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The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later you're hungry again. ~George Miller

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Progresso Vegetable Classics Lentil Soup

May 15, 2007 | Reviewer: Rebecca

Price: $1.79
Serving: 1/2 can, 9.5 oz.
Calories: 150
Fat: 3%, 2g
Cholesterol: 0%, 0mg
Sodium: 36%, 870mg
Carbohydrates: 21%, 28g
Fiber: 20%, 5g
Protein: 9g

Progresso says: A traditional Italian combination of lentils and spinach gives this naturally flavorful soup an authentic Italian taste.

Rebecca says: According to their website, Progresso's slogan is "A Taste of the Good Life." Indeed, Progresso's Vegetable Classics Lentil soup was quite tasty. It had the salty, onion-y flavor of restaurant lentil soup and didn't seem to miss anything by absence of onion pieces, carrots, or tomatoes which were suggested in the recipe I found for lentil soup online.

As one can see from the picture, the lentils sunk to the bottom, which gave the illusion of too much broth. However, unlike the Gumbo I previously reviewed, a quick stir resulted in a nice mix of broth and lentils. The lentils themselves were flavorful and neither too mushy nor too crunchy.

There were pieces of spinach and celery throughout the soup which were, amazingly, the same size as the lentils. This attention to detail must be evidence of the "good life" Progresso reveals to us. As I ate the soup in full spoonfuls, I could not identify the taste of these vegetables as they were outnumbered and out-textured by the lentils. Mostly, I just tasted the lentil-onion combination.

The only thing missing from this meal was a crusty piece of bread which would have been great to help scoop out the lentils. I'll have to make sure to get that for next time. Although the soup claims to be an excellent source of fiber (especially because I consumed both servings), I needed my afternoon snack earlier than usual. Perhaps some bread would have postponed the hunger a bit longer.

Amy’s Kitchen Veggie Combo Pizza

May 10, 2007 | Reviewer: Abi

Price: $6.99
Serving: 1/3 pizza, 5.33 oz.
Calories: 300
Fat: 22%, 13g
Cholesterol: 4%, 10mg
Sodium: 24%, 680mg
Protein: 10g
Carbs: 12%, 36g
Fiber: 4%, 1g

Amy’s Kitchen says: Here it is, in all its glory; the classic vegetarian combination with ‘the works’ - mushrooms, olives, artichoke hearts, onions and golden peppers along with Amy’s special pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese. This is one terrific pizza!

Abi says: As a child I only ate two types of pizza: cheese and pepperoni. Yes, I was a boring eater. My mom and dad loved combination-style pizza, topped with sausage and pepperoni and mushrooms and olives. Sadly, I found this melange disgusting. In fact, I still don’t like mushrooms or olives. I also detest anise-seasoned sausage (though star-anise is needed for pho - and I love pho). Why don’t I like mushrooms or olives? They have a texture best described as ‘rotting human flesh.’ Not that I’ve ever consumed rotting human flesh, but I understand the potential mouthfeel.

Fortunately, this pizza isn’t anything like rotting human flesh. In fact, it was delicious. A five star pizza! These are superlatives that post-rigor mortis skin cannot claim. The vegetables on Amy’s Veggie Combo Pizza were diced, a painstaking process essential for things like Black Bean Confetti Salad and a necessary step if one does not enjoy mushroom corpse-tissue. Thanks whoever at the Amy’s test kitchen decided that. Also, this pizza seemed to have more cheese than any other pizza we tested that night. It definitely had as much cheese as the cheese pizza, which is sort of disappointing if you figure that the only topping on a cheese pizza is cheese, so shouldn’t you get a lot of it?

With one exception, every single member of the tasting panel loved this pizza. Yes, there were the claims that the addition of sausage would catapult Amy’s Veggie Combo to the top of the charts, but this is a vegetarian pizza and thus we rate it in relation to other vegetarian pizzas.

