Tag Archives: Pizza Hut

Garlicky Mushroom Cavatappi Pasta Recipe: A Love Story

mushroom cavatappi pasta recipe

Do you remember the Book-It program? It’s Pizza Hut‘s program for rewarding kids for reading. I crushed Book-It. I mean, in first grade, I had piles of those free Personal Pan pizza coupons stacked up at home. About once a month, mom would take me to the neighborhood Pizza Hut to collect my prize. You were only allowed one topping. One.

Here kids, here’s a whole bag of Skittles, now let’s just eat one. Say what?

baby-bella-mushroom

Early on I narrowed in on my choice and never once deviated. At age six — through elementary school — it was a plain mushroom pizza for me. I love those little squishy, cheesy bites of fungi! Three nights ago I ordered pizza for dinner — mushrooms only. It’s really the best option. Even my homemade pizzas are piled high with thick slices of mushrooms, and the salami, bell peppers, and basil are just there for decoration.

This, however, is not about pizza. It is a lot about how I’ve found one more place to enjoy three of my favorite things — mushrooms, cheese, carbs. Pile ’em up, baby! (more…)

Posted on June 1, 2023 by Natalie K

Pizza Hut Introduces 2 Billion Ordering Options! Do We Need That?

new pizza hut (600x253)

If variety is the spice of life, then Pizza Hut may just become over-seasoned. The pizza chain recently announced a complete overhaul of their menu, which according to Pizza Hut, can be combined in more than 2 billion ways.

With these changes, Pizza Hut becomes the newest member of a growing list of long-standing restaurant chains adjusting to cater to a new, younger taste. That new taste has some interesting demands, and it’s nice to know people are listening.

More customers, particularly millennials, are looking for more variety in their food choices, which include a selection of more exotic flavors and higher-quality food. They’re also looking for the ability to completely customize their order. We’re blaming Chipotle (in a good way) for that one.

To help customers get their customization on, Pizza Hut is introducing five new ingredients: Peruvian cherry peppers, classic meatballs, sliced banana peppers, premium salami, and fresh spinach. There are also six sauce options, which include old favorites and new flavors like honey sriracha and creamy garlic parmesan.

Pizza Hut Now Delivering a New Whole Wheat Pizza to Meet School Lunch Nutrition Guidelines

(more…)

Posted on November 19, 2023 by Elizabeth

Technology is Changing How We Order and Pay for Food

For many of us, our smartphone serves less of a purpose as an actual phone and instead, is becoming increasingly more about the services it connects us to and the other gadgets or processes it replaces. We don’t use watches to check the time, we don’t use alarm clocks to wake up in the morning, we don’t use phone books, we don’t write letters on paper, or pull out an atlas for road trips. We don’t carry an MP3 player, digital camera, or day planner anymore, either. All of these things (and more) are part of the device we already carry everywhere we go.

Apple founder Steve Jobs often talked about the place technology has in our lives. He said on multiple occasions that the best implementation of technology is the kind that empowers you to do things, but without requiring a new learned process or behavior.

One thing we can add to that list that wasn’t possible just a few years ago: ordering and paying for food. We’ve talked about Amazon Fresh, the grocery delivery service you can access from your computer, tablet or smartphone, but that’s just the beginning.

Large restaurants and grocery stores are launching new mobile apps that enable you to order and pay with your smartphone.

chipotle-mobile-app

Already, you can build your perfect Chipotle burrito and pay for it before ever stepping foot in the door. In fact, they’ll have it waiting for you at the register. Talk about grab and go.

Pizza Hut also has a mobile app you can use to craft the perfect pie. Delivery or carry out? Cash or credit? And most importantly, how long until it’s ready? Their mobile apps have you covered. (more…)

Posted on March 10, 2024 by Mike Beauchamp

Pizza Hut Now Delivering a New Whole Wheat Pizza to Meet School Lunch Nutrition Guidelines

UPDATE: NOVEMBER 11, 2024: Wichita, Kansas is now a test market for rolling out the whole wheat pizza crust to their standard menu. Available for testing only in Wichita, the wheat crust option is $1 more, “due to the premium cost on the dough,” said Kym Money, director of marketing for Fugate Enterprises. She expanded, letting us know, “This is the same crust type that we use on our School Lunch pizzas, but topped with our regular toppings. It is very good, and I am hopeful it will be a successful test.”

Pizza Hut is known for its inventive approaches to the delivery pie, but few have been as impressive as their latest innovation. Pizza Hut has never been healthier, a requirement to let them keep up with the newly mandated school lunch nutrition guidelines. The brand expressed their excitement to us about being able to recreate its world-famous pizza in a way that kids could enjoy this Americanized comfort food.

