Look familiar?

Deep-Dish Taco Pizza
Cooking Light Superfast Suppers Copyright 2003

1 pound ground round
½ cup frozen chopped onion I used fresh chopped onion
1 (15-ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chiles, drained
1 teaspoon salt-free Mexican seasoning I used my homemade taco seasoning - about 1 TB
1 (10-ounce) can refrigerated pizza crust dough
cooking spray
1 cup (4 ounces) reduced-fat sharp Cheddar or part-skim mozzarella cheese I used a cheddar/jack blend
salsa (optional)
reduced-fat sour cream (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cook beef and onion in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until beef is browned, stirring to crumble. Drain well, and return beef mixture to pan. Stir in tomatoes and seasoning; cook over medium-high heat 1 minute or until thoroughly heated; set aside.

Unroll pizza crust dough. Press into bottom and halfway up sides of a 13x9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Spoon beef mixture over pizza crust dough.

Bake at 425 degrees for 12 minutes. Top with cheese, and bake 5 minutes or until cheese melts and edges of crust are browned. Let stand 5 minutes before slicing. Serve warm. Top with salsa and sour cream, if desired.

Yield 6 servings. Per serving: 306 calories, 9.8 g fat, 27.9 g pro, 25.6 g carbs, 1.3 g fiber, 57 mg chol, 693 mg sodium

No, this isn't déjà vu. I've found Deep-Dish Chili Pie's not-so-evil twin. What's so strange about that, you ask? After all, this recipe isn't rocket science -there are probably all sorts of versions of this recipe out there. What struck me as strange is that this cookbook has many of the same EXACT recipes as the Weight Watchers 5 Ingredient Fifteen Minute Cookbooks (magazine style cookbooks I paid $10 each for!). Buttery Herbed Chicken, Jalapeño Chicken and Spanish Rice and Beans are all in there. So are a host of others. Most are word for word. This book is copyrighted 2003, the Weight Watchers books came out later. I never knew of any connection between Cooking Light and Weight Watchers. I ordered this cookbook online so I had no idea of the redundancy before I purchased it.

Rehashing recipes into new publications is popular in the cookbook industry (as common as Food TV rehashing segments into different shows) so it's something I watch out for but I never suspected it here. Live and learn. This Cooking Light cookbook was different enough that it wasn't a complete waste of money but it was kind of disappointing to open it up and see so many recipes from the other books.

Back to the recipe, I think I actually preferred this version, although there was not a huge difference between them. I'm not sure what 'Mexican seasoning' is so I used my homemade taco seasoning, which I leave the salt out of when I make up a batch (it has boullion in it so it isn't salt-free). My son loved this - I don't think he tried the other version of this recipe but he kept saying (and signing) 'More!' while eating this so I think that means it was a hit.

Question of the Day: What would you have used for 'Mexican seasoning' in this recipe?