This is a sponsored review by BlogHer and Newman’s Own.
Pizza is my favorite go-to meal on those days when the innocent question, “What’s for dinner?” makes me slap myself on the forehead because A) I suddenly realize what time it is and B) I have not even thought about starting to cook yet. Since I live with two teenagers and Russ the Pizza Loving Husband, I usually just reach for the phone and call the delivery place. I rarely go to the freezer and take out a frozen one, because… well, frozen pizzas are just not that good. The crusts are either soggy or cardboard-y, the toppings are skimpy, and the whole thing kinda tastes like some cyborg version of a real pizza. Bleh.
When we order a take-out pie, Russ and I prefer the thin crust to the thicker kind that the girls favor, although that can backfire on you when you have to wait 30 minutes for your pizza to come– time is not a friend of the thin crust. Apparently thinner pizzas also have the tendency to slide more in transit, because more than once I’ve opened the cardboard box to discover that all of the cheese and toppings have slid right off the crust and are now all piled up in one corner of the box like some weird pepperoni version of Twister. Not good. But that’s still better than frozen pizza, right?
*holds up hand for a high five*
NOT SO FAST!
OK, seriously? These Newman’s Own Thin and Crispy pizzas are pretty dang good! I can honestly say that based on their taste, the variety of flavors, the quality of their ingredients and how fast and easy it was to make them, when it comes to a quick pizza meal I now might be more inclined to reach for the freezer door instead of the phone. Who knew?!
When I agreed to do this review, I originally planned to have a lovely sit-down family dinner with a fresh green salad and my good dishes so we could thoughtfully savor each bite and then have a round table discussion of the relative merits/shortcomings—like a wine-tasting, but with pizza. Then I remembered whose life I was actually living, so in typical Taff family fashion our taste test looked more like this: Charlotte, Madi, and her friend Kendrick who spent the night came wafting down the stairs at the crack of noon on a Saturday, looking for something to eat. They were very willing subjects for my experiment, because pizza for breakfast = very happy teenagers.
Newman’s Own pizzas are easy to find at retail grocery store chains all over the country, and they are priced at about $6.50, which is comparable to other frozen pizzas I’ve bought. (There are $1 off coupons available at the Newman’s Own website, as well as a list of stores that carry them in your area.) For this review, I chose the Supreme pizza, which has a little bit of everything including pepperoni and sausage, and the White Pizza, which has spinach and feta cheese with a creamy white sauce instead of the traditional red. The other flavors are Four Cheese, Roasted Garlic and Chicken, Uncured Pepperoni, Roasted Vegetable, Margherita and Italian Sausage, which all sound pretty good to me.
Since I possess a keen scientific mind (quit snickering, that’s rude), I decided to start by checking out the side of the box. The Newman’s Own people are touting the quality of their all-natural ingredients as a big selling point, and I have to admit, they do look healthier than most other frozen pizzas– at least I can actually pronounce most of them. The crust is listed as multi-grain, and it’s lower in carbs and calories than the rising-crust kind. There are no trans-fats, modified starches, sodium nitrate or stuff like that, which is good.
The next thing I did was compare the picture on the box to the actual pizza, which didn’t really make sense since the one on the box was already cooked and the frozen one was, well, FROZEN. But I did it anyway.
One of the first things I noticed is that the peppers on the Supreme actually looked like roasted strips of real peppers, not those weird little green and red diced bits that are on some frozen pizzas. And the feta cheese on the White pizza was in clumps, not just little sprinkles. The ingredients on the Supreme pizza were a little smushed up in the middle, so I rearranged them a bit, because I’m detail-oriented like that. Also, I didn’t want anybody hogging all the sausage.
Why hello, Tori’s scary corpse hands– we’ve missed you!
