat healthier. They offer the under 550 calorie Menu, all starting at $8.99. One of the dishes in this Menu is the Teriyaki Chicken Pasta. It’s prepared with grilled seasoned chicken, Asian noodles marinated in teriyaki sauce, topped with steamed broccoli and carrots. This combination forms an exotic plate, perfect for those who love an adventure at a low cost! This Menu is indeed an adventure of exploding taste buds, yet its healthy staying under 550 calories, all starting at $8.99!

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Hear from the Chefs of Applebee’s Restaurants

Chef Shannon Johnson
Executive Director of Culinary Innovation and Development

“The Under 550 Calorie Menu is unique. we offer full portion sizes for our guests. Guests are surprised that they can get a full meal that’s under 550 calories that leaves them satisfied. one of my favorite items from this menu is the roasted garlic sirloin. the fact that we’re combining a 7 oz sirloin with fresh produce ingredients means that this dish really satisfies!”

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Chef Jessica James
Research & Development Chef

“I really love the under 550 calorie menu; the sizzling Asian shrimp and broccoli. I think guests will really be excited about this dish because it comes with an abundance of shrimp. Typically they’re surprised with the amount of food they get with these menu items. And, on this particular item, they’re going to get 14 blackened shrimp that really send this dish over the top with some great flavors. This menu really allows our guests to indulge in great flavors while eating healthy at the same time.”

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Chef Patrick Humphrey
Executive Chef
“At Applebee’s we offer the under 550 calorie menu. It gives guest the opportunity to order up healthy items. One of the items I’m really excited about is the Sizzling Chili Lime Chicken. We use fresh vegetables such as boch choi and mushrooms and then we’re tossing it with a sauce that’s full of suracha, roasted garlic, and some onions which  gives this dish some great Asian qualities. Guests love this dish. The fresh vegetables, the grilled chicken, the spicy sauce, they love it!”

In an economy that has everyone tightening their belts, Applebee’s brings to the table a weekday All-You-Can-Eat Soup, Salad and Bread lunch for the trim price of only $6.99. Now, guests can take advantage of the specially priced deal that runs Monday to Friday, from 11AM to 3PM.

“What we are offering is a weekday lunch that’s easy on today’s wallets. It’s a better-for-you alternative to fast food,” said Kurt Pahlitzsch, Director of Operations for Applebee’s Long Island restaurants. “And, it’s a great money saving value.”

What about those who are budgeting calories? Applebee’s has guests covered there, too. With its mix and match menu, guests can select from lower calorie options like Tomato Basil Soup at 220 calories and Spinach Salad at 220 calories or for $2 more choose a Shrimp ‘n Spinach Salad that’s only 250 calories.

As part of the new $6.99 All-You-Can-Eat menu, guests can opt for unlimited French Onion Soup, Tomato Basil Soup, Chili or the Soup of the Day (with daily selections like Broccoli Cheese, Chicken Tortilla, Potato Cheese Bacon, Chicken Noodle and New England Clam Chowder). They also receive limitless Caesar, Spinach or House salads and breadsticks.

For those who are craving a little more than greens, Applebee’s will be offering their four popular specialty salads: Oriental Chicken Salad, Chicken Caesar Salad, Fried Chicken Salad and Shrimp ‘n Spinach Salad for just $2 more. Depending on their appetite guests can order one or as many portions as they’d like. For those who feel like adding something sweet to top off their meal, Applebee’s has the perfect treat.  For just $1, guests can finish their lunch with a delicious Brownie Bite that’s served with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream.

One of these Applebees Specials is the 2 for $20 meal deal. This Applebee’s Special is ideal for small families or young couples. Sometimes buying groceries and preparing dinner, can be time consuming and costly.

Applebee’s offers this special to provide dishes with all their taste without the trade offs! A great dish that pairs well with 2 for $20 deal is the Napa Valley Cabernet & Portobello Mushroom Steak. The dish is composed of Applebee’s original sirloin, grilled to perfection, topped with lightly grilled Portbello mushrooms, fresh vegetables and homemade mash potatoes along the side. Being that it’s about $10, it’s enough to satisfy hungry customers and keep them coming back for more! Since Applebee’s is known to make the tastiest burgers, you can bet they go through a lot.

