Meatless Meals to Save ?

A while ago the hubs and I watched a Ted Talk that had to do with going meatless during the week. We talked about it a few times, wondered if it was something we could do, wanted to do, etc.

Last night, after discussing a few things, our current situation, our future (his military retirement is so close!), money and our health, the idea of being meatless during the week came up again. We've decided to give it a whirl. We'll aim for 5 meatless dinners a week (I'm not ready to do 5 meatless days, I'm already struggling with menu planning, tyvm!) and if we miss our mark, no big deal, we just try again.

Part of the reason is that meat can get expensive, another part is we'd like to eat better overall (we eat pretty healthily most of the time, but we've noticed an eating out trend recently.. not very thrifty!). I have some concerns though...mostly one. How do I make creative, tasty meals that are not one gigantic carb-fest? I'm not interested in meat replacements either. Once in a while would be okay, I suppose, but really those can be as pricy as the meat. I was searching the web for meals that moved me and I found some. Lots, actually, but so many had such a high concentration of carbs that I felt a bit worried. Should I not worry? I mean, I can just make sure breakfast and lunch are lower in carbs and higher in proteins I guess.

My only other concern is that my 10 year old isn't a huge fan of beans and I found lots of great recipes that take advantage of beans. I mean, he likes some beans, but I can't see him being thrilled about beans 5 nights a week. ;)

If you have any recipes, tips, tricks, hints or general ideas on this, I'm all ears!