Your easy meatless monday meal if you are not a diehard vegetarian family, please! :)

[Laurie4b]

I agree with others that it would be better not to focus so much on meatless, especially if that means replacing it with cheese. 

 

You might want to serve DH wild-caught Pacific salmon more often. Since you are on a budget, you could maybe buy some just for him. Fish 2x/wk is a good goal. Trader Joe's sells a cheaper variety called Silverbrite. I like it just fine; others think it's less tasty than the more expensive kinds. Canned salmon is usually Pacific wild caught and is less expensive as well. Trader Joe's also has codfish pieces (frozen) for $3.99/lb which is the cheapest fish I've seen. 

 

I agree with others who say to increase fruits and veges of all kinds. The DASH and Mediterranean diets shoot for 9 servings per day. The DASH diet was designed to reduce blood pressure, but is a good, healthy diet. 

 

One way that I got kids to eat beans was by putting pureed pintos in tomato sauce for use on pasta. It gave it a very rich flavor but it did not taste like "beans."  I use Barilla brand pasta which uses a combination of bean flour and wheat flour. It tastes just like regular white pasta. My kids didn't bat an eye when I began serving it when they were little. 

 

 

[Katy]

You should look into Dean Ornish's program for heart disease.  It's been quite a while since I learned about it, but I want to say he has a cook book and everything.