Well hello there, long time no see! I’ve just looked through my blog and realised the last time I posted was during the Easter holidays.  All has been very busy in SmartCookieSam land.  I’ve been doing a lot of supply teaching and generally trying to juggle everything life has to offer.  I couldn’t do any blog updates over half term as I was away on holiday in a remote part of Wales where our cottage had no phone signal or WiFi.  I love to get away from things every now and again but you do need the internet for a lot of things these days.  Anyway, enough of my waffle.  Better get on with the job in hand.

A few weeks ago I was given a couple of vouchers to try out two of Chicago Town‘s pizzas from their brand new Takeaway range. To be honest I’m a bit of a snob about pizza.  I only like thin crust ones and rarely buy them for me and my husband to eat at home.  If I do buy pizza, it’s usually as a treat for my kids.  They love deep pan and stuffed crust ones, these types just make me feel bloated up after I eat them.  I make my own pizzas sometimes during the school holidays if I have time but they always look very rustic! I’ll eat pizza if it’s really thin crust from a genuine Italian restaurant or from Pizza Express but I avoid other types.

It was great to try a well loved brand of pizza though.  I remember the mini deep  dish pizzas that Chicago Town do. I used to buy them as a student and when I was a single girl working full time who couldn’t be bothered to cook properly after a long day’s teaching.  Now I find deep dish pizzas too full of carbs for me. Since I’ve married and had kids though most of my cooking is done from scratch.

Chicago Town have brought out a new range called The Takeaway and it features several flavours on two different bases as well as side orders of doughballs.  Just like you would get in your local pizza takeaway.  The two bases included a stuffed crust one and the thin Classic one.  I also noticed there was a limited edition Pulled Pork topping on the stuffed crust base which I knew would be very popular with my 15 year old son!

This is what Chicago Town says on their website about The Takeaway pizzas: “Our takeaway pizzas are made with our unique rising dough that’s not pre-cooked to give you that real takeaway taste”.

I took the vouchers along with me when I was doing a weekly shop at Sainsburys.  It was quite a small Sainsburys so it only offered two varieties of the stuffed crust pizza.  One was the Pepperoni Plus and the other was the Four Cheese Melt.  The pizzas looked very big and would be ideal for a family to share or if you feel peckish to eat the whole one!  I didn’t measure how big the pizzas were but they looked enormous to me.

The pizza  turned out to be a godsend for me.  A couple of days later my husband had to go out to a meeting and we ended up eating separately.  I had to take my daughter to her dance class so a quick tea was needed.  Out came both pizzas, quickly popped into the oven and dinner was ready 1/4 hour later.  We shared the two pizzas between the three of us which gave us four enormous slices.

I tried both the Pepperoni Plus and the Four Cheese Melt varieties and I really enjoyed them. The pizza. despite being a stuffed crust one didn’t feel at all doughy to me.  The stuffed crust contained a delicious tomato sauce and the toppings showed a generous layer of cheese and pepperoni under a mouthwatering tomato sauce.

The verdict? Great tasting pizzas and ideal for those times if you are busy and want something to pop in the oven.  Tasted a lot better than the pizza I once had from a local national pizza takeaway.  Much less “doughy”, cheaper at about roughly £4 for a pizza if you bought one from a takeaway and also took a lot less time.  Would I buy them again? Well as I’ve said before I don’t really buy pizzas and haven’t made one of my own for ages.  It tends to be a treat for me if I go out for an Italian meal.  I would try them again if I knew I was in for a busy week and was pushed for time to cook.

I was sent the vouchers for free so that I could try out the pizzas and review them.  I have not been paid to write the post.

Love Sam xx