“It’s a healthier option,” says Rachel Huber, MPH, RD, senior nutritionist for the Dallas-based Pizza Hut. While pizza could never be defined as a health food, Pizza Hut has made remarkable strides to make it a better part of a child’s school-day diet.

pizza hut school lunch pizza

Stores facilitating the pizza for school lunch programs now have two sets of ingredients – one for the public and one for the public schools. In order for any school lunch program to receive its federal reimbursements they must meet new nutrition guidelines that took effect for the 2024-2024 school year. Pizza Hut didn’t want to miss the huge sales opportunity that is placement in these hungry cafeterias, so they made a better pizza.

A slice of the whole wheat cheese pizza has 270 calories and 8 grams of fat. The pizza beats the school lunch guideline expectations, with 26% of the calories coming from fat – the guideline is at or less than 30%. The slice of cheese also has three grams of fiber, attributed to the 51% whole wheat crust. Pizza Hut did not share the nutrition information for the other options – sausage, pepperoni, and veggie.

To make it, they went back to the drawing board, but not square one. (more…)

Posted on August 22, 2023 by Natalie K

“Grease Puck of Dough” is a Better Name for Pizza Hut’s Big Pizza Sliders

Is there anything more American than pizza? Well, specifically, Pizza Hut’s version of the Italian dish? Maybe the only way Pizza Hut could make the famous food more American is make it in a “fun size.” Well, this year, they’ve done just that. Pizza Hut recently introduced Big Pizza Sliders. So what’s the deal? Are they a better option? Or just another fast-food gimmick?

Well, let’s start with the stats. The Big Pizza Sliders are sold as three sliders for $5 or up to 9 sliders for $10. Consumers can mix and match and get up to three combinations of up to three toppings each. They end up being about 3.5 inches in diameter and can range from 230 calories for a plain cheese slider, up to 350 calories for a beef or sausage slider. The fat content ranges from 8-19 grams depending on toppings. (more…)

Posted on March 7, 2024 by Lacy

Pizza Hut’s 4 Million Calorie Debate Stunt Gets Slammed

Let’s hear it for Pizza Hut for trying to turn an already messy election year in to a circus stunt for entertainment. Utterly ridiculous news broke this week when Pizza Hut announced they’d give a large pizza every week for 30 years to the person who dared ask President Obama and Mr. Romney “pepperoni or sausage” during tonight’s town hall debate.

First of all, it’s a blatant disregard for our political system and the serious answers American voters are seeking in tonight’s second and final debate between the two presidential candidates.

As should come as no surprise from a company responsible for a hot dog stuffed pizza, it’s also a gluttonous promotion to keep making our nation fatter. Maybe we should understand more about their health care policies, since Pizza Hut, one of America’s top brands, is also a culprit in our obesity epidemic.

Just a single slice of their large hand-tossed pepperoni pizza has 330 calories, 14 grams of fat and 910 grams of sodium. That’s almost an entire meal’s worth of calories in just one piece of pizza, not to mention the near day’s worth of sodium. Consider most people eat two to four slices at a time and you’re looking at 660 to 1320 calories every week.

The company is now backtracking after meeting with some deserved backlash. A statement said they are taking their “pizza party” online and will ask people to vote online – pepperoni or sausage – and draw one random winner. The winner will still have the option of 1560 free large pizzas (or one every week for 30 years), or a cash equivalent payout of $15,600.

We say take the cash; you’ll need that money otherwise to burn off the four million calories you stand to consume in pizza alone over the next 30 years. (more…)

Posted on October 16, 2023 by Natalie K

Some of America’s Top Brands are Leading Culprits in the Obesity Epidemic

You know advertising is a big deal when there’s such a thing as Advertising Week in the U.S. While few consumers took note, the event is happening this week in New York with the goal of identifying how brands sold by marketers can produce better business results.

A study released yesterday identified which brands are the most powerful and how they’re getting it right. Additionally, the study pointed out the problems of brands whose value is on the decline.

As reported by Yahoo Finance, the study is the 13th annual Best Global Brands report from Interbrand – an Omnicon Group-owned brand consulting company. The result of the study was a ranking of the top 100 most valuable brands based on measures such as financial performance, how the brand influences consumer choices, and its ability to boost its parent company’s earnings.

The best global brands of 2024 include 1) Coca-Cola, 2) Apple, 3) IBM, 4) Google and 5) Microsoft. Ferrari and Gap round out the list in slots 99 and 100, respectively.

Of the ranking, Christine Fruecthe, president and chief executive at Colle and McVoy advertising agency, believes companies should take note as to what works and what doesn’t when it comes to marketing and advertising their brand. “When we put together advertising programs, we’re constantly keeping in mind how to add shareholder value,” she said during the Advertising Week panel on Monday. “We want to have a tangible impact on the client’s business or service.”

