Steven Helmer Publications

  We are expecting a snowstorm tomorrow, so I went to the grocery store for some necessities (AKA cat food) just in case we got snowed in. While there, I figured I'd pick up something for lunch so we could save Thanksgiving leftovers for dinner and decided to finally give Ragu Frozen Pizza a try since it was on sale for $5.99. Overall, I'd say the pizza exceeded my expectations, though it did fall a bit short of being one of my favorite frozen pizza choices. We made it this afternoon as planned, and my wife and I were both impressed with the taste. The sauce had a good flavor while the pepperoni and sausage added a bit of spice without being too spicy.  I also liked the crust, which was the perfect balance of not being too thin while also not being too thick. This resulted in it having just the right amount of crispiness when making it with our pizza oven. My only real complaint about the pizza was the lack of toppings, both quantity and variety. Normally, if I hear the descri...

  My wife and I decided on frozen pizza for dinner last night and, while at the store, I decided to give Motor City Pizza Co. Supreme Detroit-Style Deep Dish Pizza a try. I've seen this product before but was turned off by the $11.99 price. However, since none of the other pizzas happened to be on sale, it wasn't much more expensive than the alternatives. As it turns out, it is now one of our favorites. There were a couple things that really stood out about this frozen pizza brand. The main one was the crust. It was thick and, thanks to the pan you bake it in, came out crispy without being too hard, just the way my wife and I like pizza. I was also surprised by the number of toppings on the pizza. A lot of other brands tend to skimp on those, but this one had a decent quantity. It both added flavor to the pizza (along with the well-seasoned sauce) and made it filling. We even have leftovers, something that is rare with frozen brands. Final Opinion: It's not a brand I'm...

  I spotted Lucia's Morning Melts Breakfast Pizzas a few weeks ago but decided not to get them because I thought they were a bit too expensive. However, I saw they were on sale yesterday and picked up a couple to give them a try, including the Americano Breakfast Pizza I made this morning. Unfortunately, even on sale for $4.99 each, I don't think they were worth the money. One thing I did like about this product was the ability to make it in the microwave rather than needing to dig out my pizza oven or preheat my kitchen oven. And, unlike some other microwaveable pizzas, this one did come out of the microwave with a crunchy crust. The biggest complaint I had (and my wife shared this) was all I could taste was the crust. The toppings were a bit lacking, and I didn't think it had a whole lot of flavor.  At best, even at my most generous, I couldn't say this was any better than any other frozen breakfast pizza I've purchased. In fact, there were two brands in the same ...

We spent Christmas with family and after driving home for three hours in a thick fog yesterday, I ended up keeping dinner simple and just picked up a couple frozen pizzas when I went to the store to get cat food. After reviewing a couple choices, I decided to give Lippers Deluxe Pizza a try, both because it was on sale for $5.99 each and because it was made in Wisconsin. I didn't regret the decision. I won't say it is the best frozen pizza I've ever purchased but for a lower-priced brand, it turned out to be pretty good. There were a reasonable number of toppings and plenty of cheese. While I'm not normally a thin crust fan, I did like how the crust on this pizza came out crispy without being hard to the point I was afraid of breaking my teeth. The sauce on this pizza was also decent as well. It had plenty of seasoning and, just as important, there was the right quantity. The pizza wasn't dry, but it also wasn't overflowing with it (something that can make pizza...

  I decided on frozen pizza a couple nights ago, mostly because I wasn't in the mood to wash dishes. After checking out a variety of options, I settled on the 5 Meat Pizza from Village Pub, mostly because it is a company out of nearby Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It ended up being an OK choice, at least as far as frozen pizzas are concerned. One thing that I was impressed with was the number of toppings on the pizza. I've had plenty of other pizzas that promised multiple meats and I could, at most pick out only a couple of them. This was reasonably loaded for the $5.99 price I paid for it  I thought the pizza had a decent amount of seasoning on it as well. There was enough to give it some flavor without going overboard. Believe me, I've had plenty of pizzas that tasted like someone dumped a full container of pepper on them while others barely had taste at all. This fit nicely in between. I had some mixed opinions about the crust. I'm not usually a thin crust fan to begin with an...

  I've seen this particular brand of frozen pizzas at a couple different grocery stores but was reluctant to try it because the $7.99 price seemed a little too high for a frozen brand (I can buy plenty of others for a couple dollars less). However, I had a coupon for one and decided to try it at the discounted price yesterday evening. Overall, I have to say I was impressed. A couple things really stood out for me when it came to this brand. One of the main ones was the generous number of toppings on the pizza . There was a lot more meat on this pizza than I would normally expect from a frozen brand, but it also had a lot of cheese as well. This made the pizza very filling. I also liked the crust on this pizza. It wasn't overly thick, but I also wouldn't refer to this as a thin-crust pizza either. Basically, it was thin enough to get crispy on our pizza oven while being thick enough to keep the toppings from sliding off when we picked up a slice. That's a good combo in ...

Kwik Trip was running a special on Pothole Pizzas last week, buy two and get a 25 cent/gallon discount on gasoline. Since I knew we would likely need something simple for dinner this past weekend (my oldest daughter graduated high school), I took advantage of the offer. Worst case was the pizza would just stay in our freezer for another day. I ended up picking out the Kitchen Sink pizza because of the variety of toppings on it, ranging from sausage and pepperoni to various vegetables. Overall, it ended up being a good choice. Normally, I'm not a huge fan of thin crust pizzas because I rarely feel as though I got my money's worth. That was not the case with this brand. Unlike most other thin crust frozen pizzas, this one was filling, to the point I was feeling full after only two slices rather than my usual four. A big part of the reason for this was the generous amounts of toppings on this pizza. This was especially true of the sausage, both because of the quantity and the siz...

