I have a huge collection of cookbooks.* Not as vast as my mom's collection, but it's pretty big. I have everything from the lifestyle-geared (Weight Watchers) to the absolute staples (Betty Crocker & Better Homes) to the cookbook put out by every church ever attended by any of my family and close friends. We even have a cool fundraiser cookbook - filled with family recipes - that both of our families collaborated on, when we were still in the adoption process (I just found a few extra copies of these, that I'm thinking about auctioning off to put a little more money toward our adoption expenses - more on that later).

Anyway, since I do (and have, for many years) had weight issues, I find cooking from many of these books to be a challenge. I try to lighten up when I can, but you know...there's not a lot you can do to lighten up some of those good Southern recipes. But man, there is the potential for some good eatin' housed in each one of those books!

I get in these moods, where I decide that I am going to diverge from the normal cooking path and cook straight from a number of my cookbooks. I sit down, open the first one up...get distracted 25 times, and then finally give up, because I'm so overwhelmed. Which pushes me right back to the normal, boring cooking path that I've been on for the past 1o years.

So, when Susan posted about my taco soup...and about her recipe for beef chowder, I remembered that I really do enjoy new recipes. Not only that, but I really, really enjoy learning about others' recipes. Especially the kind that are easy + delicious. And I think I've decided that the excitement of a person telling me about a recipe, rather than having to sift through books to find one on my own, comes because someone else is - in a way - making the decision for me. I have one option presented, not thousands in a book.

So let me get back to where I was going with this post (ever start a post in one direction & totally end up heading in the opposite direction? happens to me all the time).

Several weeks ago, I started sifting through one of my newer WW cookbooks. It was a 5-ingredient, 15-minute book (which, at the present time, I LOVE) and I found this cool recipe for quick deep-dish chili pie. I bought all 5 ingredients, and actually had it in my weekly menu. And then I decided it might not be so good and scratched it altogether.

Well, this week, our pantry has become bare again, and I was left with very few choices for dinner. So I re-pulled that recipe out and made a Deep Dish Chili Pie. It was delicious. A definite crowd pleaser...well, with the crowd being comprised of Nathan & Iliya. Here is the recipe:

Deep Dish Chili Pie

1 lb. lean ground beef
1 can Hunt's chili-seasoned tomatoes
1 roll refrigerated pizza crust (or make your own, if you are so inclined)
1 cup 2% cheddar cheese
1/4 cup parmesan

Preheat oven to 425-degrees. Cook the ground beef, drain. Add tomatoes and simmer for a couple minutes. In the meantime, spray a 9x13 casserole dish with cooking spray & roll out pizza dough into the dish. Press the pizza dough halfway up the sides of the casserole dish. Sprinkle half of the cheddar cheese on pizza dough. Spread meat/tomato mixture over the cheese. Bake for 12 minutes. Sprinkle remaining cheddar and parmesan cheese over the top of the meat mixture & bake for 5 minutes longer (or until crust is golden & cheese is melted). Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.

YUM.

And I served it with sour cream. It was definitely a good choice for dinner, and we're having it again tonight. I'm curious to know how the leftovers will be.
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*the cookbooks pictured above are not actually mine...they're my mom's :)