Posted on 01/09/2018 5:18:40 PM PST by nickcarraway
Consumer Reports rates 26 veggie, cheese pizzas for taste, nutrition
Your family might have a favorite frozen pizza that you eat as-is or even add some toppings to, but maybe there’s a pizza in the store that’s even healthier and tastier than your go-to. Consumer Reports food experts evaluated 26 different frozen vegetable and cheese pies for taste, nutrition and price.
"We consider the nutrition profile and also evaluate for taste. Ideally, a store-bought frozen pizza should taste like it was just put together with fresh ingredients. And it’s a high bar, but Consumer Reports found some pies that came close," said Amy Keating, with Consumer Reports.
More Headlines Pizza Hut is working on self-driving delivery trucks Dunkin' Donuts says goodbye to artificial dyes in its doughnuts Whataburger rings in New Year with new burger Vegetable pizzas are your best bet nutritionally, and they have some of the highest marks for taste. California Pizza Kitchen Spinach and Artichoke Crispy Thin Crust Pizza has chunky artichokes in a white cream sauce. It packs a garlicky punch and has less fat and sodium than most of the pizzas tested. Trader Joe’s Organic Roasted Vegetable Pizza has a variety of chunky veggies, such as peppers, zucchini and eggplant, and it has five grams of fiber per serving. And Dr. Oetker Virtuoso Thin and Crispy Crust Pizza Vegetable Medley has fresh-tasting cherry tomatoes, peppers and red onion. Pepperoncini peppers add a little tang.
The top-ranked cheese pizzas earned good marks overall. American Flatbread Tomato Sauce and Three Cheese Pizza has an interesting blend of flavorful cheese on a thin, whole grain style crust. Amy’s Cheese Pizza is a combination of tender, yeasty crust topped with mozzarella and a fresh tasting tomato sauce.
The American Flatbread costs about $4 a slice and Amy's Cheese Pizza is about $2.67 a slice.
DiGiorno Original also rates good and costs $1.17 a slice.
My thoughts too. My pizza needs a protein: pepperoni, Italian sausage, anchovies, and Canadian Bacon. Too many pizzas have terrible sauce and the Mozzarella seems to be a fake imitation.
I have a crust recipe:
Pizza Dough from a Bread Maker:
You will need:
3 cups flour
1-1/4 cups water
2 tsp salt
2 TBS butter
2 tsp bread machine yeast
Method:
1. Put bread maker on 1st rise setting.
2. When cycle is complete, take dough out and spread out on a pizza pan. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spreading dough out on the pizza pan will take a little time because fresh dough has an elasticity that likes to return to its original shape. With a little punching and poking, the dough will form to the pan.
3. Without putting any ingredients on the pizza crust, put the pan in the 425 degree oven and cook the dough for 4 minutes. This precooks the dough so that the topping does not cause the dough to get gummy. You do not have a professional pizza oven and this step is necessary. The dough will have a stiff consistency when taken out. At this time you can put your toppings on the pizza crust.
4. First, spread a thin layer of sauce over the crust. Then, spread a layer of mozzarella cheese. Next, put you favorite toppings: pepperoni, red onion, olives, thin sliced tomato, mushrooms, anchovies, etc. Finally, put a thin layer of mozzarella cheese over your toppings.
5. Put your pizza in the 425 degree oven for 14 minutes. Check for done-ness. Add 5 more minutes if the topping appears watery.
Try my sauce recipe:
You will need:
1 large onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
6 oz can tomato paste
28 oz can crushed tomato sauce
¼ cup Merlot wine
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
½ tsp marjoram
½ tsp thyme
½ tsp oregano
1-1/2 tsp basil
¼ tsp sage
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 very small pinch of cinnamon
1 TBS Concord grape jelly
1 carrot, peeled
White sugar to taste
Olive oil for cooking garlic and onions
Method:
1. Chop the carrot and put in with half of the tomato sauce, in a food processor or blender, and puree until smooth.
2. Mince onion and cook in olive oil until golden brown in a sauce pan. Do this on a low enough heat to keep this browning process under control to keep from burning. Add minced garlic and cook briefly before adding the other half of the tomato sauce. The tomato sauce can be used to stop the browning process of the onion at the perfect stage of browning. Note: never cook garlic until it turns brown. This causes the garlic to get bitter.
3. Add the tomato paste, the rest of the tomato sauce from the food processor, and all of the ingredients. Simmer on low, stirring `every ten minutes. Be careful not to cause the sauce to splatter due to excessive heat. When sauce is thick, add sugar to taste. Let cool, then put in a storage container for the refrigerator. This sauce can be stored in the freezer for six months.
Totino’s Pizzas are absolutely disgusting little pieces of cardboard and I love them.....yeah, I said it....
I like DiGiorno's Thin Crust 4-meat pizza. I use it as the base for adding my own stuff. I'll even pick off the meat and re-place it on the pizza for even distribution.
The crust is not too doughy. I add extra sauce (Barilla marinara), onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, cheese.
But usually, I get a Papa Murphy's take-and-bake. The one near me is on the way home from the park-and-ride, and they do a $10 Tuesday special, 5 ingredients for $10.
-PJ
Used to see it only in the United Grocers. Now it’s catching on. TV advertising even. Natural ingredients, spicy sauce. Walmart couldn’t keep it in stock, or WM couldn’t meet demand, locally, over the holidays.
I despise the self rising pizzas, they are slop.. every last one of them...
If I am settling for a frozen pizza over a real on, I’ll honestly just take a simple old tostinos anytime, though I do wish they hadn’t shrunk the damn things to joke size and while the Sausage and Pepperoni were always my favorite, when they changed the pepperoni on that pizze to “pepperoni flavored topping” and no longer real pepperoni I switched over to the simply pepperoni that one is still pepperoni.
Just got a couple new cast iron skillets recently and had been thinking of trying it on something like this. I’ll give it a try, thanks.
I did a bit of home made pizza experimentation. Couldn’t get the dough round, and it was a pain.
I make great home made French bread pizza, though.
“Pizza Dough from a Bread Maker”
Thanks. Do you have to use a bread maker for this recipe?
Regarding salt- was your dad a smoker? Just curious because my mom was and the end result was that everything was way over spiced. We once ate her spaghetti sauce thinking it was chili, not realizing she had left pasta in the fridge as well.
CC
Yes he was - for over 70 years. He didn’t seem to have any time of interest in spices, not even pepper. Just salt. Me? I love hot sauce - can’t get enough!
A bread maker is not necessary. I forgot one thing: Mix in a 1/4 teaspoon of sugar with the yeast in the water to dehydrate the yeast and start it working.
Thanks. I’ll give it a try.
Forget the frozen stuff. Come to Orange, NJ for Star Tavern’s famous pizza!
I find it funny that a round pizza is cut in triangles, and comes in a square box.
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