Either it's a new product, none of our local stores have carried it or I just wasn't paying attention, but I wasn't aware Bellatoria even offered a pan crust variety of pizza until discovering it a couple days ago. I was somewhat intrigued and, since it was on sale, picked up one for dinner. After having it, I have to say I was very impressed. There were a couple things that really stood out about this pizza with the main one being the crust. My wife and I both loved it. It came out of our oven crispy on the outside but still soft on the inside. This made the entire pizza much more enjoyable and, as a result, I found I wasn't throwing out part of the crust for the squirrels (something that is kind of rare for me). I also thought this pizza brand was fairly generous with the toppings, at least when compared to other frozen pizzas I've had. This is especially true of the cheese. I've had way too many frozen pizzas that had almost no cheese on them so this w...

Product Description: "All natural" frozen pizza from the Mystic brand with sausage, mushrooms, uncured pepperoni, green peppers, red peppers and onions. I ended up purchasing this pizza yesterday evening while doing some shopping at one of our local grocery stores for $5. I prepared it for dinner that night. You can read my review here:  https://wizzley.com/review-of-mystic-all-natural-house-special-pizza/

My wife was running some errands yesterday afternoon and, since she had to stop by the grocery store anyway, decided to pick up some frozen pizzas for dinner. We had never had this brand before and was interested in something a little different so she brought home the BBQ Recipe Pulled Pork & Bacon variety. To tell you the truth, my wife probably enjoyed this pizza a lot more than I did. While she likes a variety of toppings and sauces on pizza, I am much happier with something a little more basic and, while I won't say I hated the pork and barbecue sauce, it really wasn't my thing. That being said, there were some things I did find I liked about this product. One thing, in particular, I found I did like about this pizza was the deep-dish crust. I've had this with some other frozen pizza brands but, more often than not, haven't been overly impressed with it. This one came out just the way I prefer it, a little crispy without being hard. The pizza also...

My wife and I didn't have solid dinner plans last night so, as is usually the case when that happens, I wound up stopping at the grocery store on my way home and picking up a couple frozen pizzas for dinner. Since my daughters just like cheese pizza, I wound up getting them a cheap brand. But, I was in the mood to try something a little different so, after some consideration, I purchased the Pep's Drafthaus Prohibition Special for my wife and I. At $8.99, this pizza was more expensive than I would normally prefer to spend on a frozen pizza and, because of that, I did have some second thoughts about my purchase. However, cooking this pizza on our pizza oven last night and giving it a try, I do have to say I was very impressed with it. One of the reasons I took a chance on this brand when I saw it in the freezer was it looked like it had quite a few toppings on it. This included a lot of cheese, sausage, mushrooms, pepperoni, peppers and onions. Since lack of topping...

Last night was our typical Monday night. My wife was at the dance studio with our youngest daughter until 7:30 and I was at the skating rink with our oldest daughter for part of the evening as well. As a result, we needed to figure out something simple for us to have for dinner and ultimately decided on a frozen pizza. I have a couple cheese pizzas in our freezer already but, since my daughter and I were across the street from the grocery store anyway, I decided to stop there and pick out something with some toppings and ended up buying a Palermo's King Cheese Supreme Pizza. This was actually my first time trying this particular pizza. I've seen it before, but never took the time to purchase it, both because it has a thinner crust and it is normally around $10. However, it happened to be on sale yesterday ($4.99) so I decided to use that as an excuse to try it. As was expected, I was less than thrilled with the thinner crust on this pizza. As is usually the case with t...

One of our local grocery stores had a coupon for Roma frozen pizzas this week (7 for $10) and, knowing there will be days when frozen pizza is the best option for dinner, I decided to take advantage of it. The pizzas filled up our freezer a little too much, however, and, since we needed the space, I decided to make pizza for dinner last night. Mostly because it was the one variety that didn't require me to dig to the bottom of the freezer, I picked out the Canadian Style Bacon pizza. This was my first time having this variety and I wasn't really sure what to expect from it. But, it turned out to be pretty good. Much like other pizzas from this brand, the Canadian Style Bacon variety had a thin crust (a little too thin for me) and was a bit on the small side. This, however, is something that doesn't bother me too much when it's a bargain brand like this one. I was, however, somewhat impressed with the quantity of bacon on the pizza. This wasn't the case ...

My wife and I were both home all day yesterday. But, mostly because we spent a good chunk of the day assembling a birthday gift for our daughter (a bike), neither of us thought to make plans for dinner. As a result, since one daughter had dance class and the other had skating practice , we ended up settling on frozen pizza. We recently visited Costco and actually had some cheese pizzas in our freezer as a result. But, while I knew the kids would be happy with that, I wanted a little more and, since I had to stop by the store for milk anyway, I ended up buying one from the Screamin' Sicillian brand. This is a product I considered buying before. However, the pizzas are usually a little too expensive for my budget. The only reason I decided to give it a try last night was they happened to be on sale. Unfortunately, even at the reduced price, I'm not sure it was worth the $5.99 I spent on it. To be fair, I didn't hate this pizza. I thought it had a good flavor to it ...