Thea Madea had her paws crossed, reeeeeeally hoping I’d drop some of that pepperoni…
I preheated the oven to 425 degrees and set the pizza directly on the rack without using a cookie sheet, like the instructions said. I almost turned on the convection thingy in my oven, but then I figured since it only takes like, 10-12 minutes for them to cook anyway I wasn’t going to worry about trying to make it go faster! And sure enough, right on time, the pizza started looking like this:
Smelled really good, too… Hungry yet?!
Let’s see how it compares to the box picture now– I think this one actually looks BETTER!
OK, in real life the spinach is not quite as artfully arranged as in the picture, but I’d say it measures up just fine– and check out those lumps of feta cheese!
Now these are not big pizzas, by the way; they are only about 10 inches, and since the crust is so thin, they won’t fill you up like one of those thick doughy-crusted ones. The box lists one serving as 1/3 of the pizza, which was pretty accurate for us but might seem less realistic if you’re feeding the football team, for instance. But if you added a big green salad, maybe some watermelon sliced up… Aw, who are we kidding– on a good day I could probably eat one all by myself!
I cut them into eight slices, about this size:
(I added the Indian to give you a sense of proportion, because why wouldn’t I? Also he just looked so happy about it, he’s all, “TA DA!!! PIZZA!!!!)
Since this was such a special occasion, I set out some of my favorite vintage state plates– Arkansas (where I grew up), Kentucky (since we just had our little vacay there) and South Carolina (in honor of Momma Lloyd.) I, of course, ended up just eating out of my hand.
And now for the moment of truth!
Madi really liked the Supreme. She said she definitely wants to keep these around, and she’d like me to pick up the Roasted Vegetable one, too. She said the crust was just the way she liked it, thin and crispy but not cracker-y. The fact that she could make one in 10 minutes was a big plus. And yes, she is drinking fresh grapefruit juice with her pizza. *shudders*
Charlotte gave the Supreme high marks, though I did catch her picking the peppers off of her slice (she always does that), but she LOVED the White pizza! (I was a little surprised because it has spinach on it, which she heartily dislikes. Maybe she didn’t realize what it was?) She declared it “better than take-out” and said that the sauce “tasted just like Alfredo” which she vastly prefers to marinara. Her only complaint was that she wished it had more cheese on it, which I probably agree with– but remember this is coming from the kid who melts slices of cheese in the microwave and eats them with a spoon, so… you know.
Madi’s friend Kendrick was definitely a fan and agreed with me that under the right conditions she could probably polish one off all by herself as well.
Disclaimer: The face she is making in this picture has nothing to do with the pizza. I can’t remember exactly what prompted it, but I think that she either bit her tongue or she and Madi were talking about some guy on Facebook that they don’t like.
And as for me?
I was really very pleasantly surprised! It helps that this is my favorite kind of crust and that at least three of their flavors are ones that I usually order. The fact that all I had to do was put them in a hot oven and wait 10 minutes is a huge plus. It does matter to me that the ingredients are more natural and that there are less additives than most other kinds of frozen pizza.
This also really matters to me: “All profits go to charity. Newman’s Own Foundation continues Paul Newman’s commitment to donate all profits to charity. Over $300 million has been given to thousands of charities since 1982.”
God rest his gorgeous aquamarine-eyed soul! I mean, come on–good pizza AND altruism? I’d certainly rather support that than just help make some corporation richer!
(I kept the vibe going by recycling the pizza boxes.)
Bottom line : My official Babybloomr.com opinion is that Newman’s Own Thin and Crispy frozen pizzas are a very tasty, health-conscious alternative to delivery pizza at about half the cost, with the added bonus of making you feel a little We Are The World-ish.
I give it three out of four ‘Bloomrs!
FREE STUFF ALERT!
Hold up! THERE’S ONE LAST THING YOU NEED TO KNOW.
I’m hosting a giveaway—one of you, my sweet readers, will win a Newman’s Own Gift Basket, valued at $75!
Leave me a comment about pizza and you will automatically be entered into a random drawing to win. It’s that easy!
Winner will be announced on November 7, 2010. GOOD LUCK!
See the official rules for more details.
Disclosure: I was compensated for this sponsored review.
