An education in pizza

Resslin' Around, by Casey Ressler

As I ate a piece of garlic chicken pizza for lunch last Tuesday, all I could think was, "Man, this is good. Whatever happened to those greasy welcome-mat-sized pieces of pizza they had when I was in school?"

I wasn't alone in that thinking, either, as I was joined at the school lunch taste test table by Sen. Lyda Green, Wasilla Mayor Dianne Keller, John Klapperich of KMBQ and Hans Neidig of Valley Hospital.

The taste test, which also included several students who will be eating the stuff when schools are back in session next month, was part of the school district's way of finding healthier alternatives to school lunch staples such as pizza, french fries and quesadillas. The sample clearly showed they weren't the school lunches of a decade ago. Of three different pieces of pizza sampled, all were very good -- not a single "rubbery" piece that would revive memories of school lunches long ago. The pepperoni was actually a turkey-based pepperoni, which makes it lighter than its true pepperoni counterpart, without losing anything in the taste department. All of the samples were lower in cholesterol, fat and sodium than a piece of Tony's brand frozen pizza.

The French fries were an even greater story. The first batch out, the one-quarter-inch shoestring fries, hit my mouth and immediately I thought I was in French-fry heaven. I pounded through my little cup of samples, reveling in their greasy taste, thinking there was no way this was the "good for you stuff," but the regular fries instead. I brought my 3-year-old to help me taste the fries, and she hammered through hers. If it wouldn't have been rude, I was going to snatch Mayor Keller's batch of fries when she looked the other way, they were that good.

And then, the wool was pulled from my eyes.

These fries are baked, not fried, they said. These are the first French fries in the foodservice industry to have zero trans fats in them.

They are lower in calories and fat than most other brands. And they taste great, which is probably the most important thing a student considers.

The district is doing a service for its students and their parents by trying to come up with healthier alternatives at lunch.

It's tough to ask a student to skip the fries at lunch time, but when those fries aren't half as bad (they still aren't exactly healthy) as other brands, it's not quite so bad.

Now that the students are being looked after, I wonder if there is any chance the district would look into helping alumni of the Mat-Su School District, namely myself, by finding a sampling of chicken wings and beer that makes you lose weight?

Casey Ressler (valleylife@frontiersman.com) is the Valley Life editor. He's on vacation until tomorrow, when his editor will finally pry Ressler's fly rod from his hands.