Confessions of a Recipe-aholic...and Menu Plan Monday

Hi, my name is Brianah and I'm an addict...a recipe addict that is.  Yep, I'm sure I'm not alone in the boat, but if I see a recipe I like I write it down (or bookmark it, or tag it in my blog reader, or copy it into a Word document).  Needless to say I have accumulated quite a large amount of recipes over the last year and a half or so--since I started trying to feed my family healthier and cook more from scratch.  Unfortunately, due to the time restraints of caring for a small child, I usually end up making the same few meals over and over again.  Normally the reason falls in to one of three categories: it's easy and/or I don't need the actual recipe anymore, it's cheap to make, or it goes in the slow cooker.

Since realize this about myself I have started paring down my recipes to things I might *actually* make for my family which means they need to meet a few criteria.  Here's what I came up with:
1. It must be easy and quick to prepare.
2. It must be made with easy to find and inexpensive ingredients (preferably things that can be found at Aldi's or that I already keep on hand).
3. It must be filling (this just lets me get more mileage out of leftovers).
4. It must sound like something my family would actually eat...amazing how many were vetoed b/c of this rule.

So I have pared down many of my recipes and am now starting the process of going through them.  I plan on noting new recipe trials in my menu each week from now on.  Any recipe that is online, will be linked in my menu plan.  Other recipes will, hopefully, be reviewed later in the week and posted on (hoping that I get time to really follow through with that one).

Without any further ado, here is my plan for the week of October 4-10.

Monday - Cheeseburger Soup+; Salad
Tuesday - Baked Egg Cups+; Biscuits & Gravy
Wednesday - C.O.R.N./rewind*
Thursday - Cheesy Chicken Vermicelli+; Salad
Friday - Sloppy Joes; Au Gratin Potatoes; Salad
Saturday - Pizza (trying Laura's recipe for bread machine pizza dough found here+); salad
Sunday - One Pot Spaghetti; salad

*C.O.R.N. - Clean Out Refrigerator Night.  This means we are either eating on leftovers or I might "rewind" a meal that I had planned for earlier in the week but didn't, for whatever reason, get to--usually because of eating out with friends/family or a church fellowship I failed to account for when planning my menu.

+ means it is a new recipe we are trying...lots of those this week!

This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday at orgjunkie.com.  Please head over and check out all the other wonderful recipes and menus posted to get ideas for your own menu plan!