As an example of their work, Colle and McVoy pointed to their client Caribou Coffee Company whose share value has risen from $1.17 to $18 since beginning work with the agency. The message here? Advertising is powerful, and when done well, it works.

Coca-Cola knows this. The soda company was ranked number one again for the 13th consecutive year. Its estimated brand value? $77.8 billion, up 8 percent from the 2024 report. Coca-Cola executive vice president and chief marketing commercial officer Joseph Tripodi believes this success is due to effective ads, which he suspects will help Coca-Cola increase its revenue from $95 billion in 2024 to $200 billion in 2024. (more…)

Posted on October 3, 2023 by Dana

American Pizza Chains Band Together to Hide Their Calorie Contents

This seems like a case of, “deal with it, you big rich babies.” The nation’s pizza giants are banning together to fight the proposed law requiring all chain restaurants to provide calorie contents on the menu. And the reason they’re stating as to why they won’t make the change? It will just be too difficult for them.

Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Papa John’s, Little Caesars, and other large pizza chains have joined together to form The American Pizza Community. Together they are arguing that pizzas are so varied from order-to-order that providing calorie content on their menus would be too taxing, and that their calorie content boards would be much larger than their actual menu board.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has heard similar complaints from other customizable restaurants. Their response was to provide the consumer with a calorie range. The American Pizza Community has an answer to that, too. They are stating that there can be a calorie swing of more than 1,000 calories based on people’s individual orders of extra cheese or meats. Again, it’s apparently just too much to ask out of these pizza players. (more…)

Posted on June 21, 2023 by Lacy

Vending Machine Pizza Delivered to the U.S. by Let’s Pizza

Have you ever wanted fresh pizza but didn’t want to pay the hefty price tag or wait for the 30-minute delivery? Well an innovative European-based food company is fixing that problem with its Let’s Pizza vending machines that produce a made-from-scratch pizza in less than three minutes.

The vending machine, which was developed by Claudio Torghel, comes from A1 Concepts – a company based in the Netherlands. Let’s Pizza has become quite popular throughout Europe, which is why the company has decided to plant a U.S. headquarters in Atlanta later this year.

The process of installing the vending machines is expected to be swift, and A1 hopes their tasty convenience pies will be met with open arms in the states.

If you’re wondering how the pizza is made, it’s a rather simple process.When a customer approaches the machine, they first make their flavor selection from one of four options. In Europe, those selections included Margherita, Salami, Prosciutto, and Speck. But stateside options may be more American-friendly. (more…)

Posted on June 15, 2023 by Dana

Pizza Hut Takes Fast Food Too Far With New Cheeseburger Stuffed Crust Pizza

To say Pizza Hut is going a little overboard with their new stuffed-crust trend is a gross understatement. And the gross is implied in more ways than one. 

Still on the wake of rolling out their hot-dog stuffed crust pizza in the U.K., the fast food giant is staying on theme and introducing a entirely new variety of stuffed crust pizza: The Crown Crust, which got its name from its ‘crown-like’ appearance.

This new menu item features the customer’s choice of either mini cheeseburgers or chicken nugget-like ‘gems’ stuffed around the crust. The cheeseburger variety comes with beef, veggies, and Pizza Hut’s special sauce. And the chicken version comes with barbecue sauce and green peppers.

This new pizza is currently only available in the Middle East, and we hope it stays that way. The U.S. doesn’t need another fast food nightmare to fend off. We’re still coming to terms with the hot dog-stuffed pizza and Burger King’s Bacon Sundae – both of which took fast food to new epically disastrous proportions. (more…)

Posted on April 25, 2024 by Dana

Hot Dog Stuffed Pizza Takes Grotesque Restaurant Food Too Far

Restaurant industry, we have had enough! Are you deliberately trying to gross us out? Do you get a kick out of making grotesque concoctions in your test kitchens and then send them out to mass market as a punch line?

This Hot Dog Stuffed Crust pizza from Pizza Hut is about the nastiest thing we’ve seen come from a restaurant in quite a while. While we’re glad it’s not available in the U.S. (at least for now, just give it time), we feel for the residents of the United Kingdom being subjected to this culinary nonsense.

Jillian Michaels coined the term best when she started describing this over-processed junk “Frankenfoods,” meaning they resemble food but calling it that would be a disservice to all of the things that are actually food.

Dressed like any other pizza with cheese, pepperoni, peppers, and onions, the Hot Dog Stuffed Crust pizza has the slimy little sausage tucked inside the crust and comes with a free mustard drizzle. The chest pains for dessert and gastric bloat are also free. (more…)

Posted on April 11, 2024 by Natalie K