The Cowboy Burger is deliciously marinated in BBQ sauce, once grilled the juices marinate together creating the perfect seasoning. The Cowboy Burger is paired with freshly fried onion strings, smoked bacon, fresh lettuce, tomatoes and pickles. But don’t think this burger is just for cowboys, no sir! The burger is ideal for anyone who wants to get a taste of how its done in the mid-west, yeehaw! Another burger worth trying is the Philly Burger, the burger is like a philly cheese-steak but with a twist. It has the zestiness of a burger but the satisfying feeling of a philly cheese-steak. No doubt the best restaurant burgers ever!

Wow is the flavor you’ll find at Applebee’s. They have so many delicious meals to choose from that you’re head will spin with excitement. Applebee’s Lunch Menu’ offers meals like the Sizzling Asian Shrimp, the Sizzling Steak and Cheese, the Sizzling Chicken with spicy queso, or my favorite, the Sizzling Skillet Fajitas.

Now we could go on and on about all their awesome lunch menu options but we will stop at their ultimate trios. You can pick any three trio-sized appetizers for just $12.49. Whenever I go, I always order the wonton tacos that come standard with either pulled pork or grilled chicken stuffed with wanton shells. They are absolutely delicious but you will have to be the judge of that.

Another industry favorite are the cheeseburger sliders. These burgers may be small in stature but are large in flavor. These juicy burgers come with American cheese melted all across the top coupled with grilled onions and Applebee’s signature sauce.

Your sure to find multiple delicious items when you visit your location restaurant. Prices and participation may vary from location to location but you can expect daily lunch specials as as Applebee’s offers such a wide variety of offerings.

To receive upcoming promotions and discounts, E-mail Sign up here.

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any better, Applebee’s has gone and done it again. Now you can get a free appetizer or dessert for absolutely free! Taking advantage of this offer will help you save money on your overall meal or make your meal completely free if your only dining in for the freebies. All you have to do is printout an available free appetizer or dessert coupon, bring it into your nearest Applebees location and present it to your server. From here your sever will apply any and all applicable savings to your bill.

If you are ever interested in purchasing some gift cards from your local Applebee’s, keep in mind there are added benefits for those that do. For a limited time when you purchase $50 or more in gift cards, you get a $10 bonus card. It’s just one more way to say thanks for taking advantage of their gift card offers.

If that’s not enough to interest you, now you can actually digitally design your own gift card using your FaceBook photo album photos. Upload your favorite pics onto your gift card and send it to friends and family.

For purchases of $1,000 or more email gift.cards@applebees.com or call (866) 812-8543.
For frequently asked questions click here.

Companies these days are constantly looking for new and exciting ways to secure contracts with high-quality clients and simple business meetings don’t always seem to cut the mustard.  Organizing corporate cooking classes is becoming more and more popular as a way to create a laid back environment in which you and the client can get to know each other.  It’s also a fantastic way to encourage relationships and camaraderie between colleagues who may not have much in common.  If you’re finding your workplace a little quiet and uninspired, why not book a cooking class?

Team Building – Why it’s Necessary

When you think about it, your colleagues spend an awful amount of time together, often more than they even spend with their friends and family in a week!  Therefore it’s crucial for a harmonious office that you encourage good relationships between members of your staff.  The result of an affable office is usually increased productivity and a higher retention rate of staff.  Solidifying the flow of information between your employees will soon prove a good investment of time as you see the workflow improve.

The traditional approaches involve team building sports days but modern employees are looking for something with a bit more zing.  Spending the day in a sweaty sports hall or a stuffy conference room will do little to inspire your staff.

Cooking classes are usually laid back, relaxed affairs during which each member of staff should get a chance to shine.  If you have some employees who aren’t getting on so well, teaming them up in a casual environment could help to heal the rift and help them to find some common ground.

