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Try the beans and the tofu...

Other less expensive proteins include eggs and tinned foods such as tuna and salmon. how about using small portions of meat as a flavouring in a vegetable and grain based dish such a curry on rice, fried rice, noodle casserole or pasta.

Looking at how the world eats will give you great ideas. The large slab of meat on the plate with small sides of vegetables or starch is an american anomaly.

If you are able to shop and get back home or to a refrigerator in the early morning, you can find "manager's specials" (meat discounted because its sell-by date has arrived) on some of the better cuts. You never know what will be there. I find about 9:00 AM is good. The store is not too busy yet, but the butchers have come to work and have marked down the things that did not sell the previous evening.

Experiment with cheaper cuts. If you have the time yet don't want to smoke, oven roast, or stew, you can cook a lot of different cuts of meat on a grill, just do it a lot slower with less heat. Won't have the same outcome as those expensive cuts grilled quickly over a hot fire but you might just find something to please your family other than what they've been used to. Or better yet, get them involved in the process. If they want to eat meat then they should find a way to make cheaper cuts more palatable to their tastes.

Shop sales. Stock up on well-priced "loss-leaders" that most stores have weekly, and use those to plan your menus. Do some of the processing yourself. Whole chickens cost less than cut up or boneless pieces, and you have the luxury of parceling it up how you wish. Want boneless breasts? Do it yourself, and enjoy the bonus of the bones by using them in stocks and stews. Larger roasts are often cheaper, and sometimes friendly butchers will cut them up for you. Even a whole beef tenderloin is cheaper than filet mignon. Whole pork shoulders or butts are a bounty of different cuts. You can make pork steaks, boneless and bone-in roasts, stir-fry and stew meat out of a whole shoulder, which costs a fraction of those processed items.

Get creative; now is the time you can not only be frugal, but make meals interesting for your family!

Pasta carbonara - it's got enough bacon to satisfy the meatitarians, but it's overall cheap, quick and filling.

We've also started watching the sales pretty closely - about once a month our grocery store has chicken breasts for $1.97/lb

Agreed, status of economy limits food creativity. The other thing though that is very limiting is what I call Disaster Cooking. We just survived Hurricane IKE and it was and still is in many areas really bad. Would like to see someone due a new piece or show about how to manage food needs through a hurricane. We were lucky and did not have to depend on Army rations.

Look for deals on whole chickens. Even if you aren't comfortable with cutting up your own whole birds, you can still roast them and then shred the meat off the carcass for other purposes. Last week my supermarket was running some kind of deal where I was able to bring home a roasting chicken that was close to 9 lbs. for a little more than $5. It fed the two of us, in various forms, for the whole week.

Also, how are baking potatoes priced where you are? A large baked potato topped with cheese and veggies is a filling and cost effective meal!

Look at the "Almost Meatless" recipes that keep popping up on SE. Make a fritatta/ Spanish tortilla with eggs and potatoes. Replace expensive seafood with chicken. Buy roasting chicken instead of boneless breasts, and then you can use the carcass to make soup. Chili. Use a little bit of bacon fat in recipes to add more meaty flavor. Buy cheaper cuts of meat and marinate the hell out of them or cook in the slow-cooker.

I absolutely agree on the thighs comment. They take a bit more work to cook but are much more flavoursome, tender and juicy. I typically brown them off in a hot Dutch oven, then cook slowly for about 40minutes in the oven with veg and sometimes tomato or stock based liquid depending on the recipe. If desired, make a sauce from the pot at the end. Beautiful and actually easier to get cooked right then breasts in some ways. And much much cheaper (here in England at least).

If someone hasn't already mentioned it, the Meat Lite recipes here at SE will give some of that meat flavor without using much meat.

Ground turkey, when seasoned enough, makes a fine substitute for ground beef. My bf and I make turkey meatballs fairly often, usually with zucchini in vodka sauce. It's delicious, meaty, leaner, and cheaper than red meat. My bf is also a (now former) meatitarian, known for instigating calls to the steakhouse we visit with friends to pre-order the 3 or 4 lb. porterhouse! He came to the decision to eat less red meat on his own, but his meat-heavy palate approves a lot of vegged-out recipes time and time again. Take classics like stuffed shells and lasagna and replace the meat with spinach and/or artichokes or sub in the veggies for half the meat.

I also second the whole chicken line of thought. One of my favorite ways to divy it up is do the lower half of the chicken (plus half a breast or the wings, if there are three of you) in arroz con pollo, then stew the rest of the chicken while dinner cooks. Then you have plenty of meat for enchiladas, tacos, soup, or a casserole, plus home made chicken stock.

We also make veggie curries quite often. With a mix of vegetables, a good curry recipe, plenty of rice and bread/naan, it's delicious, filling, and (at least somewhat) healthy!

Also, a friend of mine in college subbed extra-firm tofu for ground beef in his standard chili recipe and was pleased to see that no one knew it was veggie chili until he told them!

I put it to my so that because of budget and health concerns I was cutting the amount of meat that i would be using in a given meal, I explained that there would rarely be individual cuts of beast per dinner rather we would start using meat as a flavoring. when i put the facts in front of him in re to health and budget as well as ecology he agreed to try, after 6 months he is right on board with my goals. We still have the occasional hunk o' beast but it has become the treat it always should have been rather than the norm. try explaining to your hubby and son that they may not like the alternative now but health wise and financially they will appreciate your ideas later. Try putting a small % of what you would normally spend on meat aside for playing, maybe a family trip to the movies or something you will all enjoy, so they can see what a difference their "sacrafice" is making. Good Luck!

PS: I had leftover rice, green onions and two smoked pork chops in my fridge tonight. I made fried rice using all of the above plus some eggs, and my son said he could eat that every day. I'm on my way!

It's not ground beef itself that's a problem. It's just been the star feature in my menu rotation lately and I'm kinda sick of it. I need to come up with some more creative uses. I have some new ideas based on the recommendations from all of you.

Offal! I once bought some hearts, cut them into strips so they don't look like hearts, marinated them in olive oil and other delicious seasonings, and made kebabs out of them. Absolutely delicious and tender and my offal-fearing children didn't have a CLUE!