Low Carb Frozen Pizza at the Grocery Store!

[JBo]

I was walking down the frozen food isle at my local HyVee store and noticed a sale sign on the pizza section (which I normally don't look at) and it said Van Harden's. I had never heard of this brand before so I looked at the box and right on top it said; "No Bread, No kidding!" The back said 8 grams carbs for 1/3rd of the pizza. I had to try it. It came in it's own baking tray that you cook for 10-12 minutes at 450 degrees. You have to let it set up for 4-5 minutes after baking. I will have to say I have mixed feelings about the pizza.

1) Convienience- I give it a 10 for obvious reasons.
2) Price (On sale $6.50 for a medium) 8-Not bad for a parm cheese based crust, and it was very filling.
3) Taste- Not bad 8
4) Greasiness 3 It was very greasy and I like greasy. I had the sausage, it comes in pepperoni and cheese as well.

[Becki326]

i'm going to make a point to check out the pizza isle at walmart and see if they have it.... i just told DH to remind me! thanks for the info!

[JBo]

Becki,
I think it's only available at HyVee stores right now.
I guess this may have been discussed here before, but my search for "Van Harden's"
said no results. I wonder what other people thought of it who hade tried it. It is gluten free as well.

[LindaSue]

Originally Posted by JBo

Becki,
I think it's only available at HyVee stores right now.
I guess this may have been discussed here before, but my search for "Van Harden's"
said no results. I wonder what other people thought of it who hade tried it. It is gluten free as well.

I found their website. The pizzas are only available at Hy-Vee stores or by mail order. They have the ingredient list and nutritional info on the site.

[AnitaLCing]

I googled van harden and I found where it is only sold in a 7 midwestern states.
His crust kind of sounds like a recipe on Linda Sue's website.

[LindaSue]

Cheese Crust: Parmesan Cheese - Made from Cow's Milk, Cheese Culture, Salt and Rennet; Romano Cheese - Pasteurized Part-Skim Cow's Milk, Cheese Culture, Salt, Rennet, and Aged Over 5 Months; Food Starch - Modified (from Waxy Maize); Modified Potato Starch.

It sounds like it's just a giant cheese crisp made with parmesan and romano cheese. The trick would be to get it thick enough to seem like a bread crust and have the cheese crisp up in the center before it burned on the edges.

JBo, how thick was the crust? Was it thin like a cracker-type crust or thick like regular pizza crust?

They don't have a good photo of the pizza online but I found this picture of someone holding the box and it looks pretty big. I think that the crust looks pretty thin.

[JBo]

The crust was very thin and a bit on the soggy side. I would say it would be easier to eat it with a fork. I'm having the left overs in a bit and will report on the day after results. There are many low carb pizza recipes out there that are quite good, but I thought this might be nice because of the convenience. Thanks for those photos Lindasue, I see some stores may carry a in store freshly made version. I hope a store in my town carries it. HyVee just opened their flagship store in my community, it probably will carry it, it is absolutly the most amazing grocery store I have ever seen.

[Sharon]

Originally Posted by LindaSue

I found their website. The pizzas are only available at Hy-Vee stores or by mail order. They have the ingredient list and nutritional info on the site.

I just looked there, too. The S/H charges to California for a sampler pack (3 pizzas) are absolutely unbelieveable!!

[haystar]

Sounds yummy though!

[Photomom]

He is a radio personality in central Iowa. He has lost a lot of weight. I have bought his pizza at our Hy-Vee too, I don't really care for it, but is great to have the option.

[CarolynF]

OH..Van and Bonnie show..I used to listen all the time when we lived in Des Moines..Did
he lose weight?

Kevin has a great cheese crust recipe pizza on the Recipe Bulletin Board..

[Photomom]

Here is an article I found about Van Harden and his pizza story.


Crustless pizza has fewer carbs, no glutens


A Telegraph Column By Lynda Murray ⇒ More Lynda Murray Columns

Published: Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Crustless pizza has fewer carbs, no glutens

Crustless pizza! You might be thinking, “Yeah, right, when I give up my left foot.” Van Harden, program director of radio station KWHO in Des Moines, Iowa, did just that.

