Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

For years now, you can get very cheap full-sized frozen pizza for about $5 at Superstore. Smaller "gourmet" ones used to come in at around $8, but this week there are some for sale at around $3. I picked up a couple of Buitoni  at $3.32 each (limit 2) and one McCain Ultra Thin Crust Roasted Mushroom and Garlic  at $3. I'm feeling veggie conscious so I picked only vegetarian pizzas. The Buitoni Spinaci Fresca was the first ever Buitoni product I've tried and it was shocking. The Nutrition Facts (which I never read beforehand) confirmed it wasn't a factory fluke -- 500 mg Sodium per 90 gram (quarter pizza) serving. The McCain Ultra Thin Crust Roasted Mushroom and Garlic wasn't significantly better at 310 mg Sodium per 86 gram (quarter pizza) serving, but the taste was what made the Buitoni pizza so surprising: It was as if someone had sprinkled extra salt on a pizza. It wasn't an experience of savoury-salty ingredients or sauce, but more like a...

On and off I've written about cheap frozen pizza. Typically they hit a low price of about $5 for a typical large pizza. Well now there's frozen pizza that's even cheaper. This week at the IGA Marketplace near Metrotown , they are selling McCain's Traditional Crust frozen pizza at 4 for $10. That works out to $2.50 per pizza, AND you can save an extra $0.03 if you bring your own bag instead of taking one of their plastic bags. The crust is thin enough to approach being "thin crust", and doesn't expand significantly when you bake it. Since other thin crust pizzas weighing in between 450 and 500 grams can be $5, this is a fantastic deal that's on this week. So what's the catch? Well... It's slightly smaller than the other pizzas. It's hard to tell just by looking at the box, but the suspiciously lower weight should that away. The tomato sauce is drastically reduced. In fact, there are many locations on the "Deluxe" pizza ...

If you haven't seen this week's flyer for Save-on-Foods , you're missing out on what is probably the cheapest pizza by the pound without needing a Costco membership. In fact, in comparison to Costco, Save-on-Foods pays you to buy it with their points program. And last time I checked, Costco only had the one flavour -- pepperoni. In previous posts, I talked about pizza wars between Save-on-Foods and Superstore. Well, surprisingly, Save-on-Foods has now undercut Superstore by a mile with $10 for 3 large pizzas. It's not uncommon now to find $5 per pizza or $10 for two Delissio pizzas. In the past, it had gone to as low as $4 . At almost 1 kilogram, the pizzas are big enough to cut into thirds for three dinners, or quarters for four lunches. That works out to about a dollar a meal! But how does it taste, you ask? (Huh? You want bulk AND taste too? Next you'll be demanding actual decent nutritional value. Pfft...) So far I've popped open just the Four Chee...

If you've read this blog on and off, you may know that I've been quite pleased with the value-for-dollar of frozen pizza . With pizza wars between Superstore and Save-On-Foods driving down the price to a few pennies less than $5 every now and then, it's hard to shake off $5 as being the par price for reasonable quality. Every year, Superstore / President's Choice comes up with new products, and there were a few new pizza products in the latest flyer. One of them is the PC Cheese Rip and Dip Pizza (there's also a pepperoni one). It's a new product, so you can expect the price to be closer to $8. It's also a great idea IN THEORY -- There's the convenience of not having to cut the pizza after you bake it, plus it comes with dipping sauce (which basically tastes like spaghetti sauce). Also not much crust, since you're pulling chunks apart. Finally, the crust/bread is already baked (and too brown, almost burnt-looking, on top, in my opinion...

Happy days are here! For singles who can't cook, anyway. Way back, I wrote about massive almost-1-kilogram frozen pizza deal at Superstore or Save on Foods for $5 or a few cents under . Those deals are sometimes still around, but the latest craze seems to be smaller pizzas which are more or less personal-sized (although 2 pizzas can probably be a moderate dinner for 3 people, especially if you throw in a bit of home-made salad or garlic bread). They have lighter crusts or sometimes thin crusts, and interesting ingredients -- and are on sale for a few cents less than $4. The up side of this is a slightly smaller serving so you don't feel inclined to polish off a pizza that's normally too much for you, and there's no troublesome leftover pizza to re-heat the next day. Also, if you still believe in a low-carb diet , then less crust should please you. So far, I rather like Dr. Oetker's Panebello Pizza , which features a slightly thinner crust, but not exactly fl...