The person who did not enjoy the pizza? Well, she claimed that it was not salty enough or olive-y enough. If lack of oliveyness doesn’t bother you (and quite frankly, if you’re not a flesh-eating-zombie, it shouldn’t), but you’re looking for a hearty veggie pizza, keep one of these in the freezer.

This pizza was provided to HeatEatReview.com by the PR folks at Amy’s Kitchen. Yes, it was free. Yay for free stuff! No, they probably didn’t expect us to use the term ‘rotting human flesh’ in the review.

Amy’s Pesto Pizza

May 9, 2007 | Reviewer: Abi

Price: $6.99
Serving: 1/3 pizza, 4.5 oz.
Calories: 310
Fat: 18%, 12g
Cholesterol: 4%, 105mg
Sodium: 20%, 480mg
Protein: 12g
Carbs: 13%, 39g
Fiber: 8%, 2g

Amy’s Kitchen says: Light tender crust topped with Amy’s homemade pesto, part skim mozzarella cheese, garden fresh organic tomato slices and broccoli florets.

Abi says: The most disappointing part of this pizza was the tomatoes. They didn’t emerge from the oven with the bright red loveliness depicted on the box. Instead, they were a rather homely shade of dull salmon. It was not a pretty sight. Fortunately, the broccoli was verdant and the taste testers were eager to try something that did not include a cornmeal crust.

Taste testers described the brocolli on Amy’s Pesto Pizza as a surprisingly delicious touch, wondering “Why don’t more pizzas come with broccoli?” Other reviewers were not enamored of the vegetables and groused about the complete lack of meat on any of the pizzas. But that was their problem, rather than a problem with Amy’s Pesto Pizza. Other comments on the pizza were quite generic and evinced a basic appreciation for pesto.

Even though the pesto serves as a base for the vegetables and cheese (and is in the NAME of the pizza), there’s a lot less than you’d think should exist. At first one might figure that the pesto is simply being covered up by cheese is some sort of Pizza Version of the Crying Game. Alas, that is not the case.

This pizza is 72% organic and approximately 72% of the people at the party said that they would eat it again if it were acquired at the rate of free. Only one person said that she would go out of her way to purchase such an expensive, yet tasty, pizza.

This pizza was provided to HeatEatReview.com by the PR folks at Amy’s Kitchen. Yes, it was free. Yay for free stuff!

Amy’s Mediterranean Pizza with Cornmeal Crust

May 8, 2007 | Reviewer: Abi

Price: $6.99
Serving: 1/3 pizza, 5.83 oz.
Calories: 360
Fat: 23%, 15g
Cholesterol: 5%, 15mg
Sodium: 28%, 680mg
Protein: 12g
Carbs: 15%, 45g
Fiber: 12%, 3g

Amy’s Kitchen says: Amy’s popular cornmeal crust topped with a unique sauce made from organic diced tomatoes and extra virgin olive oil, with pickled organic red onions and capers for extra zing. Then, topping it off are green olives, mushrooms, organic roasted onions, and organic roasted green and yellow zucchini, as well as three kinds of cheese - part skim mozzarella, Parmesan and fontina.

Abi says: This is the first review of four pizzas consumed during the Great Pizza Challenge of 2007. It was also the least loved of all four pizzas. Reviewers said that the cornmeal crust was ‘bland’ and had a ‘disconcerting’ consistency. They also decided that Mediterranean vegetables made for a great pasta ingredient, but a poor pizza topping.

“But the cornmeal crust is popular!” I claimed, totally reading that information off of the box as though that would get people to respond positively to the pizza.

“Who eats enough of this to keep this product on the market?” asked one tester.

The major drawback in using all of these vegetables on a pizza is that they emitted an alarming amount of water, leaving me (the baker) with overcooked edges and a somewhat pasty center. Of all of the pizzas consumed by the group, this one had leftover slices that were eventually eaten only when testers realized that we were out of chips and salsa.

The most telling comment left on a reply card simply read “I did not like this one.”

This pizza was provided to HeatEatReview.com by the PR folks at Amy’s Kitchen. Yes, it was free. Yay for free stuff!