Being in the Kitchen

The kitchen is traditionally a family oriented environment in which people naturally feel comfortable and are used to forming and strengthening bonds.  Putting your teams together to tackle complicated menu choices can give each employee the chance to show off their culinary skills as well as helping and encouraging their colleagues to succeed.

Learning new skills can help employees find out more about themselves and each other and they’ll be grateful to you for finding something fun for them to do, as well as something beneficial for you.  Large, multi companies regularly use cooking classes as a team building exercise for the obvious reasons.  They also find it useful for getting to know their staff and what makes them tick, which can be valuable in managing relationships when back at the office.

Client-Building

Taking clients to cooking classes can be a great way to really get to know them and see a side of their personality that your competitors don’t.  This can give you the edge in securing long-term and lucrative contracts with these clients and they’ll appreciate the trouble you’ve gone to to get to know them.

Christmas Celebrations

Instead of having a meal at a restaurant, why not book a cooking class for your Christmas party this year?  It’s an interesting spin on the traditional office party and you can plan a festive menu that you can all sit down and enjoy together at the end of the day with a few glasses of wine.  Record the day with a professional photographer and you’ll have an album of shots that your employees can look back over for the next 12 months and remember what fun they had.

The ideal place for corporate days out is at the Angela Malik Cookery School.  Classes of up to 40 people can be catered for and it will definitely be an unforgettable experience.

If you are running a restaurant and looking for some ways to make a little extra money, have you considered running a regular cookery course when your restaurant is closed?  Any restaurant has down time when it’s not as busy as you would like so make the most of this time and fill it with paying students!  You could run your courses during the afternoon between the lunch and dinner shifts.

Promotion

It’s not just an extra money spinner, running a cookery school will also give your restaurant more publicity and raise the profile of your eatery amongst local residents.  If you send away satisfied students at the end of a course, chances are they’ll come back to eat with you time and time again.  They’ll also be cooking at home and bragging about where they picked up their fantastic new skills!

Try to get the local press involved when you launch your new courses.  Press coverage will help to secure you some students as well as get your company’s name into the local paper.

How long should the cookery courses be?

It depends really on what you would prefer.  There’s certainly less work involved in just running one course a season, for example.  But then you’re never going to make much of a profit doing it that way.  If you have a chef on your team who you think will make a willing teacher, think about replacing them part time and getting them to plan and run regular courses.  If you offer a fixed length course, it’ll be easier for the chef to plan each lesson and it’ll also get people coming back each week for more.

Which cuisine should we teach?

It makes sense to teach classes in the same cuisine that you serve up in your restaurant.  People are less likely to go to a Japanese restaurant to learn about French cuisine!  Why not try taking your most popular meals and constructing a more budget version to teach local families how to enjoy fine dining at a snip?

You can build different levels into your course, running beginner, intermediate and advanced courses and each level can feature slightly more complex menus based around your specialities.

How much should we charge?

This will depend entirely on the length of the course, the cost of the ingredients, the cost of hiring someone to teach the course and a number of other factors.  So it’s really down to your budgeting to work out how much you need to charge to at least break even or ideally, turn a good profit.  You may have to start off by offering discounted introductory prices to attract new students to your ‘school’ but you’ll soon be able to put your prices back up when word-of-mouth gets going.

Think about offering vouchers as gifts.  A cookery course makes a fantastic gift so allowing people to buy vouchers will expand your customer base even further.

As with anything, start by doing some initial research.  Have a look at other companies in your area that are doing the same thing.  See how long their courses run for, how much they cost and how they are advertising their school.  Hopefully they will give you the inspiration you need to get stuck in and launch your own courses.

With cookery courses from the Angela Malik School of Food and Wine, anybody at any ability level can learn to cook impressive and wholesome Asian food with confidence.  Browse the list of cookery courses today, and you are sure to find something to inspire you to teach to others.

Just because the air is getting cooler and the leaves are starting to rustle, it doesn’t mean it’s time to retire the grill for the year. There are lots of great grilled meals that are easy to prepare and that your family will love, well until the first snowdrops fall.

