27 Aug Blaze Pizza

I’m slightly obsessed with Pizza, and now that my twins are obsessed with “Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles whose favorite food just happens to be… wait for it.. PIZZA, we are eating more and more of it nowadays. I love making it at home, it’s a great way for them to get some experience in the kitchen and also for everyone to be happy putting on the toppings of their choice.

But, for those nights that I just don’t have the time, energy or ingredients to make home-made, I am so happy that we found “Blaze” pizza! Say goodbye to fattening, double-stuffed-crust pizza. The 100-calorie slice is here, courtesy of the Pasadena, Calif.-based restaurant chain “Blaze.”

Blaze Pizza is hoping to do for Italian what Chipotle has done for TexMex: Make it cheap, customizable and healthier. So much healthier, in fact, that Blaze’s whole 12-inch pie with cheese could practically be a diet food (they slice it into 100-calorie quarters). The secret? Using thin crusts, a healthier cheese-to-crust ratio and unlimited veggies.

The Wetzels are no strangers to the franchise business. If their name sounds familiar at all it’s because they’re the owners of Wetzel’s Pretzels, in business since 1990 with 300 locations around the country.

Blaze offers more than 40 toppings to choose from, as well as vegan cheese and gluten-free dough. High-heat open ovens powered with gas cook the crust to a nice, thin crispy base — and melt the cheese – in about two minutes. These new pizza ovens look like a classic pizza oven but they use gas instead of wood to create the almost 900 degree temperature to cooking a pie quickly.

Blaze Pizza has been a smash hit in Southern California, where the chain’s first two locations have been open since August 2012. and $2 million per year each.

There are over 15 locations in Southern, CA including La Canada and Pasadena with more on the way…