Oh my! Pizza Pie!
Now, it took me FOREVER to properly say their name (Zwan-sigs). I would just say the Z pizza place and they are in my phone as Zwags because I couldn’t say it let alone spell it. In high school, it was THE place to go for lunch. It took a little bit longer so it was great if you had a double lunch (I will explain that later, East alums know what I am talking about). It was also a great deal for a high schooler. You get a large piece of pizza, a pair of breadsticks, dipping sauce, and a drink for $5! It was awesome.
Sometime after 2009, ZwanzigZ expanded their location to include beer. My heart was happy that I could come back from college and get great pizza with awesome craft beer. They have great dark beer (my kind of beer) like the Fulcrum Imperial Stout but also lighter varieties such as the Beauregard’s Blueberry. They even have unexpected beers like The Ticket Chocolate Beer and Ghost Pepper Imperial Stout. A great combo is a pint of half blueberry and half chocolate beer. They also have craft sodas but truthfully I have never tried them because there are too many good beer options.
But back to their glorious pizza. This is what I get with my better half to enjoy pizza but without going overboard. I will break down why I choose what I choose as a Dietitian and a rough estimate of the calories.
First salad, we get two small veggie salads without olives (he doesn’t like them) and ranch dressing. Now they have low-fat options but I would rather use a little bit of the good stuff than a lot of the fake stuff. I also don’t dump the dressing on top of the salad, I use the dip the fork method. Next we get a medium, 14 inch, lasagna pizza. This pizza has the cheese, ricotta, provolone, mozzarella, and white cheddar cheese. Then it has small Italian sausage, not like a big round meatball. Then it is artfully topped with a spiral of tomato sauce and sprinkled with Italian seasonings.
Why we (and I as a RD) pick the lasagna pizza. First, there is not a whole lot to the pizza, cheese and sausage. That means it is not crazy high in calorie toppings. Second, it still feels like we are having pizza. It is not this crazy no cheese, all veggies pizza, but it is also not a throw everything on the pizza as well. We also get the 14 inch because that is really all we need. I usually have 2-3 slices, where as the other half eats 3-4 slices. We usually have left-overs and take those home (they have take home boxes near the cashier). We get the salad to first fill our bellies with veggies but also to eat something while the pizza is being made.
Breakdown for ZwanzigZ:
1 small veggie salad with ranch (dip method): 75 calories for the salad and 75 for half of the ranch dressing.
3 slices of lasagna pizza: ~230 calories per slice, 690 in total
Total: 840 Calories
Now this is a lot of calories, could be half of your days worth of calories right here. But remember, I don’t eat this everyday or even every weekend. And most of use shouldn’t be. But I account for those calories and adjust throughout the weekend. We also walk to ZwanzigZ to get a little bit of physical activity before and after we eat.
I love pizza and that is not going to change any time soon. So if you ever need to indulge in pizza, I highly suggest ZwanzigZ.