Frozen pizza is a staple meal in any college student’s diet, myself included. This is a sensible meal choice for you and your roommates to make; however, if you’re cooking for one, leftovers can be a really big issue. Personally, I do not enjoy frozen pizza leftovers as I find that it is never as good as it was the first time, but I am also unable to eat an entire pizza by myself on most days. There are many different types of frozen pizzas available, but the best for those trying to cook a single meal is undoubtedly individual frozen pizzas. While these may not end up being the cheapest option, it can be worth the extra money to know that you are not wasting food by letting your leftover frozen pizza sit in the fridge just to go bad. I have two types of frozen pizzas that I switch between buying to keep some variety that taste really good! Both are Red Baron brand, as it is my favorite brand of frozen pizza overall.
The first type of individual frozen pizza is the Red Baron French Bread Singles. This is not like the traditional frozen pizza in the sense that instead of crust, the base is made up of half a slice of French bread and topped with pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese and more depending on what kind you get. You get two in every pack. I have also found that sometimes the pepperoni isn’t completely cut through or is concentrated in one spot, so you may need to spread it around a little more if you desire more spread out pepperoni. These can be cooked in a traditional oven or a toaster oven and there are two ways that these can be made. The first is the conventional oven, which is recommended, in which you simply preheat the oven and let the pizza cook for about twenty minutes. The second is by microwaving then putting the pizza in the oven, which would take less time but is not recommended. Simply preheat the oven, place the pizzas in the microwave at the allotted power for the set amount of time, then place it on a baking sheet and put it into the oven for about ten minutes. After taking it out of the oven and letting it sit for a few minutes, you can cut the bread into thinner slices to make it easier to eat while working on something. This pizza is slightly bigger than the other which makes it better for meals when you find yourself to be pretty hungry, but not so hungry that you could eat an entire pizza.
The second type of individual frozen pizza is the Red Baron Deep Dish Singles. Like the first, there are two of these in a pack. As the name suggests, this is a deep-dish pizza so it is slightly thicker than the other option. These are best for meals when you are not super hungry, but need to eat something. Like the French bread pizza, this can be cooked using two different methods using a conventional oven or a microwave oven. In both instances, you simply preheat the oven and place the pizza onto either a cookie sheet or silver cooking surface and let it cook for the printed amount of time. With these, it can be beneficial to let them cook for a few more minutes if you want them to be on the crispy side and not just cooked. After carefully removing it from the oven, let it sit for a few minutes before cutting it into pieces and eating it. This is a good option for eating as you work since the pieces come out to be pretty small.
Of course, you can always let the pizzas cook for a few minutes longer than the suggested time if you prefer it burnt, or a few minutes less if you prefer for your pizza to be a little less crispy but still cooked. The exact amount of time that the pizza will need to cook depends entirely on your oven but they should overall fit somewhere in the time range listed on the respective boxes for each type of pizza. Remember to be careful when removing the cookie sheet from the oven and use something to protect your hand. Be sure to wash your cookie sheet after it has cooled down in order to remove any excess crumbs to ensure that it is clean and ready for your next cooking endeavor.
