$50/hr and $38 per meal for a professional???

Anyone have any suggestions about the best way to figure out a meal plan and doable strength training program independently? My goal is to gain a good deal of muscle, lose the fat and gain endurance in a reasonable amount of time.

Some free advice for ya - get more realistic goals. And if you are starting out lifting, you don't need anything more complicated for the first 1-2 years than Strong Lifts or equivalent.

Cheers.

There are many excellent sites and DVDs on strength training. I prefer the web sites because I can read and learn much more. My goals are endurance for cycling and upper-body strength training. (I always have had below-average upper body strength.)

From all the exercises available, I selected a suite that fit my goals and my abilities. I pay careful attention to the proper form for the exercises. youtube is great for this. Proper form keeps you from getting hurt. I expect any new exercise or machine to be especially difficult the first dozen times until all the muscles learn when they should work. I also start with very, very light weights to learn the movements, then increase weight until 3x10 reps is challenging.

Stretching, yoga, high intensity interval cardio (HIT), and strength training are all included. I have not tried plyometrics. Stretching and yoga every day, cardio and strength on alternate days. Day I cycle for fun count as cardio, and I might take a day or two after for recovery.
All wonderful ideas! Thank you very much!
In a reasonable time? That depends an awful lot on your genetics and dedication.

damnit lol, I hate bookmarks.....I always use them to "bookmark" cool sites I may need later, but I be darned I can't find the link now, in the bajllion bookmarks I got saved LOL.....

Anyways, http://www.choosemyplate.gov/preschoolers/meal-and-snack-patterns-ideas.html does have some good ideas to start...though obviously could get boring in the long run

I pay $35 dollars for a half an hour session with my personal trainer once a month. It isn't for everyone, but for me personally just that once a month visit is a huge help. My trainer gives me routines that challenge and strengthen me, I just do most of the work on my own. I am highly motivated and love working out, but other people might not have such an easy time as i do with seeing a trainer only once a month.

I bought 6 ($300) sessions with a personal trainer at my gym - she was great and the workouts were tough as nails. She showed me the right form to do the exercises correctly. Paying extra for nutritional guidance would be difficult for me to do - especially when there is a plethora of information online about eating plans as the other posters have noted. But is the fee out of line? I don't believe so - you are paying a consultant for their professional opinion / advice.

Apologies... this has gotten a bit long.

I was a little curious about a personal trainer and found out for a pittance ($50 for a one hour session), I could take advantage of their service.

For someone with experience or more training & education (a degree in exercise science vs. simply certification as a personal trainer), esp. in a larger metro area, that's about right.
Someone who's recently certified would probably charge less. (When I'm finally certified, I plan to start at $25/hr.)
You really don't need someone there every time you work out.
In fact, that should be the goal of every personal trainer - clients who progress on their own & don't need hand-holding.
In any case, it would be worth hiring someone for a couple of hours to design a program for you, explain how to do it (safe lifting, good form, etc.), how to progress on your own, walk you through one workout, etc.

Maybe get a tuneup every 3 months? (That will also keep you honest about going to the gym, since you know you'll be accountable to someone else.)

Just be sure that s/he is clear up front about what you want: a plan laid out so that you can work on your own. And get an estimate of how long that will take. It may be an initial 2-hour session to be thoroughly evaluated.

Here's where you can search for trainers in your area who are certified by the American College of Sports Medicine:
http://members.acsm.org/source/custom/Online_locator/OnlineLocator.cfm

There is also a gal who, for $38 per day (one week min) can set me up with prepared meals based on my goals

If she's designing the meal plan, providing the food, and cooking it for you, that's a deal.
But with a bit of research, you can do just fine on your own, for much less money.

I'm 5'6 and about 170ish

According to BMI (here's a chart: http://www.shapeup.org/bmi/bmi6.pdf )
at 5'6" you should be between 115 - 150 lb. So you don't have far to go weight-wise.
You should be aiming to lose 0.5 - 1 lb per week for now, and 0.25 - 0.5 as you near your goal.

150 lb x 10 cal/lb = 1500 cal to eat per day to get to 150 lb.
Once you get there, you'd need 2250 cal per day to maintain that weight. (See below.)
As you get close to your goal, ease the calories up until you're not losing weight any more, but not gaining.

http://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/HB_web/calorie-counting-made-easy.htm

multiply your current weight by 15 — that’s roughly the number of calories per pound of body weight needed to maintain your current weight if you are moderately active. Moderately active means getting at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day

Anyone have any suggestions about the best way to figure out a meal plan and doable strength training program independently? My goal is to gain a good deal of muscle, lose the fat and gain endurance in a reasonable amount of time.

Meal plan:
This calculator will tell you not only your BMI, but how many servings of various foods to eat to maintain that weight.
If you enter your healthy goal weight from the BMI chart, this will help you plan your food intake.
https://www.bcm.edu/research/centers/childrens-nutrition-research-center/healthyeatingcalculator/eatingCal.html

Delicious recipes: http://www.tasteofhome.com/
If you hover over 'recipes' in the bar menu, it will pop up another menu.
On the top of the far right column are 'healthy recipes'.
This site / magazine also has nutrition info for most of their recipes.

Weight training:
No matter which you're doing, you need to know the maximum amount you can lift, called the one-repetition maximum or 1RM.
For building muscle, you want to do 1 or 2 sets of 8-12 repetitions of a weight that's 70-85% of your 1RM.
For building endurance, do 1 or 2 sets of 15-20 repetitions of a weight that's 50-65% of your 1RM.

Either way, start low on both weight & reps and work up.
You should just be able to do the last 2-3 reps.
When it gets easy to do the maximum # of reps, add 5 pounds and go back to the minimum # of reps.

(From the American College of Sports Medicine's book "Resources for the Personal Trainer, 4th edition".)

Here on MFP, to get calorie credit for weightlifting go under cardio & search for "Strength training (weight lifting, weight training)". It's not much of a credit, but it's better than nothing (which is what you get if you enter the work under "strength training"), & it's easier than trying to find every exercise.

If you're planning to build muscle, make sure your protein macro is set toward the high end of what's considered healthy.
http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/extra-protein-is-a-decent-dietary-choice-but-dont-overdo-it-201305016145

The Institute of Medicine recommends 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. For someone who weighs 150 pounds, that means 54 grams of protein per day.
Another guideline is to make sure at least 15% of your daily calories come from protein.

1500 cal x 0.15 = 225 cal from protein
225 cal / 4 cal/g = 57 g protein

Here's a PDF of the recommended daily intake (RDI's) for macronutrients.
http://www.iom.edu/Global/News Announcements/~/media/C5CD2DD7840544979A549EC47E56A02B.ashx
SOURCE: Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate. Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids (2002/2005).

For an adult female, they say:
protein 46 g / no less than 10% and no more than 35% of calories
carbs 130g / 45-65%
fat 20-35%