Last night I wanted to just chill out, watching the Olympics, and chow down on pizza.  Being cash poor, however, I couldn’t order out for one of my regulars:  Papa John’s or Pizza Hut. There seems to be several other pizza companies delivering around here, but I do not and will not use them.  I like what I like and that’s good enough.

But anyway, I didn’t have enough money to warrant spending $20 for delivery (pizza, plus delivery charge, plus tip).

So, I went to Kroger to search out their options for a frozen pizza.  Among the name-brands I found the Kroger house brand:  “Private Selection”.

Yes, that’s not a trick of photography; it really is an oval or egg-shaped small pizza.  And, you are seeing the finished product after 15 minutes in a 425º oven.  It looks better in the kitchen than it does in the picture.  And very much edible.

The “Private Selection” label is probably a premium label — i.e., not just a store brand generic product, but a cut above and similar to other ‘gourmet’ style products.  This product, a “Marble Hearth Baked Pizza” was racked near the DiGiorno, Newman’s Own, and similar products.   It was priced at $5.99, but because I have a Kroger card* it was only $3.99, and with my 10% senior discount, the pizza only cost me $3.59.  According to the package, it has 3 servings.

The ingredients don’t include bizarre-sounding chemicals and weird shit that puts me off of other products.

The taste is generally as I expected and definitely acceptable.  I’m no foodie, not an expert on international cuisine, or anything like that.  I am a somewhat picky eater on an extremely limited budget.

Would I buy this product again?   Oh yes, definitely, and will try some the other topping options.

Would I recommend this product to others?   Again, yes, I would recommend others try this.

Would I serve this to company?  It depends on who it is;  if the grandkids are visiting, I would have no problem popping a couple of these into the oven (and people who know me and my opinions of kids-and-fastfood know this is a conscious thumbs-up; no burgers-and-fries crap on my dime!).  If there were friends dropping by unannounced for an evening visit, then sure I’d do up one of these, open a beer and focus on pleasant conversvation.   If I had invited people to “come for dinner”, I would actually cook a meal from scratch, not use a frozen product like this.

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* the Kroger shopper’s card is similar to the affinity cards offered by most grocery stores these days.   You get discounts, especially on house brand products.   Yes, I am aware that affinity cards are also used by stores to collect data on buying habits along with my demographic info (age, sex, etc.).  Some people are bothered by this, but I don’t mind — my purchases help the local store determine what types of products its customers want.  And each month I get in-store coupons for things I actually buy regularly.  Like, almost every month I get a free can of coffee, plus nice coupons for many other items that I often buy.