Hi Everyone! You may know I'm into the sinful joys of easy "cooking" with frozen pizzas from SuperStore or Save On Foods, what with the apparent price war they've had on and off this year, with pizzas coming in as low as $5 or slightly under. Going into the holidays, it looks like SuperStore is helping us out after the +7% HST by offering cheap pizza again. This time at $4 per pizza ! Still not as good as Costco's 3 pizzas for $10 in terms of price per pound of pizza, but close, and with wider variety and thin crust option for the waist-conscious. Sadly, I haven't seen the $4 ones at the Metrotown SuperStore, and the $5 pizzas they did have there looked big as far as the box goes, but if if you let it slide about inside, you'll realize it's probably 1" to 2" less than the box in diameter, if not more. After some unfortunate experiences earlier this year with thin-crust pizza from Delissio , I decided to give them a pass for now. Inst...

You may have read my recent post about Marcello's on Commercial Drive . Now Commercial Drive has a lot of moderate-to-cheaper restaurants, unlike often-overpriced to way-overpriced downtown Vancouver and Yaletown. I coughed up $14.95 for a medium pizza (plus 12% HST plus tip). The very next day, this landed in my fridge: Turns out Superstore (Metrotown, Burnaby, BC) was having a sale on Nestle (formerly Kraft) Delissio pizza. $4.97 (maximum 2 at this price; otherwise $7.57). They aren't kidding that it's garlic bread pizza because the garlic flavor came through strongly, though not overwhelmingly or making the pizza bitter. On top of that are bruschetta-style toppings evenly on the pizza and all the way to the edge. The square shape makes maximum use of the box (and your oven). It weighs in at 880 grams. IT WAS TASTY. So, looking back at Marcello's... I could have gotten THREE pizzas for the same price, in the comfort of my own home, and not have had to ti...

Alrighty! The Save-On-Foods Delissio pizza weekend was last week, and here's the fallout: My mom liked the rising crust chicken-meat ones (something about the mix of spices, I think), and they were still as they were. (Hawaiian? meh...) However, she also got all carb-conscious on me and wanted thin-crust. Three kinds were available, and sad to say, toppings were skimpy (it always looks better in ad copy...). Half the weight, less toppings, but same price. You figure it out. Delissio , formerly owned by Kraft, is now owned by Nestle, apparently. Change in management -> reduction in toppings? (-_-;) There was also frozen pork tenderloin at $1.99/pound. I saw some seniors really raking these in. It didn't look like many people bought them, but when they did, they hauled home 10+ packs! They aren't afraid of cooking, I guess. (^_^) My sister popped by just yesterday (Saturday July 17th) and brought over frozen Costco pepperoni pizza. Yes, you have to be a member (or at ...

Hi Everyone! Months ago I wrote about "frozen pizza wars" between Superstore and Save-on-Foods, with Kraft Delissio pizza being sold at under $5. Well, super-cheap pizza is back! This weekend (Fri/Sat/Sun), Save-On-Foods at Metrotown is offering Kraft Delissio at $2.20 off their regular price -- $4.79! Limit 2 per person, and there's typically a wide selection unless the rush is over and the shelves are more or less bare. If you hunt around a bit, you will also probably be able to find thin-crust versions of each pizza. Handy if you're on a carb-conscious / crust-conscious diet. What with the HST in place and prices going up in various ways, thank God for cheap, delicious, pizza!

Hi Everyone! If you haven't been frozen-pizza-shopping at Superstore in the last few months, you may have completely missed out on what appeared to be a price war among frozen pizzas (or, Superstore struggling to clear out stock?). It was only recently, however, that things got really good for the consumer when Kraft Delissio pizza was, briefly, offered at a low $4.98 (and over 800 grams), not advertised in the weekly flyer. I suppose since they flew off the shelves like, er, "hot cakes", SuperStore quickly increased the price to almost $7 now. Still, it was really tasty stuff (my mom especially liked the Bruschetta). Things got even better this week when Save-On-Foods trumped them price-per-pound with Wild Mike's Ultimate Pizza . 15-inch , and $10 for two (2) , weighing in at up to 1.05 kg, and working out to a supposed savings of almost $4 per pizza off the regular price. I've tried the Pepperoni one so far, and although it looks horrid (meat ingredien...