A riding lawn mower accident three years ago left him without the heel of his left foot. Three surgeries later, he noticed an unusual side effect. Harden had lost his appetite for bread, pasta and carbohydrate-laden foods. This phenomenon still has doctors scratching their heads.

“It all began on Mother’s Day 2004,” Harden told me. He was gazing out the window at the yard. The grass needed a trim. “I’ll just mow the front yard,” he said. “That was my plan.”

He never even completed a row. As he turned a corner, the lawn mower started to tip. He automatically put his foot out to catch himself and the mower became a shark, attacking the outstretched foot. Initially, prognosis was guarded as Harden rotated between the crash cart and more surgery.

“I woke up and I was in the intensive care unit with my pastor standing over me,” he reports. In all, three separate surgeries were needed to repair and reconstruct the damaged foot.

Harden had a second surgery using an experimental material used with burn patients to reconstruct the damaged foot. A third surgery at Iowa Methodist was required to graft skin from his leg.

Three of four doctors declared amputation was the only viable route for the destroyed foot. “There I was, lying in my hospital bed having a pity party with myself,” Harden said. Little did he know that his brush with death would result in a crustless sensation that would envelop the nation in a few short years.

A new craving

“ ‘Don’t you miss pizza?’ my wife asked me,” Harden said. “Of course, I missed pizza.”

While he was doing fine without toast or spaghetti, there was a void when it came to one of his favorites: Italian pie topped with zesty tomato sauce and bubbling cheese.

But that didn’t stop industrious Harden. When faced with a crave, he didn’t cave. Instead, he got busy. He busied himself in the kitchen tinkering and trying new combinations.

“I burnt up a lot of pans and set off numerous smoke alarms,” he said, referring to his culinary trials in his Des Moines kitchen. At long last, he developed a pizza whose crust was 100 percent cheese. No crust? No kidding.

Weight loss

Harden had to buy a new wardrobe when he dropped six pant sizes. He went from a size 44 to a 36. He no longer has an appetite for bread, which had been a staple in his diet of sandwiches, burgers and pizza. With no other change in diet or exercise, Harden has lost 80 pounds and kept it off. Of course, he does not recommend the “foot under the mower” diet.

I know my taste buds are probably never going to get tired of burgers with buns, eggs with buttery toast, iced birthday cake, homemade sugar cookies or piping hot pizza. So I am grateful Harden developed such a product for us die-hard pizza fanatics.

Nutrition info

The crustless pizza is a huge hit with people who are trying to limit their carbohydrate intake. One-third of the pizza contains a mere 7 grams carbohydrates. I think it tastes like Panera Bread’s Asiago cheesy bread.

This is a great product for those with gluten intolerance. All varieties are gluten-free.

It is also a winner for those folks still adhering to Dr. Atkins-type meal plans. Food companies all over the nation are intrigued by this new pizza, and Harden met with three major pizza manufacturers to better mass produce his sensation. He signed on with Little Lady Foods to produce and sell frozen pizzas.

One-third of the pizza provides 290 calories, 20 grams fat, 12 grams saturated fat, 670 milligrams sodium, no fiber and 22 grams protein.

“It’s not a medicinal thing,” Harden notes. “It’s a bunch of cheese. If somebody were to ask me to go and invent something, this never would’ve happened. I just went with the flow.”

Harden has touched many lives with his unique product: “I have people from all over the U.S. e-mailing me, thanking me for allowing pizza to come back into their lives again.”

[CarolynF]

This is our very own Kevin's recipe..It is fabulous..Click here for pics:

Polly Want A Thin And Crispy Cheese Cracker Pizza

[zizi]

I sometimes eat the South Beach Diet pizzas but that causes a stall - no weight loss, but no weight gain. However, I add red onion and pepperoni to the 'bare-bones" pizza they give ya!