Challenged by picky eaters while on a budget

A few questions. Where do you live? What do they absolutely don't like?

Things that are cheap are rice/potatoes/local and seasonal veggies, so what I would make today in my country is:

- chicken thighs (cheaper than breast) with some pepper/salt/paprika/Mediterranean herbs cooked in the oven with coleslaw (carrots, white cabbage, an apple, yogurt, parsley) and mash for them (you can pass on the mash if it's too many calories).

- Flavoured rice: add some onion and garlic to a little oil, fry for a few minutes. Add the rice. After another minute add water and add a (light) chicken stock cube. It gives the rice a nice flavor, and you don't need a lot of heave sauces to make it more tasty. You can add to this whatever you want: almond slices, raisins, herbs... and eat it with whatever meat and a simple salad.

- Things that are also quite cheap are lentils/chickpeas and stuff, but I know that's not for everybody.

If you let me know more about your family's tastes I can try to think of some more dishes.

Oh no!!! Fruit and veggies! That is indeed a pity! My friend's husband doesn't like ANY veggies at all, unless they are hidden. So when she makes spaghetti sauce. She cooked the minced meat in one pan, and the veggies + tomatoes in another. When cooked, she blends all the veggies together before adding the beef. He knows the vegetables are in there, but they don't bother him anymore

Another thing I like to do is roughly mashing my potatoes with a number of other veggies (50-50). That way, you eat less starchy potatoes than you normally would and you have a nice serving of veggies. It goes really well with broccoli, herbs, peas, carrots, beets, spinach, leek ... Maybe some of the few veggies your husband likes?

I also really like to roast broccoli and cauliflower. I'm not really that found of them steamed or cooked, but roasting takes them to a whole different level. Add some chili to them or some shredded almonds, a tiny bit of olive oil and they taste great! I also love tomatoes in the oven. I eat them about 5 times a week. Just put them in the oven, small ones whole or bigger one in two. Add some pepper, salt, olive oil and herbs if you like (maybe some garlic?). They are great to use as a sauce, in which case you don't need any extra mayo or something. Roasting veggies actually makes all the difference for me. Totally worth (half a) tablespoon of oil

Meats, then.
- a roasted whole chicken, which you can eat without the skin (sadly, I know ). Any leftovers can be added to some yellow bell pepper and yogurt and parsley to have a healthy chicken salad on your sandwich.

- buy chicken fillets, slice them across in two, and beat them with a rolling pin or a bottle until they are thinner. It seems like you have much more meat (cheaper) and it's a lot softer. Coat it with some flour, egg and breadcrumbs (easy and cheaper if you pulse your own leftover stale bread). It's soaks quite a lot of oil while cooking, but you can also bake it in the oven. Just put a little bit of oil on top. You can add herbs and Parmesan cheese to the breadcrumbs for a different taste. This is way healthier than any chicken nugget! This is also really good with veal, lamb, pork chops.

- Sausages, buy veal sausages for fewer calories. Make a sauce of onion, garlic and tomato (I really hope they like tomatoes, I would die ). Maybe some bell pepper if in season. Add some herbs (basil, thyme, oregano, whatever is in your garden or cupboard) and put it in an ovenproof dish. Put some sausages in there and cook in the oven. That way you don't add any extra oil for frying the sausages and you can use the sauce instead of mayo. Great with rice or couscous or just some bread.

- Maybe some homemade pizza with the tomato sauce I mentioned above (mixed with veggies). You can add a little bit of meats and cheese on yours (and extra veggies?) and a lot on theirs.

For other American-style comfort foods, I would browse skinnytaste.com. It seems that they make a lot of light versions of classic American dishes. That might be a good place to get some ideas!

Good luck!!!

When they can't agree, everyone gets french fries.

He will allow SOME vegetables, but the healthier ones like broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant, zucchini and spinach are definite deal breakers. He likes the starchy ones too much (potatoes, corn, and such). I did trick him a time or two with mushrooms, but he wised up to it rather quickly. He might eat a salad, of which I am attempting to add this week to the meal planning. I just wished he was more adventurous with foods. It would make this journey THAT much easier.

What makes any of those 'healthier'?

I don't like and don't eat pretty much everything in your list - I just ate a whole tub of low calorie ice cream style desert. Had it with a 'value' swiss roll mashed up in there. "Processed".
Yet, I'm certainly stronger than average (not saying much, but can squat 1.5x bodyweight on shoulders - hopefully go up quite a bit when I reach goal weight), my cardio health is better than average (again not saying much; I completed a 32 mile trail ultramarathon the other day), my blood pressure and resting heart rate are excellent and others tests are good too.

Being healthy is not just about eating the sort of 'greens' kids like me love to hate .

Why do you need to force him to have this food?
If you want this specific veg, why don't you cook some for yourself and half less of the starchy carbs you don't want, replacing with some of said veg?