Best Frozen Pizza Reviews 2018: Top 5+ Recommended
So, last week I had a ton of chores around the house, since we had some remodeling projects. Cooking a meal from scratch was out of the picture. My boys were thrilled, not because they don’t love my food, but because that seemed as the perfect moment to order pizza from their favorite pizzeria.
However, since mother knows best, I have already predicted this situation and bought several frozen pizzas in the supermarket, because, to be honest, they are quite cheaper than the ones from pizzerias, and while they are not actually a culinary delight, there is a quite decent chance to find a very good pizza among the bunch.
For someone who is very enthusiastic about everything associated with cooking, even thinking about frozen food was difficult, but after a lot of effort invested, I have finally learned what the best frozen pizza out there is, and I’ll share my choice with you to spare you the same trouble.
But first, a little something on the factors I considered in the process of making that decision.
Serving Size
Let’s start with the simplest factor – serving size.
For most products, the serving size is individual-sized pizza, but even those size vary, from 4oz per pie to 27oz per pie.
If you are buying frozen pizza to go with your binge-watching Sunday eve (we've all been there) than the size isn't that big of a factor.
But when it comes to a meal for a family of four members it is something you should pay attention to.
The Nutritional Value
As a mother, I find it immensely important for the food to be as healthy as possible. Of course, I don’t expect wonders from frozen pizza, but at least it shouldn’t be a carb-bomb.
When you are looking into nutritional ratings, you should pay special attention to calories (per gram of food), total fat, including trans fat and saturated fat, sugars, sodium, calcium, iron and dietary fiber.
Ratings you should pay the most attention to are saturated fat and sodium.
You definitely want to get a pizza that has less of both.
My recommendation is to never go for more than 600 milligrams of sodium and four grams of saturated fat per serving. These figures are one-quarter of a day's sodium limit a fifth of the daily upper limit for saturated fat.
The Crust
The crust determines crispness, softness and a large part of nutritional ratings.
Up until recently, it was almost impossible to find a pizza crust that is healthy and isn’t made of white flour and packed with refined sugar.
Fortunately, with the recent healthy-food craze, there are a lot of frozen pizzas available with crusts made of whole-grain flour, and even cauliflower crusts.
Gluten-free pizza crusts are no longer a part of a distant dream; now they are widely available in almost every super market across the states.
Also, stuffed-crust pizzas may be very tempting, but they are also high in fat and calories, so keeping it simple with the thin crust is a wiser choice.
See Also: Best Flour Sifter
The Toppings
Your usual consumer logic is probably telling you the more toppings, the better, but is that actually true? Simple pizzas with basic toppings have fewer calories.
Pizzas without cheese contain far less fat, but if you can't imagine yourself eating a pizza without cheese, at least try to forgo some of the most fattening toppings like pepperoni, extra cheese, and sausage.
You should look for ingredients that are natural and organic, or at least minimally processed.
Vegetables, such as bell peppers and onions are welcome because they enrich the taste of pizza without adding more fat. Turkey sausage is a healthier alternative to pork.
Price
Finally, it is the price that can help you make your call, since most people are buying frozen pizza to save money.
Of, course, the price will depend on the number of servings per case, but also on the manufacturer’s reputation and the used ingredients.
Bonus: How to make your frozen pizza better?
Frozen pizzas can be great, but they are far from being the perfect Sunday family meal. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t make them if just a little bit better, by following some tips. I tried various tricks, some of them worked, and some of them were a disaster (let's not talk about those).
Here are the best things I learned from the process:
- Make sure you preheat the oven to the temperature stated on the package.
- Don’t thaw the pie before cooking.
- Always follow the manufacturer’s recommended instructions.
- If you prefer a crispy crust, you should bake the pizza directly on the oven rack. Using a cookie sheet can result in an unevenly baked crust.
- Always cut with a pizza cutter.
- If the pizza is heavy with cheese, feel free to scrap it off to make it a bit healthier.
- You can buy a pizza without cheese and use a healthier organic variety of cheese (e.g., part-skim mozzarella).
- Make the pizza more nutritious by adding your veggies before cooking (e.g., onions, bell peppers, spinach or broccoli).
- You can also buy only a crust without toppings and choose your toppings.
- For more protein, include shrimp, soy-based pepperoni or grilled chicken.
Top Five Most Recommended Frozen Pizzas - Barbara's Reviews 2018
Now that we have all that figured out, it is time to see which one of the top-rated frozen pizzas I tried is my choice for the best frozen pizza you can buy.
Image Credit: Amazon.com
Remember what we talked about the nutritional value of the pizza crust?
Caulipower is one of the healthiest frozen pizzas available on the market, which is not only gluten-free but also contains only 150mg of sodium, and 1g of saturated fat per serving. I'm very satisfied that I could find something as healthy as this pizza to serve my kids.