Steak on the Grill

If you are used to a nice couple of steaks on the grill, you may be stuck in the habit of having grilled corn and a nice fresh summer tomato salad with it. The corn is gone, and who wants a greenhouse tomato?  But wrapping baking potatoes in foil, and putting some great autumn vegetables, such as acorn squash on the grill make a great autumn dinner, even if you have to eat it indoors.  ust put the potatoes and squash in the microwave for ten minutes before you put them on the grill. Add a little nutmeg and butter in each half of the squash for a special treat.

Shrimp on the Barbie

One of my favorite dishes is marinated shrimp on skewers on the grill. This is such a fast, easy and delicious dish, since shrimp cooks so quickly, that it would be a shame to have to give it up just because the weather is getting brisk. I usually like it accompanied by summer vegetables, also marinated and either on a skewer, or in a foil pouch. For an autumn twist, try skewering some cold weather veggies, such as sweet potatoes or squash. Once again, because root vegetables take longer to cook than our summer friends, you have to precook them in the microwave before putting them on the grill, but that makes them tender and delicious.

Turn it Over

One kind of dish that actually works better in the cool weather is turning a roast on the outdoor grill.  This is great at any time, but who wants to sit out in the hot sun and wait for the roast to cook?  You will need a rotisserie arm for your grill, but the succulent roast you will have in the end makes this a worthwhile investment. Many kinds of meat lend themselves to this kind of cooking, such as a pork tenderloin, a roast beef, boneless turkey breast, even a whole chicken. Marinate the roast for an hour or so before roasting on the grill, and the juices will be constantly reabsorbed into the meat as it turns, making for the most succulent and delicious roast you have ever had.

These are just a few ideas for grilling in the fall. Think about your favorite summer grilled foods and use your imagination to create your own fall masterpieces. Barbeques are great to have with friends, family and neighbors. If you plan on inviting some new faces, you may be interested in the best background check service.  You can’t pick your family but you can pick your friends.

If you are running a restaurant and looking for some ways to make a little extra money, have you considered running a regular cookery course when your restaurant is closed?  Any restaurant has down time when it’s not as busy as you would like so make the most of this time and fill it with paying students!  You could run your courses during the afternoon between the lunch and dinner shifts.

Promotion

It’s not just an extra money spinner, running a cookery school will also give your restaurant more publicity and raise the profile of your eatery amongst local residents.  If you send away satisfied students at the end of a course, chances are they’ll come back to eat with you time and time again.  They’ll also be cooking at home and bragging about where they picked up their fantastic new skills!

Try to get the local press involved when you launch your new courses.  Press coverage will help to secure you some students as well as get your company’s name into the local paper.

How long should the cookery courses be?

It depends really on what you would prefer.  There’s certainly less work involved in just running one course a season, for example.  But then you’re never going to make much of a profit doing it that way.  If you have a chef on your team who you think will make a willing teacher, think about replacing them part time and getting them to plan and run regular courses.  If you offer a fixed length course, it’ll be easier for the chef to plan each lesson and it’ll also get people coming back each week for more.

Which cuisine should we teach?

It makes sense to teach classes in the same cuisine that you serve up in your restaurant.  People are less likely to go to a Japanese restaurant to learn about French cuisine!  Why not try taking your most popular meals and constructing a more budget version to teach local families how to enjoy fine dining at a snip?

You can build different levels into your course, running beginner, intermediate and advanced courses and each level can feature slightly more complex menus based around your specialities.

How much should we charge?

This will depend entirely on the length of the course, the cost of the ingredients, the cost of hiring someone to teach the course and a number of other factors.  So it’s really down to your budgeting to work out how much you need to charge to at least break even or ideally, turn a good profit.  You may have to start off by offering discounted introductory prices to attract new students to your ‘school’ but you’ll soon be able to put your prices back up when word-of-mouth gets going.

Think about offering vouchers as gifts.  A cookery course makes a fantastic gift so allowing people to buy vouchers will expand your customer base even further.

As with anything, start by doing some initial research.  Have a look at other companies in your area that are doing the same thing.  See how long their courses run for, how much they cost and how they are advertising their school.  Hopefully they will give you the inspiration you need to get stuck in and launch your own courses.