Grocery bills have been climbing fast, and meat prices are leading the charge right now.

If you’ve grabbed a package of ground beef lately and done a double-take at the label, you’re not alone. Families all over the country are feeling the pinch, and a growing number are adding meatless dinners to their weekly rotations just to stretch the grocery budget a little further. The good news? Going meatless a few nights a week doesn’t mean settling for sad salads or uninspired tofu blocks. There are some genuinely delicious options out there, and they won’t have your family asking where the chicken went.

Here’s a roundup of ideas worth trying this week.

Start with lentils. Seriously. Budget Bytes put together a “marry me lentils” recipe that borrows all the sun-dried tomato and parmesan flavors from the viral “marry me” chicken dish, but at a fraction of the cost. Lentils are one of the most affordable proteins you can keep in your pantry, and they’re loaded with fiber too. This one’s a weeknight winner.

Black beans deserve more credit than they get.

Averie Cooks has a loaded vegetarian black bean and rice burrito that comes together in about 30 minutes, packed with bell peppers and cheese. If you’ve got kids who are skeptical about meatless meals, a cheesy burrito is a pretty safe bet for winning them over. It’s filling, it’s fast, and it travels well in a lunchbox the next day.

If you want something that feels a little more sophisticated without requiring a culinary degree, Averie Cooks also offers a double white bean lemon stew. You can make it on the stovetop or in a slow cooker, which is always a win for busy households. The lemon brightens the whole thing up and keeps it from feeling heavy. Thirty minutes on the stove, start to finish.

For families who’ve never cooked with tofu and aren’t sure they trust it, Entirely Emmy’s crispy sticky tofu bowls are a good place to start. The recipe walks you through getting the tofu actually crispy, which is the step most home cooks miss, and the sweet-and-spicy sauce does a lot of heavy lifting on flavor. It’s a high-protein bowl that doesn’t taste like a compromise.

Sweet potato chickpea coconut curry, also from Averie Cooks, is the kind of dish that earns a permanent spot in your meal rotation. One skillet. Thirty minutes. High in protein and fiber thanks to the chickpeas and vegetables inside. It also gets better after a day or two in the fridge, so making a big batch Sunday night means an easy meal by Tuesday.

Meatless dinner ideas like these are showing up more often in family meal planning as grocery costs stay elevated. And it’s not hard to see why. A pot of chickpea curry or a pan of black bean burritos costs a fraction of what a comparable meat-based meal runs these days.

Don’t overlook the pasta salad category either. All The Healthy Things put together a Mexican street corn pasta salad that works beautifully as a work lunch or a light dinner. Grilled corn, jalapeño, cilantro, and cotija cheese make it feel like something you’d order at a restaurant, not a weeknight fridge cleanout. It’s the kind of dish you’ll bring to a summer block party and get asked about three times before you leave.

Cauliflower tacos round out the list as a solid entry point for families nervous about cooking with vegetables that aren’t broccoli. Damn Delicious uses riced cauliflower as the base, making the prep approachable even if you’ve never worked with it before. Dress them up with your usual taco toppings and most kids won’t even register what’s different.

A few of these recipes may take a little practice before they feel as natural as your usual chicken-and-rice night. That’s okay. Start with one or two that match your family’s existing flavor preferences. The burrito is a safe first move if your household skews toward Tex-Mex. The lentils are a good call if you already own a well-stocked spice cabinet. The curry is the one to make on a Sunday when you have a little extra time and want something that keeps well through the week.

Cutting meat from even two or three dinners per week can meaningfully lower your grocery bill over a month without requiring anyone to announce they’ve changed their diet or given anything up for good.