However, speaking of my boys, they needed some time to get used to the pizza crust which, according to them wasn't "salty and doughy enough" and it tasted like "polenta." I had no problems with the taste of the crust. While it was very much different than pizza we order from the pizzerias, it still tasted good, and the texture was crispy like when eating crackers.
Caulipower is available in four varieties. One is plain crust you can layer with your favorite toppings, and the other three are classic pizzas – veggie, three cheese, and margarita.
Although this pizza is quite progress in the world of frozen foods, it still has some nutritional issues, such as cornstarch and flour mixed into the crust, and 26 carbs per piece.
What I Liked
What I Didn’t Like
Image Credit: Amazon.com
As you might have noticed, I take the nutritional ratings very seriously, and I want to make sure that even in situations of necessity my children have access to healthy foods that provide them with enough energy and doesn't have too much harmful fat.
This is another gluten-free pizza that contains only four grams of carbs per slice and 25 grams of protein per serving. How is that possible?
Well, for once, the crust is made of chicken breast (pure protein), parmesan cheese and broth. Other ingredients, such as tomato sauce, vegetables (green and red bell peppers, onion, and black olives), pepperoni and Italian sausage are minimally processed.
I'm not that big of a fan of so lavish layer of topping, because, as I mentioned in the buying guide, they can only increase the number of calories and amount of fat, especially products made of pork, such as pepperoni and Italian sausage. Also, while it is low in carbs, this pizza is high in fat, but it's not really a solution to one problem to replace it with another.
The taste is great, and I’m especially thrilled with the generous amount of vegetables included in the topping.
What I Liked
What I Didn’t Like
Image Credit: Amazon.com
If I had to be honest, I'd say that the first thing that attracts my attention with this pizza is the shape, and I ordered it because I thought it would be interesting to square pizza, especially because it reminds me of all those meals in high school restaurant. But this is not the only thing that is important to know about Tony’s breakfast squares.
The crust is made of 50 percent whole grains. The toppings are also very healthy and nutritious. Instead of pepperoni or Italian sausage, these squares are topped with flavorful turkey sausage and a blend of equal proportions of real mozzarella and substitute cheese.
With two grams of saturated fat per serving and 330 mg of sodium, this pizza meets my expectations when it comes to nutritional ratings. It is prepared for about 17 minutes so that you can enjoy it pretty fast.
What I Liked
What I Didn’t Like
Image Credit: Amazon.com
You know how there is always one brand, one manufacturer you trust when you are buying all sorts of things, ranging from clothes to furniture?
Well, for frozen pizzas Home Run Inn is that one brand that has the nation’s trust. And I’m not saying there is no reason to trust them.
This pizza is the classic cheese pizza, and as you may probably guess, if it were up to my picky eaters, Home Run would be the obvious winner of this challenge. As for me? Wait and see.
There is no doubt that this premium cheese pie is incredibly delicious, to the point that once it is cooked properly, you can’t even tell whether it is a frozen pizza or a delivery one. The tomato-based sauce is the right combination of sweet and sour, and the pre-cooked cheese makes a huge difference in the final result.
So, is everything perfect?
Not really, although I trust the Home Run Inn brand that their ingredients are all natural and non-processed, I would still love for the crust to be made of a healthier alternative to white flour dough.
What I Liked
What I Didn’t Like
Image Credit: Amazon.com
Another classic style pizza, Celeste pepperoni provides with authentic (as authentic as it gets with frozen food) Italian taste and look.
My biggest issue with this pizza is that it is as far from healthy as it gets, because not only it contains seven grams of saturated fat per serving, but it also has more than 200 milligrams of sodium above the recommended limit. Add 40 grams of carbs to it, and you’ve got yourself a real fat bomb.
With that being said, it is pretty obvious why this is another one of my kids' favorite. The pepperoni is made with both pork and chicken, and the amount of cheese is quite over-the-top for my taste, especially when you count in the number of calories and fat in that cheese.
I don't really like the taste and the texture of the cheese once it is melted, it reminds me more of plastic than a dairy product. A lot of the ingredients are worrisome, to say the least.
For example, the topping contains modified corn starch, xanthan gum, titanium dioxide, modified potato starch and many other brow-rising things.
What I Liked
What I Didn’t Like
And the Winner Is….
I bet you are anxious to see my choice, but first I have to explain that health was the absolute priority here and the taste was important but secondary.
With that in mind, the best frozen pizza out of these five is most definitely Tonys Sausage and Country Gravy Breakfast Pizza, because it is the perfect balance between the two.
Cauliflower pizza and Low Carb pizza are good, but they still have some nutritional issues to solve.
And to the request of my sons, I have to name the HOME RUN INN PIZZA PREMIUM CHEESE the runner-up in this competition because of its taste, crust and texture are the closest it gets to a pizza from their favorite pizzeria. 🙂
