Provel Me Wrong (Happy Mother's Day!)

I surprised my mom today with a surprise visit. It was nice to spend the day with her doing a couple things she wanted to do. We went flower shopping, which, even though it was a little rainy, was really enjoyable. Having just had a bunch of food yesterday, I wanted to keep it fairly light today. I had a brotein/BCAA shake for breakfast.

After aforementioned activities, I asked my mom if she had any ideas or preferences for dinner. What she said both excited and unnerved me. 

Pizza. 

But I knew all too well what this really means. You see, in my family, "pizza" doesn't mean delivery pizza. It doesn't mean frozen pizza, either. It also doesn't mean take-and-bake pizza. 

Oh no.

It means something a whole lot more than that.

It means Leo's Pizza.

Leo's Pizza is not just any pizza. Leo's Pizza is St. Louis-style pizza. What this means is that it's got a thin and crispy crust and instead of mozzarella cheese it has provel cheese. What is provel cheese? Provel is a mixture of provolone, white cheddar, and Swiss, and it was created to prevent those long strings from stretching all the way from your mouth to your slice of pizza now at arm's length. But it's so much more than that. The flavor of provel is just so incredibly good, it's indescribable. It seems to be polarizing, though. People either love it or hate it. But for those that love it, this is simply the best pizza and all subsequent pizzas will be judged against this. And all subsequent pizzas will pale in comparison, because they use mozzarella.

Up first is one of my dad and I's personal favorites. The Meat Pizza has beef, Italian sausage, bacon, Canadian bacon, and peperoni, all under a ton of provel. There's a thin layer of pizza sauce on top of the wonderfully crispy crust.

Then there's the Deluxe. This baby's got Italian sausage, black olives, peperoni, mushrooms, onions, and green peppers. It's my mom's personal favorite.

Making the Honorable Mention is the salad. Even the basic salad is really good. It has only 5 ingredients, one of which I didn't eat (black olives). The other 4 ingredients are lettuce, cheese, peperoni, and dressing.

What makes this salad so good is 2 of the 4 ingredients. Those are, of course, the cheese, which is again provel, and the dressing, which is a creamy homemade Italian dressing.

I ate about half of the salad pictured above.

Now comes the sad part. Having eaten so much yesterday, I didn't want to completely gorge myself today (which is what I normally do with Leo's). So, I made a commitment to only eat 4 pieces.

You have no idea how painfully challenging this was for me. I could eat an entire 16" large pizza, so eating only 4 pieces (party cut, I might add) just felt wrong. But, in a way, since I knew my quantity was limited, I focused more on enjoying each bite. I savored the flavors, allowing myself to be satisfied and fulfilled with the little that I had. I walked away feeling good. I wasn't full, but I was happy. I felt good having experienced the true greatness which is Leo's Pizza with the knowledge that I didn't completely undermine my quest to get lean.