difficulty with menu planning (need recipes)

It seems like you need to look up some vegetarian recipes. Chili is good and lasts. Stir fry with tons of vegetables (which you can buy frozen or fresh). Black bean tacos might work - you could do it as a salad instead of on the tortilla.

Tacos or taco salad. Use extra lean ground beef OR you could skip the meat altogether and do a vegetarian version with Refried beans and Spanish rice. I just made a simple and easy version of "spanish rice' yesterday before work. I put Instant brown rice in a microwaveable bowl with an 8 oz can of tomato sauce, cumin, taco seasoning and a little garlic salt. You will want to cut the water back a bit from what the directions say on the box because of the tomato sauce. There are many good low carb/fat/calorie versions of tortilla shells on the market - just pick your favorite.

It appears that you will be eating mostly beef, lamb and no meat meals. As for the tight budget that may rule out lamb depending on where you live. To start you off with a specific recipe I love marinated flank steak. Flank steak is not the most pricey cut of meat and you should be able to feed a decent number of people with it. My suggestion is to marinate in teriyaki sauce over night, grill to medium-rare, let stand for 10 min after removing from heat, slice into thin (1/4") thick slices against the grain of the meat.

For a great abundance of good recipes at a reasonable budget I would check out, http://2peasinablog.com/. They have lots of great recipes of all types. Also, I know the authors and her food is always FANTASTIC when she has cooked for me. I hope this is a helpful start of you. Please let me know if you need other ideas.

Karl

I highly recomend this book "The $7 a meal healthy cook book" By: Chef Susan Irby........there are some great meals in there that toally fit your standards my kids even love them!!!!

make a big salad and have a few cans of tuna and canned chunk chicken or turkey. Then who ever wants chicken or tuna in their salad can go ahead and decide for them selves.

Make a big pot of Veggie Soup with lots of beans in them.

Make Veggie Stirfry and Parboiled rice

If you BBQ, get skewers and a veggies like tomatoes, bell peppers ect and buy 1 chicken breast, 1 steak and 1 pork chop. Cut all the meat into bite size cubes and let everyone make their own kabobs.

a nice breakfast for dinner is always a nice change. make eggs, potatoes, turkey bacon or sausages with toast. mmm

Another idea is something I make all the time Pita or tortilla pizzas. You can use marinara sauce or Pesto sauce for the base and top with everyones fave veggies and fave cheese. I always have pesto sauce, tomatoes, feta, canned chicken that i rinse and pan fry a bit. Then serve with a salad.

when you make tacos, use ground turkey instead of beef for your low fat. And for the people that cant eat turkey, they can fill theirs with refried beans.

if you make meatballs, use beef for the beef eaters not on a diet and ground turkey for yours. to make the turkey meatballs taste better i add a couple scoops of low cal ranch dressing into it with spices.

another soup i make, chicken or veggie broth onions, carrots, celery, and Tortellini noodles. eat with dinner rolls. the tortellini makes it filling and you dont need much.

Hope this helps