Review: Lean Cuisine Spinach & Mushroom Pizza with Deep-Dish Crust

I'm a pizza guy. I appreciate a really good pizza with good dough, tasty toppings, and delicious cheese. However, I'm also trying to keep a close eye on my health. A lot of pizzas - the frozen ones especially - are high in sodium, fat, and some even have a decent amount of cholesterol. So, after investigating the frozen food aisle, I was delighted to come across a Lean Cuisine spinach & mushroom pizza that looked like it wouldn't threaten my health. When I turned over the Lean Cuisine spinach & mushroom pizza box to read the fool label, I was even more intrigued. But would the pizza taste good?

Flavor

Cooking the Lean Cuisine spinach & mushroom pizza is no big deal. It's a simple 3 minutes on high in the microwave to cook the pizza. However, this is not a pizza for those without a microwave oven; the Lean Cuisine box specifically states in bold lettering that you can't prepare the pizza in a conventional or toaster oven.

Aside from that, there really shouldn't be any complaints about this truly scrumptious Lean Cuisine pizza. The deep-dish crust is amazingly soft, and the cheese has a delicate flavor. At first I was struck to think that it's ricotta cheese because of the flavor and the texture. However, the Lean Cuisine box ingredient list states the cheeses in the spinach & mushroom pizza are low-fat Mozzarella, grated Parmesan, Romano, and Asiago cheeses. That's quite a flavor combination!

The spinach and mushroom combination always tastes great in my opinion. Their duel flavor doesn't fail on this Lean Cuisine pizza, either. In fact, their flavor is enhanced by the rich taste of the cheese combination.

What makes the difference for me between the Lean Cuisine spinach & mushroom pizza and other frozen pizzas is the Alfredo sauce topping used in this product.

Nutrition

Now that I've raved about the great flavor of the Lean Cuisine spinach & mushroom pizza, let me celebrate another great thing about this pizza - the entire pizza is a single serving! Yes, you can look at the food label with hungry eyes and not have to eat only half the pizza to achieve the great serving-size nutritional numbers on the back of the package! If you're like me, more than once you have been disappointed when you realize that the healthy food numbers advertised on the front of the package apply to only half or a third of the product contained within the box.

Here are some of the nutrition facts from the food label on the 6-ounce Lean Cuisine spinach & mushroom pizza:

340 calories
60 calories from fat
7 grams of fat
3 grams of saturated fat
0 grams of trans fat
1 gram of polyunsaturated fat
1 gram of monounsaturated fat
10 milligrams (mg) of cholesterol
450 mg of sodium
52 grams of carbohydrates
2 grams of dietary fiber
4 grams sugar
18 grams of protein
25% recommended daily intake of calcium
20% recommended daily intake of iron

The only real area of concern here for some would be the fairly high amount of carbohydrates. Outside of that, though, the Lean Cuisine spinach & mushroom pizza makes a tasty choice for anybody looking for a healthy frozen pizza.

Weight Watchers members will also be interested in knowing that this pizza counts as 7 points in a Weight Watchers daily meal plan.

So, am I going to be buying another Lean Cuisine spinach & mushroom pizza? You bet. This is one of the tastiest frozen pizzas I've had, and what makes the deal even better is the overall very healthy looking food label. This pizza was bought on special for $1.88 at a Central Florida Sweetbay Supermarket in January 2010.

Resources

Personal and first-hand knowledge and experience
Lean Cuisine spinach & mushroom pizza carton