On and off I write about really cheap frozen pizza. Last week's Mother's Day flyer from Superstore introduced me to really cheap perogies. I haven't tried the Superstore No Name brand yet (which are even cheaper), but Cheemo does make some really decent tasting perogies, and the small 907g boxes were selling for just $1.98 -- which you can compare with frozen pizza deals typically at $5 for around 800g (less if you go for thin crust).
Obviously there's less interesting colour and ingredients if you go for perogies over pizza, but in return you are getting a comparatively great price, convenience, and time savings (they are pre-cooked, so they can be ready quite quickly). They are also easier to transport if you are prepping them for brown bagging your lunch.
So far I've tried the Three Cheese and the Potato, Bacon, and Romano Cheese varieties. I prefer the latter as it has a pronounced bacon flavour to jazz it up a bit more. Overall, the perogies look quite fat, and have a thin edge/seal to them, so they are clearly maximizing the fillings (even if it is mostly potato inside) for your dollars spent.
If you have a bit of time on your hands and want to kick things up a notch, the Cheemo website has many easy recipes using their perogies. Some are quite inventive and interesting, such as Perogy Clam Shells (recipe). They do use more of their product line in their recipes such as bite-sized perogies and whole wheat perogies, so you might have to adapt a bit if you're stuck with the basic selection at Superstore.
The instructions on the back warn not to deep fry the perogies. This is probably because the perogy might expand and break open, or if you throw them in frozen, there could be an explosive hot oil and steam bubble-up. I've fried them before (safely) and they just result in a chewier crust, so there's no real advantage over searing them in a frying pan. In fact, deep frying will just result in more oil, as opposed to pan frying, especially if you use a no-oil-required non-stick pan.
Obviously there's less interesting colour and ingredients if you go for perogies over pizza, but in return you are getting a comparatively great price, convenience, and time savings (they are pre-cooked, so they can be ready quite quickly). They are also easier to transport if you are prepping them for brown bagging your lunch.
So far I've tried the Three Cheese and the Potato, Bacon, and Romano Cheese varieties. I prefer the latter as it has a pronounced bacon flavour to jazz it up a bit more. Overall, the perogies look quite fat, and have a thin edge/seal to them, so they are clearly maximizing the fillings (even if it is mostly potato inside) for your dollars spent.
If you have a bit of time on your hands and want to kick things up a notch, the Cheemo website has many easy recipes using their perogies. Some are quite inventive and interesting, such as Perogy Clam Shells (recipe). They do use more of their product line in their recipes such as bite-sized perogies and whole wheat perogies, so you might have to adapt a bit if you're stuck with the basic selection at Superstore.
The instructions on the back warn not to deep fry the perogies. This is probably because the perogy might expand and break open, or if you throw them in frozen, there could be an explosive hot oil and steam bubble-up. I've fried them before (safely) and they just result in a chewier crust, so there's no real advantage over searing them in a frying pan. In fact, deep frying will just result in more oil, as opposed to pan frying, especially if you use a no-oil-required non-stick pan.
I always go for the No-name brand perogies... they taste about as good but are even cheaper. Perogies are one of my favorites (along with good pizza of course.)
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